The revitalization of the sleeping Tasmanian Aboriginal languages<i>palawa kani</i>

Abstract

Abstract This chapter discusses the retrieving of the Tasmanian Aboriginal languages. As a result of the decimation of the Tasmanian Aboriginal community, no individual original languages are still spoken and only one language, palawa kani, is spoken throughout Tasmania. The Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre is the body responsible for the retrieval and revival of the original Tasmanian languages. Since the early 1990s, this work has been funded by successive Commonwealth Governments and conducted by the palawa kani Language Program statewide. Today, Aborigines of all ages can speak palawa kani and three generations of children have learnt it from infancy. The chapter details the process of retrieving the original Tasmanian Aboriginal languages, looking at sources of recorded language, the sounds of words, grammar, word order, and the Aboriginal speakers themselves.