Kaurna language

Kaurna Pidgin
Native speakers	None
Language family	Kaurna–based pidgin
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Glottolog	pidg1255
ELP	Kaurna[4]

Kaurna
	Kaurna language
	Kaurna Warra
Region	South Australia
Ethnicity	Kaurna
Extinct	Extinct as a first language since 1931, with the death of Ivaritji[1]
Revival	Subsequently revived, with a small number of competent speakers and nascent neo-native speakers as of 2013.[2]
Language family	Pama-Nyungan Thura-Yura Kadli Kaurna; ; ;
Language codes
ISO 639-3	zku
Linguist List	zku
Glottolog	kaur1267
AIATSIS[3]	L3
ELP	Kaurna[4]

Kaurna (/ˈɡɑːnə/ or /ˈɡaʊnə/) is a Pama-Nyungan language historically spoken by the Kaurna peoples of the Adelaide Plains of South Australia. The people of the Adelaide plains are known as the Kaurna people in contemporary times, but the Kaurna nation is made up of various tribal clan groups, each with their own parnkarra district of land, each having had their own dialectal form of language. These dialects were historically spoken in the area of the Adelaide Plains bounded by Crystal Brook and Clare in the north, Cape Jervis in the south, and just over the Mount Lofty ranges. It ceased to be spoken on an everyday basis in the 19th century, but, in a process that began in the 1990s, is being reclaimed and re-introduced.

Classification

R. M. W. Dixon classifies Kaurna as a dialect of the Kadli language, along with Nantuwara, Ngadjuri, Narangka, and Nukunu.[5] Luise Hercus (1992) classifies Kaurna, along with Narungga, Nukunu and Ngadjuri, in the Meru subgroup of the larger group of Thura-Yura languages (which includes Yura Ngawarla or Adnyamathanha)

History of the name

The name "Kaurna" was not widely used until popularised by South Australian Museum Ethnographer Norman B. Tindale in the 1920s.[6] The term "Kaurna" was first recorded by Missionary Surgeon Dr William Wyatt (1879: 24) for "Encounter Bay Bob's Tribe". At the same time he recorded "Meeyurna" for "Onkaparinga Jack's Tribe". Kaurna most likely derives from kornar, the word for "people" in the neighbouring Ramindjeri/Ngarrindjeri language [Berndt & Berndt (1993: 19) noted that kornarinyeri which became Point McLeay Mission, Rev George Taplin's Narrinyeri thus Narindjeri or Ngarindjeri hence contemporary Ngarrindjeri]. Mullawirraburka (Onkaparinga Jack), also known to the colonists as "King John", was one of Christian Teichelmann and Schürmann's main sources. Encounter Bay Bob, as his name suggests, came from Encounter Bay (Victor Harbor) and was most likely a fully initiated elder Ramindjeri man. Thus Meyunna is probably an endonym and would linguistically be preferable as the name for this language group as suggested in the mid 1990s. However, they are now universally known as the Kaurna people.

Name variants

Library of Congress Subject Headings gives the following variant names (all followed by "language"): Adelaide; Coorna; Gauna; Gaurna; Gawurna; Kaura; Kawurna.[7]

The Endangered Languages Project names the following alternatives: Kaura, Coorna, Koornawarra, Nganawara, Kurumidlanta, Milipitingara, Widninga, Winnaynie, Meyu, Winaini, Winnay-nie, Wakanuwan, Adelaide tribe, Warra, Warrah, Karnuwarra, Jaitjawar:a, Padnaindi, Padnayndie, Medaindi, Medain-die, Merildekald, Merelde, Gaurna, Nantuwara, Nantuwaru, Meljurna, Midlanta.[8]

History of the language

The former range of the language was mapped by Norman Tindale and later Robert Amery, and is managed by the Kaurna people. In the 19th century, there was a Kaurna-based pidgin used as a contact language in the area.

Apart from the Lutheran missionaries Schürmann and Teichelmann, who ran a school at Piltawodli, other Europeans such as William Wyatt, William Williams,[9][10]William Cawthorne and Matthew Moorhouse were interested in the people and learnt some of the language; several wrote about the "Adelaide Tribe" in their memoirs.[11][10] Williams created a list of 377 Kaurna words, published in the Southern Australian on 15 May 1839 and republished in the The South Australian Colonist[11] on 14 July 1840.[12][13][14] His work entitled A vocabulary of the language of the Aborigines of the Adelaide district, and other friendly tribes, of the Province of South Australia was self-published in 1839, to be sold in London as well as Adelaide.[15]

Language revival

Kaurna is currently not spoken as a native language (and thus classified as an extinct language), but it is being revived with the aid of a dictionary compiled by two German missionaries (Christian Teichelmann and Schürmann[16]) in the 1840s. The Kaurna Dictionary Project at the University of Adelaide funded by a federal government grant, is under way to revise the spellings. It is intended that the final version will be released in print and in electronic form, including a phone app.[17]

Efforts to revive the Kaurna language began in 1990 with the writing of several Kaurna songs originally written in the Ngarrindjeri, Narungga and Kaurna languages. A second songbook, Kaurna Paltinna, was published in 1999. Following one-off workshops in 1990 and 1991, a Kaurna language program was introduced into Kaurna Plains School in 1992.

Kaurna linguistics courses have been taught at the University of Adelaide, whose Linguistics department is headed by Rob Amery, who has devoted much of his life and career to Indigenous languages, in particular Kaurna.[18]

The Kaurna Learners' Guide (Kulurdu Marni Ngathaitya) was published in 2013, and Kaurna radio shows have been broadcast since 2012.[17] Kaurna is frequently used to give speeches of Welcome to Kaurna Country.

According to Amery (2019): "After more than 25 years of painstaking effort, there are now several Kaurna people who can conduct a conversation in Kaurna without resorting to English too quickly, and we are seeing the first semi-native speakers of Kaurna emerging."[18]

Kaurna Warra Pintyanthi

Kaurna Warra Pintyanthi ("creating Kaurna language") is a group developing and promoting the recovery of the Kaurna language. It was established in 2002 by two Kaurna elders, Lewis Yerloburka O'Brien and Alitya Wallara Rigney, and linguist Robert Amery. The group now includes other Kaurna people, teachers, linguists and language enthusiasts. It was created from a series of workshops funded by a University of Adelaide grant in 2000, and is now hosted by the department of linguistics at the University of Adelaide.[19] KWP run language classes through both the Kaurna Plains School and the University.

KWP has created a uniform dialect of the language, making new words such as mukarntu (mukamuka brain + karntu lightning), meaning "computer", and other words for things such as modern appliances, transportation, cuisine, and other common features of life that have changed for the Kaurna people while the language was dormant.[20] The Kaurna Warra Karrpanthi Aboriginal Corporation (KWK) was registered in 2013 to support the reclamation and promotion of the Language of the Kaurna Nation including training and teaching.[21]

Renaming and dual naming

Efforts to reintroduce Kaurna names, beginning in 1980 with the naming of Warriappendi School,[22] have been made within the public domain. Since the Adelaide City Council drew up a Reconciliation Vision Statement in 1997, they committed to a dual naming project, working with Kaurna Warra Pintyanthi, to cover the city centre and North Adelaide, including the five public squares and Adelaide park lands. Victoria Square, in the centre of Adelaide city, is now also known as Tarntanyangga,[23] all 29 Parks around the city have been assigned a Kaurna name, and the River Torrens is now also named Karrawirra Parri.[24] The renaming of 39 sites was finalised and endorsed by the council in 2012.[25] The full list of square and park names, along with meanings and pronunciations, is available on the Council website.[26]

Public artworks, beginning in 1995 with the Yerrakartarta installation outside the Intercontinental Hotel on North Terrace, Adelaide, have also incorporated words, phrases and text drawn from the Kaurna language, and the universities and other organisations have also taken on Kaurna names.[27] The Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute uses the original name for Adelaide.[28]

The annual Tarnanthi Festival of Contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art takes its name from the Kaurna word meaning "to rise, come forth, spring up or appear".[29]

Place names

Many prominent South Australian place names are drawn from the Kaurna language:

Kauandilla (Cowandilla) from kauanda meaning "north" plus locative suffix -illa;[30]
Kanggarilla (Kangarilla) from kanggari meaning "shepherding" plus locative suffix -illa;[30]
Kondoparinga possibly from kundo meaning "chest" plus parri meaning "river" plus locative suffix -ngga;[30]
Maitpangga (Myponga);
Ngaltingga (Aldinga) from ngalti (meaning unknown) plus locative suffix -ngga;[30]
Ngangkiparringga (Onkaparinga) from nganki meaning "woman" plus parri meaning "river" plus locative suffix -ngga;[30]
Nurlongga (Noarlunga) nurlo meaning "corner/curavature" plus locative suffix -ngga, probably in reference to Horseshoe Bend on the Onkaparinga River;
Patawalonga from patta, a species of gum tree (possibly the swamp gum), plus wilya meaning "foliage" plus locative suffix -ngga;[30]
Waitpingga (Waitpinga) meaning "wind place"
Willangga (Willunga)
Wilyaru (Willyaroo) meaning a fully initiated adult man.[30]
Yatala most likely from yartala meaning "water running by the side of a river; inundation; cascade".[30]
Yernkalyilla (Yankalilla) 'place of the fallen bits'
Yurridla (Uraidla) meaning "two ears", derived from a dreaming story in which the Mount Lofty Ranges are the body of a giant.[30]

English-Kaurna hybridised placenames include:

Glenunga from Scots language glen and Kaurna locative suffix -ngga.[31]
Paracombe from para meaning "river/stream" and English language combe meaning "narrow way". Similar to South Australia's 'Picadilly', there exists a direct analogue in England, Parracombe in Devon, which likely contributed to the adoption of the name.[32]

Several place names, have been reinstated or reused:

Piltawodli (now Pirltawardli), "brushtail possum home"
Tarndanyangga (the official alternate name for Victoria Square, Adelaide since 2003) is the Kaurna name for the area south of the Torrens River.
Warriparringga (Warriparinga) "windy river place"

Some other names, are known from historical sources, but are yet to be fully reinstated (see Amery & Williams, 2002), such as:

Patpangga (Rapid Bay) 'in the south' and
Pattawilyangga (Patawalonga, Glenelg) 'swamp gum foliage',

Yertabulti (Port Adelaide),

Possible Kaurna placenames include:

Piccadilly. Although usually assumed to be named after Piccadilly, London, it is likely to be an anglicisation of the Kaurna pikodla meaning "two eyebrows", being a part of the same dreaming story that gave rise to "Uraidla".[30]
Yankalilla. Although almost certainly an indigenous word, there are conflicting etymologies. The most likely is that it is derived from the Ramindjeri yangaiake meaning "hill", but with the Kaurna locative suffix -illa, or possibly yernkalyilla meaning "place of the fallen bits".[30]

Phonology

Vowels

Kaurna has three different vowels with contrastive long and short lengths (a, i, u, a:, i:, u:), and three diphthongs (ai, au, ui).[33] The three main vowels are represented by ⟨a⟩, ⟨i⟩ and ⟨u⟩ respectively, with long vowels indicated by doubling the vowel. Historically, Kaurna has had ⟨e⟩ and ⟨o⟩ used varyingly in older versions of its orthography, but these are not reflected in the phonology of the language.

	Front	Back
High	i iː	u uː
Low	a aː

Consonants

The consonant inventory of Kaurna is similar to that of other Pama-Nyungan languages (compare with Adnyamathanha, in the same Thura-Yura grouping). In the orthography, dental consonants are followed by ⟨h⟩ and palatals by ⟨y⟩, and retroflex consonants are preceded by ⟨r⟩, with the exception of ⟨rd⟩ /ɾ/. Pre-stopped consonants are preceded by ⟨d⟩. Below are the consonants of Kaurna (Amery, R & Simpson, J 2013[34]).

	Peripheral		Laminal		Apical
	Labial	Velar	Dental	Palatal	Alveolar	Retroflex
Stop	p	k	t̪	c	t	ʈ
Nasal	m	ŋ	n̪	ɲ	n	ɳ
Pre-stopped nasal			d̪n̪	ɟɲ	dn	ɖɳ
Lateral			l̪	ʎ	l	ɭ
Pre-stopped lateral			d̪l̪	ɟʎ	dl	ɖɭ
Tap					ɾ
Trill					r
Approximant	w		j			ɻ

Phonotactics

All words must begin with a peripheral or laminal consonant (see Consonants above), excluding the pre-stopped nasals.
All words must end with a vowel.
In addition to the pre-stopped consonants, consonant clusters of a nasal followed by a stop are allowed.[35]

Prosody

Kaurna places primary stress on the first syllable.[33]

Grammar

Kaurna has relatively free word order.[36]

Noun Cases and Suffixes

Kaurna uses a range of suffixed case markers to convey information including subjects, objects, spacio-temporal state and other such information. These sometimes have variations in pronunciation and spelling. Below is a table of some of these cases.[37]

	Suffix
Ergatve, Instrumental, Temporal	-rlu, -dlu (when following -i-)
Absolutive	-Ø
Dative	-ni
Genitive	-ku, -rna (variants)
Purposive	-itya
Aversive	-tuwayi
Locative	-ngka (or ⟨-ngga⟩) for bisyllabic roots, -ila (or ⟨-illa⟩) for trisyllabic roots
Comitative	-ityangka, -lityangka
Allative (to places)	-ana, -kana
Allative (to people)	-itya, -litya
Ablative (from places)	-unangku, -anangku, -nangku
Ablative (from people)	-ityanungku
Perlative	-arra, -tarra
Semblative	-rli
Possessed	-tidi
Privative	-tina

Number

Kaurna has 3 numbers: singular, dual (-rla, -dla) and plural (-rna).[37]

References

Notes

Kaurna at MultiTree on the Linguist List
Phil Mercer (22 January 2013). "Lost indigenous language revived in Australia". BBC. Retrieved 22 January 2013.
L3 Kaurna at the Australian Indigenous Languages Database, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
Endangered Languages Project data for Kaurna.
- Dixon, R. M. W. (2002). Australian Languages: Their Nature and Development. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-47378-0.
Amery, Rob (2000). Warrabarna Kaurna! - reclaiming an Australian Language. The Netherlands: Swets & Zeitlinger. ISBN 90-265-1633-9.
"Kaurna language". Library of Congress Authorities. Retrieved 27 April 2019.
"Kaurna [aka Kaura, Coorna, Koornawarra]". Endangered Languages Project. Retrieved 27 April 2019.
"William Williams [B 5839]: Photograph" (photo and text). State Library of South Australia. Retrieved 9 December 2019. ).
Amery, Rob (2016). "4. A Sociolinguistic History of Kaurna". Warraparna Kaurna!: Reclaiming an Australian language. JSTOR Open Access monographs. University of Adelaide Press. p. 57-68. ISBN 978-1-925261-25-7. Retrieved 11 January 2021 – via JSTOR. (Also on Google Books.)
Amery, Rob. "Piltawodli Native Location (1838-1845)". German missionaries in Australia. Griffith University. Retrieved 8 December 2019.
Williams, William (14 July 1840). "The language of the natives of South Australia" (PDF). South Australian Colonist. 1 (19): 295–296. Retrieved 11 January 2021 – via Australian Cooperative Digitisation Project. Australian Periodical Publications 1840–1845. (Access page here.
Schultz, Chester (13 August 2020). "Karrawadlungga". Adelaide Research & Scholarship. University of Adelaide. Retrieved 12 January 2021.
Schultz, Chester (13 August 2020). "Karrawadlungga" (PDF). Place Name Summary (PNS) 9/04. ...with some more thoughts on the ‘Wirra tribe’. and PART 3 of the 1839 Police expedition
Williams, William (1839), A vocabulary of the language of the Aborigines of the Adelaide district, and other friendly tribes, of the Province of South Australia, Published for the author by A. Macdougall, retrieved 11 January 2021
Lockwood, Christine (2017). "4. Early encounters on the Adelaide Plains and Encounter Bay". In Brock, Peggy; Gara, Tom (eds.). Colonialism and its Aftermath: A history of Aboriginal South Australia. Wakefield Press. pp. 65–81. ISBN 9781743054994.
"Language projects". Kaurna WarraPintyanthi. Retrieved 4 July 2019.
"Dr Robert Amery". University of Adelaide. Retrieved 4 July 2019.
"Kaurna Warra Pintyanthi". Retrieved 31 August 2015.
Amery, Rob; Simpson, Jane (2013). Kulurdu Marni Ngathaitya. Kaurna Warrarna Pintyanthi, Wakefield Press. p. 171.
"Kaurna Warra Karrpanthi Aboriginal Corporation (KWK)". Kaurna Warra Pintyanthi. 15 February 2015. Retrieved 31 August 2015.
"Who are we?". Warriapendi School. Retrieved 27 April 2019.
"Victoria Square/Tarntanyangga". City of Adelaide. Retrieved 27 April 2019.
"Adelaide City Council Placenaming Initiatives". Kaurna Warra Pintyanthi. Retrieved 27 April 2019.
"Kaurna place naming: Recognising Kaurna heritage through physical features of the city". City of Adelaide. Retrieved 29 November 2019.
"Kaurna Place Naming". City of Adelaide. Retrieved 14 December 2019.
"Kaurna Language in Public Art and Commemorative Plaques within the city precincts". Kaurna Warra Pintyanthi. Retrieved 27 April 2019.
"Organisations with Kaurna Names within the Adelaide City Precincts". Kaurna Warra Pintyanthi. University of Adelaide. Retrieved 27 April 2019.
Mcdonald, John (31 October 2017). "Review: Tarnanthi, Festival of Contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island Art". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 26 April 2019.
Amery, Rob; Buckskin, Vincent (Jack) Kanya (March 2009), "Chapter 10. Pinning down Kaurna names: Linguistic issues arising in the development of the Kaurna Placenames Database" (PDF), in Hercus, Luise; Hodges, Flavia; Simpson, Jane (eds.), The Land is a Map: Placenames of Indigenous Origin in Australia, ANU Press, p. 202–203, ISBN 9781921536571
Amery, Rob (March 2009), "Chapter 1. Indigenous Placenames: An Introduction" (PDF), in Hercus, Luise; Hodges, Flavia; Simpson, Jane (eds.), The Land is a Map: Placenames of Indigenous Origin in Australia, ANU Press, p. 165–180, ISBN 9781921536571
Manning, George (1990), "Place Names of South Australia: Paracombe", Manning Index of South Australian History, State Library of South Australia, retrieved 31 May 2017
Kulurdu Marni Ngathaitya. p. 31.
Kulurdu Marni Ngathaitya. pp. 29–30.
Kulurdu Marni Ngathaitya. pp. 31–32.
Kulurdu Marni Ngathaitya. pp. 114–115.
Kulurdu Marni Ngathaitya. pp. 121–123.

General references

Teichelmann, C. G.; C. W. Schürmann (1982) [1840]. Outlines of a grammar, vocabulary and phraseology of the Aboriginal language of South Australia spoken by the natives in and for some distance around Adelaide. Tjintu Books. ISBN 0-9593616-0-X.
Amery, Rob (2000) Warrabarna Kaurna! Reclaiming an Australian Language. Swets & Zeitlinger, Lisse, The Netherlands. ISBN 90-265-1633-9
Amery, Rob (compiler) (2003) Warra Kaurna. A Resource for Kaurna Language Programs. Kaurna Warra Pintyandi, Adelaide. ISBN 0-9751834-0-0
Amery, Rob (2002) 'Weeding out Spurious Etymologies: Toponyms on the Adelaide Plains.' In Luise Hercus, Flavia Hodges & Jane Simpson (eds) The Land is a Map: Placenames of Indigenous Origin in Australia, 165-180.
Amery, Rob & Georgina Yambo Williams (2002) 'Reclaiming Through Renaming: The Reinstatement of Kaurna Toponyms in Adelaide and the Adelaide Plains.' In Luise Hercus, Flavia Hodges & Jane Simpson (eds) The Land is a Map: Placenames of Indigenous Origin in Australia, 255-276.
Wyatt, William (1879) Some Account of the Manners and Superstitions of the Adelaide and Encounter Bay Aboriginal Tribes with a Vocabulary of their Languages.