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The Languages of Australia
A study of the more than two hundred different Aboriginal languages of Australia. Professor Dixon deals first with the general character of these languages, and their use and role in Australia today. He stresses that they are in no sense 'primitive' languages, but have a rich and complex grammar with the many subtle and distinctive features. He goes on to demonstrate this in the first-ever study of their genetic relationships, probable origins and historical development, and their grammatical and phonological behaviour. This is in many ways a pioneering work, and a fundamental one. The Press has already published two major scholarly studies by Professor Dixon of individual Australian languages, Dyirbal and Yidin. He offers here the synthesis that they pointed towards, provisional still in many of its details, but sufficiently convincing in outline to stimulate the next stage of professional research, to provide the general linguist with the kind of survey to the interested Australian something of the extraordinary linguistic heritage of the continent, now and for some time past seriously at risk.
576 pages, Hardcover
First published July 24, 1980
About the author
R.M.W. Dixon
65 books18 followersRobert Malcolm Ward Dixon is a Professor of Linguistics in the College of Arts, Society, and Education and The Cairns Institute, James Cook University, Queensland. He is also Deputy Director of The Language and Culture Research Centre at JCU.
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May 5, 2018
This book is a magnificent edifice of scholarship. It is highly technical. I don’t think it’s for everyone. I have some small familiarity with historical linguistics from uni, and I found much of the materials challenging. That said, all the technicality is warranted. Dixon’s survey of Australia’s language is wide and deep at the same time, and it is amazing how much he manages to pack into 470 pages.
The book also sets forward a vision of Australian society which is as beautiful as it is necessary. He advocates for a “bicultural” nationality, where aboriginal people can be fully themselves and fully “European” at the same time. He only presents a bit of evidence that this suggestion is realistic, but it puts his analysis in an urgent moral and ethical context.
It also sets out a tragic picture of what Australia has lost. Dixon explains the enormous variability and richness of the Australian language family, and pulls no punches when he describes how the majority of Europeans in Australia have done their best to trash or ignore this remarkable human heritage. 50 if these languages are extinct, he says. 100 are on the verge. That makes the 50 that remain vital and loving all the more important for all Australians. I hope that his suggestions, made here in the 80s, have been followed through. I have no idea.
I would love an update. The book is now 40 years old. Apparently the sequel Dixon wrote is polemical and a bit unbalanced. I’ll probably check it out anyway.
The book also sets forward a vision of Australian society which is as beautiful as it is necessary. He advocates for a “bicultural” nationality, where aboriginal people can be fully themselves and fully “European” at the same time. He only presents a bit of evidence that this suggestion is realistic, but it puts his analysis in an urgent moral and ethical context.
It also sets out a tragic picture of what Australia has lost. Dixon explains the enormous variability and richness of the Australian language family, and pulls no punches when he describes how the majority of Europeans in Australia have done their best to trash or ignore this remarkable human heritage. 50 if these languages are extinct, he says. 100 are on the verge. That makes the 50 that remain vital and loving all the more important for all Australians. I hope that his suggestions, made here in the 80s, have been followed through. I have no idea.
I would love an update. The book is now 40 years old. Apparently the sequel Dixon wrote is polemical and a bit unbalanced. I’ll probably check it out anyway.
Displaying 1 of 1 review