Alive and kicking: Areyonga
Teenage Pitjantjatjara
Annie Langois
PL 561
The goal of this work is
to describe the changes occurring in the Pitjantjatjara speech
of teenagers in Areyonga, a Central Australian community,
from both a grammatical and a sociolinguistic point of view.
The study is based on data collected in 1994 and 1995. At
the time the data was being collected, the Areyonga community
had about 200 inhabitants, more than half of them under 25
years of age. A key question of this work is the extent to
which Areyonga Teenage Pitjantjatjara is being influenced
by contact with English. In order to identify changes in Areyonga
Teenage Pitjantjatjara, contemporary speech was compared with
several independent descriptions of Traditional Pitjantjatjara
(and similar neighbouring dialects). Personal observations
of the author and discussions with older Pitjantjatjara people
at Areyonga help to round out the picture obtained. The Areyonga
population is predominantly young. Most of the older people
have left the settlement to return to their community of origin.
As a result, many traditional ways of living have not been
transmitted fully to the following generation. However there
is an undeniable striving to reintegrate traditions into the
community and the teaching of the children. Consequently,
there is a constant effort to educate children in their first
language. What then is the state of Areyonga Teenage Pitjantjatjara?
This book aims to answer this question.
2004
ISBN 0 85883
546 0 xiv + 253 pp
Prices: Australia AUD$69.30
(incl. GST) Overseas AUD$63.00
previous next
Place an order
|
