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https://theconversation.com/six-decades-210-warlpiri-speakers-and-11-000-words-how-a-groundbreaking-first-nations-dictionary-was-made-205019>
"The first large dictionary of the Warlpiri language began in 1959 in Alice
Springs, when Yuendumu man †Kenny Wayne Jungarrayi and others started teaching
their language to a young American linguist, †Ken Hale.
Sixty years in the making, the Warlpiri Dictionary has been shortlisted for the
2023 Australian Book Industry Awards – a rarity for a dictionary.
Spoken in and around the Tanami Desert, Warlpiri is an Australian Aboriginal
language used by around 3,000 adults and children as their everyday language.
Warlpiri artist Otto Sims Jungarrayi says:
In the old days when kardiya [non-Indigenous] people came, when they reached
this continent, we had jukurrpa “law” here, not written on paper but true
jukurrpa “law”, that the ancestors gave us. Now we put our language and our
jukurrpa law on paper.
The dictionary and these materials represent the authority of elders, even if
those elders are no longer present."
Share and enjoy,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
