Australian Aboriginal sign languages

Many Australian Aboriginal cultures have or traditionally had a manually coded language, a sign-language counterpart of their spoken language. This appears to be connected with various speech taboos between certain kin or at particular times, such as during a mourning period for women or during initiation ceremonies for men, as was the case with Armenian Sign Language, but unlike Plains Indian sign languages, which did not involve speech taboo, or deaf sign languages, which are not encodings of spoken language. There is some similarity between neighboring groups, and some contact pidgin similar to Plains Standard Sign Language in the American Great Plains.

Sign languages appear to be most developed in areas with the most extensive speech taboos: the central desert (particularly among the Warlpiri and Warumungu), and western Cape York.^[1] Complex gestural systems have also been reported in the southern, central, and western desert regions, the Gulf of Carpentaria (including north-east Arnhem Land and the Tiwi Islands), some Torres Strait Islands, and the southern regions of the Fitzmaurice and Kimberley areas. Evidence for sign languages elsewhere is slim, although they have been noted as far south as the south coast (Jaralde Sign Language) and there are even some accounts from the first few years of the 20th century of the use of sign by people from the south west coast. However, many of these codes are now extinct, and very few accounts have recorded any detail.

Reports on the status of deaf members of such Aboriginal communities differ, with some writers lauding the inclusion of deaf people in mainstream cultural life, while others indicate that deaf people do not learn the sign language and, like other deaf people isolated in hearing cultures, develop a simple system of home sign to communicate with their immediate family. However, an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander dialect of Auslan exists in Far North Queensland (extending from Yarrabah to Cape York), which is heavily influenced by the indigenous sign languages and gestural systems of the region.

Sign languages were noted in north Queensland were noted as early as 1908 (Roth). Early research into indigenous sign was done by the American linguist La Mont West, and later, in more depth, by English linguist Adam Kendon.

Linguistics of Aboriginal sign languages

List of Aboriginal sign languages

Note that most Aboriginal languages have multiple possible spellings, eg. Warlpiri is also known as Walpiri, Walbiri, Elpira, Ilpara, Wailbri

• Arrernte Sign Language **
• Dieri [Diyari] Sign Language ** (extinct)
• Djingili Sign Language * (non-Pama–Nyungan)
• Jaralde Sign Language
• Kaititj [Kaytetye]: Akitiri Sign Language **
• Kalkutungu Sign Language *
• Manjiljarra Sign Language
• Mudbura Sign Language *
• Murngin Sign Language
• Ngada Sign Language
• Pitha Pitha Sign Language *
• Torres Strait Islander Sign Language
• Umpila Sign Language *
• Warlmanpa Sign Language **
• Warlpiri Sign Language **
• Warluwara Sign Language *
• Warumungu [or Warramunga] Sign Language **
• Western Desert Sign Language (Kardutjara, Yurira Watjalku) *
• Worora Kinship Sign Language
• Yir Yoront *

* "Developed" (Kendon 1988)

** "Highly developed"

See also

References

1. ^ Kendon, A. (1988) Sign Languages of Aboriginal Australia: Cultural, Semiotic and Communicative Perspectives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 60

Bibliography

General

• Kwek, Joan / Kendon, Adam (1991). Occasions for sign use in an Australian aboriginal community. (with introduction note by Adam Kendon). In: Sign Language Studies 20: 71 (1991), pp. 143–160
• Kendon, A. (1988) Sign Languages of Aboriginal Australia: Cultural, Semiotic and Communicative Perspectives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pp. xviii+ 542. (Presents the results of the research on Australian Aboriginal sign languages that the author began in 1978. The book was awarded the 1990 Stanner Prize, a biennial award given by the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, Canberra, Australia. Reviews include: Times Literary Supplement, 25–31 August 1989; American Anthropologist 1990, 92: 250-251; Language in Society, 1991, 20: 652-659; Canadian Journal of Linguistics, 1990, 35(1): 85-86)
• Roth, W.E (1908), Miscellaneous Papers, Australian Trustees of the Australian Museum. Sydney.
• O'Reilly, S. (2005). Indigenous Sign Language and Culture; the interpreting and access needs of Deaf people who are of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander in Far North Queensland. Sponsored by ASLIA, the Australian Sign Language Interpreters Association.

Warlpiri sign language:

• Mountford, C. P. (1949). Gesture language of the Walpari tribe, central Australia. Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia, 1949, 73: 100-101.
• Meggitt M.J. (1954). Sign language among the Warlpiri of Central Australia. Oceania, 25(1), p. 2-16.
• Wright, C.D. (1980). Walpiri Hand Talk: An Illustrated Dictionary of Hand Signs used by the Walpiri People of Central Australia. Darwin: N.T. Department of Education.
• Kendon, A. (1980). The sign language of the women of Yuendumu: A preliminary report on the structure of Warlpiri sign language. Sign Language Studies, 1980 27, 101-112.
• Kendon, A. (1984). Knowledge of sign language in an Australian Aboriginal community. Journal of Anthropological Research. 1984 40, 556-576.
• Kendon A. (1985). Iconicity in Warlpiri Sign language. In Bouissac P., Herzfeld M. & Posner R. (eds), Inconicity: Essay on the Nature of Culture. TÅbingen: Stauffenburger Verlag. In press, p. .
• Kendon, A. (1985). Variation in Central Australian Aboriginal Sign language: A preliminary report. Language in Central Australia, 1(4): 1-11.
• Kendon, A. (1987) Simultaneous Speaking and Signing in Warlpiri Sign language Users. Multilingua 1987, 6: 25-68.
• Kendon A. (1988). Parallels and divergences between Warlpiri sign language and spoken Warlpiri: analyses of signed and spoken discourses. Oceania, 58, p. 239-54.

Torres Strait Islander sign language

• Haddon, Alfred C. (1907). The gesture language of the Eastern Islanders, in "Reports of the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to Torres Straits." Cambridge, England: The University Press, v.3.
• Seligman, C. G., and A. Wilkin (1907). The gesture language of the Western Islanders, in "Reports of the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to Torres Straits." Cambridge, England: The University Press, v.3.

Original researchers' notes archived at the IATSIS library:

• Hale, Ken (c1960s), Original handwritten lexical list, 3pp.; notes on ‘Kaititj: akitiri sign language’, 3pp. in IATSIS library, MS 4114 Miscellaneous Australian notes of Kenneth L. Hale, Series 2 Barkly Tablelands language material, item 1-2 Wampaya [Wambaya (C19)].
• West, La Mont (Monty), (1963–66), original field report and papers ‘Sign language’ and ‘Spoken language’, and vocab cards, Items 1-2 in IATSIS library, MS 4114 Miscellaneous Australian notes of Kenneth L. Hale, Series 7: Miscellaneous material, Items 1-3 Correspondence 1963-1966

From "Aboriginal sign languages of the Americas and Australia. Vol. 2." 1978. New York: Plenum Press:

• Roth, Walter E. (1897). The expression of ideas by manual signs: a sign-language. (p. 273-301) Reprinted from Roth, W.E. Ethnological studies among the North-West-Central Queensland Aborigines. London, Queensland Agent-Generals Information Office, 1897; 71-90; Information collected from the following tribes; Pitta-Pitta, Boinji, Ulaolinya, Wonkajera, Walookera, Undekerebina, Kalkadoon, Mitakoodi, Woonamurra, Goa.
• Strehlow, Carl (1915). The sign language of the Aranda. (p. 349-370). Extracted from Die Aranda-und-Loritja-Stamme in Zentral-Australien, Frankfurt: Baer; translated by C. Chewings.
• Warner, W. Lloyd (1937). "Murngin Sign Language." (p. 389-392) Extracted from A Black Civilization. New York: Harper and Row, 1937.
• Mountford, C.P. (1938). Gesture language of the Ngada tribe of the Warburton Ranges, Western Australia. (p. 393-396). Originally published in Oceania, 1938, 9: 152-155.
• Berndt, R.M. (1940). Notes on the sign-language of the Jaralde tribe of the Lower River Murray, South Australia. (p. 397-402)
• Love, J.R.B. (1941). Worora kinship gestures. (p. 403-405)
• Meggitt, Mervyn (1954). Sign language among the Walbiri of Central Australia. (p. 409-423) Originally published in Oceania (see above).
• Miller, Wick R. (1978). A report on the sign language of the Western Desert (Australia). (p. 435-440)