John Harris (biblical scholar)

Last updated

John W. Harris
Education University of Queensland (PhD)
Awards Lambeth Degree
Scientific career
Fields linguistics, Bible translation
Institutions Darwin Institute of Technology
Thesis Language contact, Pidgins and the rise of Kriol in the Northern Territory: historical and theoretical perspectives (1986)
Academic advisors Bruce Rigsby, John Sandefur

John W. Harris is an Australian Bible translator and linguist known for his works on aboriginal Christianity and creoles. [1] [2] [3] He is one of the first scholars who provided a detailed account of Australian creoles. [4] In 1986, he was Senior Lecturer in Education at Darwin Institute of Technology. [5] [6] He received a Lambeth Degree from the Archbishop of Canterbury in 2010. [7] [8]

Contents

Books

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Torres Strait Creole</span> English-based creole language spoken in parts of the Torres Strait Islands and nearby land

Torres Strait Creole, also known as Torres Strait Pidgin, Brokan/Broken, Cape York Creole, Lockhart Creole, Kriol, Papuan, Broken English, Blaikman, Big Thap, Pizin, and Ailan Tok, is an English-based creole language spoken on several Torres Strait Islands of Queensland, Australia; Northern Cape York; and south-western coastal Papua New Guinea (PNG).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Portuguese-based creole languages</span> Creole languages lexified by Portuguese

Portuguese creoles are creole languages which have Portuguese as their substantial lexifier. The most widely-spoken creoles influenced by Portuguese are Cape Verdean Creole, Guinea-Bissau Creole and Papiamento.

A mixed language is a language that arises among a bilingual group combining aspects of two or more languages but not clearly deriving primarily from any single language. It differs from a creole or pidgin language in that, whereas creoles/pidgins arise where speakers of many languages acquire a common language, a mixed language typically arises in a population that is fluent in both of the source languages.

Australian Aboriginal English is a dialect of English used by a large section of the Indigenous Australian population. It is made up of a number of varieties which developed differently in different parts of Australia, and grammar and pronunciation differs from that of standard Australian English, along a continuum. Some of its words have also been adopted into standard or slang Australian English.

Blekbala Mujik are an Australian rock, reggae group formed in Barunga, Northern Territory in 1986. They fused rock and reggae with a pop, dance sound and have support base for their live shows and recordings. They are cited in the World Music: The Rough Guide as next best known to Yothu Yindi. The band sings in English and in Kriol. At the ARIA Music Awards of 1996 their album, Blekbala Mujik, was nominated for Best Indigenous Release.

Australian Kriol is an English-based creole language that developed from a pidgin used initially in the region of Sydney and Newcastle in New South Wales, Australia, in the early days of European colonisation. Later, it was spoken by groups further west and north. The pidgin died out in most parts of the country, except in the Northern Territory, where the contact between European settlers, Chinese and other Asians and the Aboriginal Australians in the northern regions has maintained a vibrant use of the language, spoken by about 30,000 people. Despite its similarities to English in vocabulary, it has a distinct syntactic structure and grammar and is a language in its own right. It is distinct from Torres Strait Creole.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Belizean Creole</span> English-based creole language

Belizean Creole is an English-based creole language spoken by the Belizean Creole people. It is closely related to Miskito Coastal Creole, San Andrés-Providencia Creole, and Jamaican Patois.

Australia legally has no official language. However, English is by far the most commonly spoken and has been entrenched as the de facto national language since European settlement. Australian English is a major variety of the English language with a distinctive pronunciation and lexicon, and differs slightly from other varieties of English in grammar and spelling. General Australian serves as the standard dialect.

Nunggubuyu or Wubuy is an Australian Aboriginal language, the traditional language of the Nunggubuyu people. It is the primary traditional language spoken in the community of Numbulwar in the Northern Territory. The language is classified as severely endangered by UNESCO, with only 272 speakers according to the 2016 census. Most children in Numbulwar can understand Nunggubuyu when spoken to, but cannot speak it themselves, having to reply in Kriol. To counter this, starting in 1990, the community has been embarking on a revitalisation programme for the language by bringing in elders to teach it to children at the local school.

Gurindji Kriol is a mixed language which is spoken by Gurindji people in the Victoria River District of the Northern Territory (Australia). It is mostly spoken at Kalkaringi and Daguragu which are Aboriginal communities located on the traditional lands of the Gurindji. Related mixed varieties are spoken to the north by Ngarinyman and Bilinarra people at Yarralin and Pigeon Hole. These varieties are similar to Gurindji Kriol, but draw on Ngarinyman and Bilinarra which are closely related to Gurindji.

Bible Society Australia is an Australian non-profit, non-denominational, Christian organisation. It is part of a worldwide network of Bible Societies. Bible Society Australia maintains that the Bible is a significant historic text which has deeply influenced society and culture and is still relevant today. The organisation is involved in translating, publishing, and distributing the Christian Bible, from print, to audio, to digital versions. Bible Society Australia is also involved in Bible advocacy, the publication of Bible reading materials, and the provision of literacy support, both in Australia and overseas.

Eternity is an Australian news service for Christians that has a magazine and online publication. It claims the Nicene creed as its statement of faith, and is not affiliated with any church. John Sandeman, a Sydney Anglican, is the editor-in-chief.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Languages of Oceania</span> Languages of a geographic region

Native languages of Oceania fall into three major geographic groups:

Port Jackson Pidgin English or New South Wales Pidgin English is an English-based pidgin that originated in the region of Sydney and Newcastle in New South Wales in the early days of colonisation. Stockmen carried it west and north as they expanded across Australia. It subsequently died out in most of the country, but was creolised in the Northern Territory at the Roper River Mission (Ngukurr), where missionaries provided a safe place for Indigenous Australians from the surrounding areas to escape deprivation at the hands of European settlers. As the Indigenous Australians who came to seek refuge at Roper River came from different language backgrounds, there grew a need for a shared communication system to develop, and it was this that created the conditions for Port Jackson Pidgin English to become fleshed out into a full language, Kriol, based on English language and the eight different Australian language groups spoken by those at the mission.

Ngukurr, formerly Roper River Mission (1908−1968), is a remote Aboriginal community on the banks of the Roper River in southern Arnhem Land, Northern Territory.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Krauatungalang</span> Indigenous Australian people

The Krauatungalung are an Indigenous Australian people, of East Gippsland, in the state of Victoria, Australia. They are regarded as a group of the Kurnai, though Tindale states that their inclusion as one of the Gunai is artificial.

Felicity Meakins is a linguist specialising in Australian Indigenous languages, morphology and language contact, who was one of the first academics to describe Gurindji Kriol. As of 2022, she is a professor at the University of Queensland and Deputy Director of the University of Queensland node of the Australian Research Council (ARC) Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language. She holds an ARC Future Fellowship focusing on language evolution and contact processes across northern Australia.

Margaret Clare Sharpe is a linguist of Australian Aboriginal languages, specializing in Yugambeh-Bundjalung languages, with particular regard to Yugambir, She has also done important salvage fieldwork on the Northern Territory Alawa language.

Bible translations into Indigenous Australian languages date back to the 1800s, when missionaries translated the Bible into several Aboriginal languages. The practice has continued into the 20th and 21st centuries, with Australian Kriol becoming the first Australian language to have a complete Bible translation.

References

  1. Loos, Noel (1993). "SCENES FROM AN ACADEMIC LIFE: A REVIEW OF ONE BLOOD BY JOHN HARRIS". Aboriginal History . 17 (1/2): 133–141. ISSN   0314-8769.
  2. "Early missionaries to Australia". Australians Together.
  3. "A brutally honest book about Christians and Aborigines in Australia - Eternity News". www.eternitynews.com.au. 16 March 2013.
  4. Goldfield, Beverly A. (April 1992). "Early language development: Implications for clinical and educational practice. Harris John. London: Routledge, 1990". Applied Psycholinguistics. 13 (2): 243–247. doi:10.1017/S0142716400005580.
  5. Harris, John (1985). "CONTACT LANGUAGES AT THE NORTHERN TERRITORY: BRITISH MILITARY SETTLEMENTS 1824-1849". Aboriginal History. 9 (1/2): 148–169. ISSN   0314-8769.
  6. Harris, John W. (April 1986). "Creoles — New Languages and an Old Debit". Journal of Christian Education. os-29 (1): 9–22. doi:10.1177/002196578602900102. ISSN   0021-9657.
  7. "A passionate lover of bringing the Bible to lonely people in lonely places - Eternity News". www.eternitynews.com.au. 15 January 2020.
  8. "Top 2021 Australian Christian books announced - BCWA". 12 November 2021.