Eastern Tasmanian languages

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Eastern Tasmanian
Oyster Bay Bruny
EthnicityOyster Bay, Big River, and Bruny tribes of Tasmanians
Geographic
distribution
Eastern coast of Tasmania and interior
Linguistic classification Possibly one of the world's primary language families
(see Tasmanian languages)
Subdivisions
  • Oyster Bay
  • Bruny (Southeast)
Glottolog None
oyst1235  (Oyster Bay)
sout1293  (Bruny/Southeast)
Tasmanian (Bowern 2012).png
Eastern Tasmanian language families per Bowern (2012)
  Oyster Bay
  Southeast Tasmanian

Eastern Tasmanian is an aboriginal language family of Tasmania in the reconstruction of Claire Bowern. [1]

Contents

Languages

Bayesian phylogenetic analysis suggests that four (at p < 0.20) to five (at p < 0.15) Eastern Tasmanian languages are recorded in the 26 unmixed Tasmanian word lists (out of 35 lists known). These cannot be shown to be related to other Tasmanian languages based on existing evidence. The languages are: [2]

Two of the lists reported to be from Oyster Bay contain substantial Northeastern admixture (see Northeastern Tasmanian languages), which Bowern believes to be responsible for several classifications linking the languages of the east coast. However, once that admixture is accounted for, the apparent links disappear. [1]

Descendants

The Flinders Island lingua franca was based primarily on Eastern and Northeastern Tasmanian languages. [3] The English-based Bass Strait Pidgin continued some vocabulary from the lingua franca. [4] The constructed language Palawa kani is based on many of the same languages as the lingua franca. [5]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aboriginal Tasmanians</span> Indigenous people of the Australian island state of Tasmania

The Aboriginal Tasmanians are the Aboriginal people of the Australian island 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 that had been intentionally exterminated by white settlers. 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bruny Island</span> Island off the coast of Tasmania

Bruny Island is a 362-square-kilometre (140 sq mi) island located off the southeastern 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. Located to the island's northeast Storm Bay, is the river mouth to the Derwent River estuary, and serves as the main port of Hobart, Tasmania's capital city. Both the island and the channel are named after French explorer, Antoine Bruni d'Entrecasteaux. Its traditional Aboriginal name is lunawanna-allonah, which survives as the name of two island settlements, Alonnah and Lunawanna.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tasmanian languages</span> Languages indigenous to the island of Tasmania that were used by Aboriginal Tasmanians

The Tasmanian languages were the languages indigenous to the island of Tasmania, used by Aboriginal Tasmanians. The languages were last used for daily communication in the 1830s, although the terminal speaker, Fanny Cochrane Smith, survived until 1905.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Schouten Island</span> Island off eastern Tasmania

Schouten Island, part of the Schouten Island Group, is an island with an area of approximately 28 square kilometres (11 sq mi) lying close to the eastern coast of Tasmania, Australia, located 1.6 kilometres (0.99 mi) south of the Freycinet Peninsula and is a part of Freycinet National Park. The palawa kani place name for the island is mayaluwarana.

Palawa kani is a constructed language created by the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre as a composite Tasmanian language, based on reconstructed vocabulary from the limited accounts of the various languages once spoken by the Aboriginal people living on the island now known as Tasmania or lutruwita.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lake Leake, Tasmania</span> Town in Tasmania, Australia

Lake Leake is the name of both a man-made water storage reservoir and a small township in the eastern midlands of Tasmania. The locality is split between two local authorities, as follows:

The Lia Pootah are a Tasmanian group who claim descent from both Tasmanian Aboriginal women of several kinship groups and European men who arrived in Van Diemen's Land from 1803 onwards. They are distinct from the Palawa, a group of Aboriginal descent whose immediate ancestors hail mostly from the islands of Bass Strait.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Northeastern Tasmanian languages</span> Language in Tasmania, Australia

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

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Northern Tasmanian languages</span> Aboriginal languages of Northern Tasmania

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

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Western Tasmanian languages</span> Language family of Tasmania

Western 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.

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.

"Lhotsky/Blackhouse" is an aboriginal Tasmanian language identified in the reconstructions of Claire Bowern. It was presumably spoken somewhere in the northeast of Tasmania, but the original location of the speakers was not recorded.

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.

Paredarerme or Oyster Bay Tasmanian 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.

Nuenonne ("Nyunoni"), or Southeast Tasmanian, 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.

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. It was spoken on Bruny Island, off the southeastern coast of Tasmania, by the Bruny tribe.

References

  1. 1 2 Claire Bowern, September 2012, "The riddle of Tasmanian languages", Proc. R. Soc. B, 279, 45904595, doi : 10.1098/rspb.2012.1842
  2. Bowern (2012), supplement.
  3. NJB Plomley, 1976b. Friendly mission: the Tasmanian journals of George Augustus Robinson 1829–34. Kingsgrove. pp. xiv–xv.
  4. Rob Amery & Peter Mühlhäusler (2011) 'Pidgin English in New South Wales', in Wurm, Mühlhäusler, & Tryon (eds.), Atlas of Languages of Intercultural Communication in the Pacific, Asia, and the Americas
  5. Berk, Christopher D. (2017). "Palawa Kani and the Value of Language in Aboriginal Tasmania". Oceania. 87: 2–20. doi: 10.1002/ocea.5148 .