TY - JOUR
T1 - Language naming in Indigenous Australia
T2 - a view from western Arnhem Land
AU - Vaughan, Jill
AU - Singer, Ruth
AU - Garde, Murray
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Jill Vaughan et al., published by De Gruyter, Berlin/Boston.
PY - 2023
Y1 - 2023
N2 - Language naming systems are local ways of organising diversity, yet the language names used by linguists are sometimes incommensurable with the lived social reality of speakers. The process of assigning language names is not neutral, trivial or objective: it is a highly political process driven and shaped by understandings of group identity, similarity and difference. Closer attention to local perspectives on language naming offers important insights into ideologies around social and linguistic differentiation. This paper draws together accounts of diverse language naming practices from across Indigenous Australia and applies a close lens to the region of western Arnhem Land. Through an examination of three groups (speakers of Bininj Kunwok, Mawng, and Burarra), we describe the range of strategies speakers use to divide up their local language ecologies, practices for naming lects, and the role of variation in the processes of differentiation. Naming practices between these groups show interesting similarities but also striking differences. We further highlight the interplay between two key processes which characterise local language naming strategies in the region: the 'erasure' of difference, typically from the perspective of a politically more powerful group, and the intentional creation of linguistic differentiation, or ausbau.
AB - Language naming systems are local ways of organising diversity, yet the language names used by linguists are sometimes incommensurable with the lived social reality of speakers. The process of assigning language names is not neutral, trivial or objective: it is a highly political process driven and shaped by understandings of group identity, similarity and difference. Closer attention to local perspectives on language naming offers important insights into ideologies around social and linguistic differentiation. This paper draws together accounts of diverse language naming practices from across Indigenous Australia and applies a close lens to the region of western Arnhem Land. Through an examination of three groups (speakers of Bininj Kunwok, Mawng, and Burarra), we describe the range of strategies speakers use to divide up their local language ecologies, practices for naming lects, and the role of variation in the processes of differentiation. Naming practices between these groups show interesting similarities but also striking differences. We further highlight the interplay between two key processes which characterise local language naming strategies in the region: the 'erasure' of difference, typically from the perspective of a politically more powerful group, and the intentional creation of linguistic differentiation, or ausbau.
KW - Indigenous Australian languages
KW - language naming
KW - linguistic diversity
KW - multilingualism
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85138579594&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1515/multi-2021-0005
DO - 10.1515/multi-2021-0005
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85138579594
SN - 0167-8507
VL - 42
SP - 83
EP - 118
JO - Multilingua
JF - Multilingua
IS - 1
ER -