Bruny Island language

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Bruny Island
Nuenonne
Region Bruny Island, Tasmania
EthnicityBruny tribe of Tasmanians
Extinct perhaps 8 May 1876, with the death of Truganini
Eastern Tasmanian
  • Bruny (Southeastern)
    • Bruny Island
Language codes
ISO 639-3 None (mis)
Glottolog brun1235 [1]
AIATSIS [2] T5  (includes SE Tasmanian)

Bruny Island Tasmanian, or Nuenonne ("Nyunoni"), a name shared with Southeast Tasmanian, is an aboriginal language or pair of languages of Tasmania in the reconstruction of Claire Bowern. [3] It was spoken on Bruny Island, off the southeastern coast of Tasmania, by the Bruny tribe.

Tasmania island state of Australia

Tasmania is an island state of Australia. It is located 240 km (150 mi) to the south of the Australian mainland, separated by Bass Strait. The state encompasses the main island of Tasmania, the 26th-largest island in the world, and the surrounding 334 islands. The state has a population of around 526,700 as of March 2018. Just over forty percent of the population resides in the Greater Hobart precinct, which forms the metropolitan area of the state capital and largest city, Hobart.

Bruny Island island off coast of Tasmania

Bruny Island is a 362-square-kilometre (89,000-acre) island located off the south-eastern coast of Tasmania, Australia. The island is separated from the Tasmanian mainland by the D'Entrecasteaux Channel, and its east coast lies within the Tasman Sea. Storm Bay is located to the island's northeast. Both the island and the channel are named after French explorer Bruni d'Entrecasteaux. Its traditional Aboriginal name is lunawanna-allonah, which survives as the name of two island settlements, Alonnah and Lunawanna.

Contents

Bruny Island Tasmanian is attested in a list of 986 words collected by Joseph Milligan (published 1857 & 1859); in 515 words collected by George Augustus Robinson; in 273 words from Charles Sterling; and in 111 words from R.A. Roberts (published 1828). The Milligan vocabulary is divergent, and falls out as a distinct language when the lists are compared at p < 0.15, though it falls together with the rest of the island at a looser criterion of p < 0.20. [4]

George Augustus Robinson Chief Protector of Aborigines in Port Phillip District, now Victoria, Australia

George Augustus Robinson was a British builder and untrained preacher. He was the Chief Protector of Aborigines in Port Phillip District, from 1839 to 1849. Prior to this appointment by the Colonial Office in Great Britain, he had been called upon to mount a "friendly mission" to find the 300 remaining Aboriginals in Tasmania.

Sample text

The following is recorded as a prayer collected on Bruny Island in Robinson's diaries. [5] The first line is the Robinson's transcription, followed by a reconstruction of what Robinson may have heard, and finally an English gloss.

MOTTINYRAEPARLERDIMOTTINOVILLYRAEGEWROPPERPARLERDINYRAEPARLERDI
motinairipalatimotinowiliretji-ropapalatinairipalati
onegoodGodonebaddevilGodgoodGod
MAGGERERWARRANGELLYRAEGEWROPPERMAGGERERTOOGENNERUENEENYRAEPARLERVARLOGERNER
makarawaran-ngaliretji-ropamakaratökanawininairipalawalookana
stopskydevilstopbelowfiregoodnativedead
TAGGERERTEENNYLAWWAYWARRANGELLYPARLERDINYRAERAEGE (etc.)NOVILLY
takaratinilaweywaran-ngalipalatinairiretjinowili
goesroadupskyGodgoodwhite manbad
PARLERVARLOGERNERTAGGERERTEENNYTOOGUNNERRAEGEWROPPERUENEEMAGGERERUENEE
palawalookanatakaratinitökanaretji-ropawinimakarawini
nativedeadgoroadbelowdevilfirestopfire

History

The last speaker of Bruny Island was likely Truganini, who is also widely accepted as the last full-blooded Tasmanian Aborigine. She was a daughter of Mangana, Chief of the Bruny Island people. Her name was the word her tribe used to describe the grey saltbush Atriplex cinerea. [6] In her youth, she took part in her people's traditional culture, but Aboriginal life was disrupted by European invasion. When Lieutenant-Governor George Arthur arrived in Van Diemen's Land in 1824, he implemented two policies to deal with the growing conflict between settlers and the Aborigines. First, bounties were awarded for the capture of Aboriginal adults and children, and secondly an effort was made to establish friendly relations with Aborigines in order to lure them into camps. The campaign began on Bruny Island, where there had been fewer hostilities than in other parts of Tasmania.

Truganini Last full blood Palawa

Truganini was a woman widely considered to have been the last full-blooded Aboriginal Tasmanian, although she was outlived by Fanny Cochrane Smith (1834–1905).

<i>Atriplex</i> genus of plants

Atriplex is a plant genus of 250–300 species, known by the common names of saltbush and orache. It belongs to the subfamily Chenopodioideae of the family Chenopodiaceae. The genus is quite variable and widely distributed. It includes many desert and seashore plants and halophytes, as well as plants of moist environments. The generic name originated in Latin and was applied by Pliny the Elder to the edible oraches. The name saltbush derives from the fact that the plants retain salt in their leaves; they are able to grow in areas affected by soil salination.

Truganini, seated right Truganini and last 4 tasmanian aborigines.jpg
Truganini, seated right

When Truganini met George Augustus Robinson, the Protector of Aborigines, in 1829, her mother had been killed by sailors, her uncle shot by a soldier, her sister abducted by sealers, and her fiancé brutally murdered by timber-getters, who then repeatedly sexually abused her. In 1830, Robinson, moved Truganini and Woorrady to Flinders Island with the last surviving Tasmanian Aborigines, numbering approximately 100. The stated aim of isolation was to save them,[ citation needed ] but many of the group died from influenza and other diseases. Truganini also helped Robinson with a settlement for mainland Aborigines at Port Phillip in 1838. [7] After about two years of living in and around Melbourne, she joined Pevay and three other Tasmanian Aborigines as outlaws, robbing and shooting at settlers around Dandenong and starting a long pursuit by the authorities. They headed to Bass River and then Cape Paterson. There, members of their group murdered two whalers at Watsons hut. The group was captured and sent for trial for murder at Port Phillip. A gunshot wound to Truganini's head was treated by Dr. Hugh Anderson of Bass River. The two men of the group were found guilty and hanged on 20 January 1842. [8] Truganini and most of the other Tasmanian Aborigines were returned to Flinders Island several months later. In 1856, the few surviving Tasmanian Aborigines on Flinders Island, including Truganini, were moved to a settlement at Oyster Cove, south of Hobart. [9] [10]

The office of the Protector of Aborigines was established pursuant to a recommendation contained in the Report of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Aboriginal Tribes, of the House of Commons. On 31 January 1838, Lord Glenelg, Secretary of State for War and the Colonies sent Governor Gipps the report.

Flinders Island island to the north of Tasmania, Australia

Flinders Island, the largest island in the Furneaux Group, is a 1,367-square-kilometre (528 sq mi) island located in the Bass Strait, northeast of the island of Tasmania. Flinders Island is part of the state of Tasmania, Australia, and is situated 54 kilometres (34 mi) from Cape Portland and it is located on 40° south, a zone known as the Roaring Forties.

Related Research Articles

Aboriginal Tasmanians ethnic group

The Aboriginal Tasmanians are the Aboriginal people of the Australian state of Tasmania, located south of the mainland. For much of the 20th century, the Tasmanian Aboriginal people were widely, and erroneously, thought of as being an extinct cultural and ethnic group. Contemporary figures (2016) for the number of people of Tasmanian Aboriginal descent vary according to the criteria used to determine this identity, ranging from 6,000 to over 23,000.

The history of Tasmania begins at the end of the most recent ice age when it is believed that the island was joined to the Australian mainland. Little is known of the human history of the island until the British colonisation in the 19th century.

Tasmanian languages group of languages indigenous to Tasmania; last used for daily communication in the 1830s; became extinct with the death of the last known speaker, Fanny Cochrane Smith, in 1905

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Kettering, Tasmania Town in Tasmania, Australia

Kettering is a coastal town on the D'Entrecasteaux Channel opposite Bruny Island, Tasmania, Australia. At the 2011 census, Kettering had a population of 984.

<i>Doctor Wooreddys Prescription for Enduring the Ending of the World</i> book

Doctor Wooreddy's Prescription for Enduring the Ending of the World is an historical novel by Mudrooroo Nyoongah, first published in 1983. Though the protagonist Wooreddy is fictional, the novel deals largely with the real-life George Augustus Robinson, who was sent by Great Britain to Tasmania to act as a conciliator between British settlers and the Tasmanian Aborigines. It also deals with his relationship with "Trugernanna," based on the real-life Trugernanner, the last full-blooded Tasmanian Aborigine. Throughout the narrative the violence of colonisation is documented and explored: "a clear parallel is established between the rape of the Tasmanian Aboriginal women and the metaphorical rape of their land, sacred sites and heritage."

Eastern Tasmanian languages

Eastern Tasmanian is an aboriginal language family of Tasmania in the reconstruction of Claire Bowern.

Northern Tasmanian, or Tommeginne (Tommeeginnee), is an aboriginal language of Tasmania in the reconstruction of Claire Bowern.

Port Sorell is an aboriginal language of Tasmania in the reconstruction of Claire Bowern. It was spoken near Port Sorell, in the center of the north coast, just east of Northern Tasmanian proper. Dixon & Crowley agree that there is unlikely to be a close connection to other varieties of Tasmanian.

Northwestern Tasmanian, or Peerapper ("Pirapa"), is an aboriginal language of Tasmania in the reconstruction of Claire Bowern. It was spoken along the west coast of the island, from Macquarie Harbour north to Circular Head and Robbins Island.

Southwestern Tasmanian, or Toogee, is a possible aboriginal language of Tasmania. It is the most poorly attested known variety of Tasmanian, and it is not clear how distinct it was. It was apparently spoken along the west coast of the island, south of Macquarie Harbour.

Northeastern Tasmanian, or Pyemmairre, is an aboriginal language of Tasmania.

North Midland Tasmanian, or Tyerrernotepanner ("Cheranotipana"), was an aboriginal language of northeastern Tasmania, along the Tamar River and inland of Ben Lomond and Great Oyster Bay.

Little Swanport Tasmanian is an aboriginal language of Tasmania in the reconstruction of Claire Bowern. It was spoken near the modern town of Little Swanport on the east coast. Dixon & Crowley had noted that it appeared to be distinct, but were not sure if it constituted a separate language from other word lists collected near Oyster Bay.

Oyster Bay Tasmanian, or Paredarerme ("Paritarami"), is an aboriginal language of Tasmania in the reconstruction of Claire Bowern. It was spoken along the central eastern coast of the island by the Oyster Bay tribe, and in the interior by the Big River tribe. Records of the Big River dialect, Lairmairrener ("Lemerina"), indicate that it was no more distinct than the vocabularies collected along the coast around Oyster Bay; indeed, Little Swanport appears to have been a separate language.

Southeast Tasmanian, or Nuenonne ("Nyunoni"), is an aboriginal language of Tasmania in the reconstruction of Claire Bowern. It was spoken along the southeastern mainland of the island by the Bruny tribe.

Tunnerminnerwait (c.1812–1842) was an Australian aboriginal resistance fighter and Parperloihener clansman from Tasmania. He was also known by several other names including Peevay, Jack of Cape Grim, Tunninerpareway and renamed Jack Napoleon Tarraparrura by George Robinson.

References

  1. ↑ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Bruny Island". Glottolog 3.0 . Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  2. ↑ T5 (includes SE Tasmanian) at the Australian Indigenous Languages Database, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
  3. ↑ Claire Bowern, September 2012, "The riddle of Tasmanian languages", Proc. R. Soc. B, 279, 4590–4595, doi: 10.1098/rspb.2012.1842
  4. ↑ Bowern (2012), supplement
  5. ↑ J.E. Calder, 1874. "Native Tribes of Tasmania", Journal of the Anthropological Institute, 3:28
  6. ↑ Ellis, V. R. 1981. Trucanini: Queen or Traitor. Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies. p.3
  7. ↑ The Andersons of Western Port Horton & Morris
  8. ↑ "Port Phillip". Australasian Chronicle (Sydney, NSW : 1839 - 1843) . Sydney, NSW: National Library of Australia. 15 February 1842. p. 2. Retrieved 27 March 2015.
  9. ↑ Gough, Julie Oyster Cove at Centre for Tasmanian Historical Studies, University of Tasmania
  10. ↑ According to The Times newspaper, quoting a report issued by the Colonial Office, by 1861 the number of survivors at Oyster Cove was then 14:"...14 persons, all adults, aborigines of Tasmania, who are the sole surviving remnant of ten tribes. Nine of these persons are women and five are men. There are among them four married couples, and four of the men and five of the women are under 45 years of age, but no children have been born to them for years. It is considered difficult to account for this...Besides these 14 persons there is a native woman who is married to a white man, and who has a son, a fine healthy-looking child..." The article, headed ‘Decay of Race’, adds that though the survivors enjoyed generally good health and still made hunting trips to the bush during the season (after first asking "leave to go"), they were now "fed, housed and clothed at public expense" and "much addicted to drinking". The Times, Tuesday, 5 Feb 1861; pg. 10; Issue 23848; col A
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