Table Of ContentA Grammar of Diyari,
South Australia
Peter K. Austin
2 Table of Contents
A Grammar of Diyari, South Australia
© 2013 Peter K. Austin
Department of Linguistics,
School of Oriental and African Studies
Russell Square, London WC1H 0XG
United Kingdom
[email protected]
Second edition, version 2.5
Originally published in 1981 by Cambridge University Press; revised and updated
February 2011; typographical errrors corrected October 2013.
Contents
Preface to the second edition
Preface to the first edition
Abbreviations and conventions
Guide to pronunciation
1 THE LANGUAGE AND ITS SPEAKERS
1.1 Linguistic type
1.2 Names and traditional territory
1.3 Dialects
1.4 Neighbours
1.5 Cultural background
1.6 Recent history and the present
1.7 Speakers
2 PHONOLOGY
2.1 Segmentation
2.2 Segmental phonology
2.2.1 Consonants
2.2.2 Vowels
2.2.3 Vowel-semi-vowel-vowel sequences
2.3 Word structure
2.3.1 Syllables
2.3.2 Phonotactics
2.4 Morphophonology
2.4.1 Root vowel replacement
2.4.2 Case forms of polysyllables
2.4.3 Reduplication
2.5 Word stress
2.6 Fast speech phenomena
3 MORPHOLOGY
3.1 Parts of speech
3.1.1 Nominals
3.1.2 Pronouns
3.1.3 Verbs
4 Table of Contents
3.1.4 Predicate determiners
3.1.6 Particles and co-ordinators
3.2 Morphology of nominals
3.2.1 Derivational affixes
3.2.2 The privative
3.2.3 Location nominals
3.2.4 Case inflections - system
3.2.5 Case inflections - form
3.2.6 Other nominal affixes
3.2.7 Interrogative-indefinite nominals
3.2.8 Numerals and quantifiers
3.2.9 Reduplication
3.3 Morphology of pronouns
3.3.1 Special relationship pronouns
3.3.2 Personal pronouns
3.3.3 Interrogative-indefinite pronouns
3.4 Morphology of predicate determiners
3.4.1 yaru- and yani-
3.4.2 Interrogative-indefinite determiner
3.5 Morphology of verbs
3.5.1 Verb types
3.5.2 Transitivity
3.5.3 Reduplicatioin
3.5.4 Compound main verbs
3.5.5 Classification of main verbs
3.5.6 Derivational affixes - syntactic
3.5.7 Derivational affixes - non-syntactic
3.5.8 Affix order
3.5.9 Inflectional affixes
3.5.10 Ausiliary verbs
3.5.11 Interrogative verbs
4 SYNTAX OF SIMPLE SENTENCES
4.1 Phrase types
4.1.1 Noun phrases
4.1.2 Verb phrases
4.2 Sentences without main verbs
4.2.1 Non-verb predicates
Table of Contents 5
4.2.2 Copula construction
4.3 Adverbial modification
4.3.1 Nominals
4.3.2 Predicate determiners
4.4 Functions of cases
4.4.1 Nominative
4.4.2 Accusative
4.4.3 Ergative
4.4.4 Locative
4.4.5 Ablative
4.4.6 Allative
4.4.7 Dative
4.5 Possession
4.5.1 Genitive
4.5.2 Inalienable possession
4.5.3 Proprietive
4.5.4 Kinship proprietive
4.5.5 The verb ‘to have’
4.6 Word order and topicalization
4.6.1 Word order
4.6.2 Topicalization
4.6.3 Questions
4.7 -tharri- constructions
4.7.1 Reflexive
4.7.2 Anti-passive
4.7.3 Passive
4.7.4 Aspectual function
4.8 Transitivizers
4.8.1 -lka- constructions
4.8.2 -ipa- and -ma- constructions
4.9 Nominalization
4.9.1 -ni nominalizer
4.9.2 -yitya nominalizer
4.10 Verbalization
4.10.1 Inchoative
4.10.2 Product
4.10.3 Causative
4.11 Particles
6 Table of Contents
4.12 Post-inflectional suffixes
5 SYNTAX OF COMPLEX SENTENCES
5.1 Implicated clauses
5.1.1 Semantic functions
5.1.2 Switch-reference
5.1.3 Exceptions and constraints
5.1.4 Multi-clause sentences
5.1.5 implDS in main clauses
5.2 Relative clauses
5.2.1 Switch-reference
5.2.3 Constraints
5.2.4 Semantic functions
5.2.5 Interrogative-indefinite introducers
5.3 Mixed subordination
5.3.1 Three-clause sentences
5.3.2 Other complex sentences
5.4 Perfective clauses
5.4.1 Switch-reference
5.4.2 Semantic functions
5.5 ‘Lest’ clauses
5.5.1 Switch-reference
5.5.2 Semantic functions
5.5.3 Multi-clause sentences
5.5.4 ‘Lest’ as main clauses
5.6 Co-ordination by disjunction
5.6.1 Phrasal conjunction
5.6.2 Clause and sentence conjunction
5.7 Co-ordination by disjunction
5.7.1 Phrasal disjunction
5.7.2 Sentence disjunction
6 PREVIOUS WORK ON DIYARI
6.1 Early work: 1870-1914
6.2 Recent research: 1930-present
Texts
Vocabulary
List of affixes
References
Preface to the second edition
This volume is a revised and updated version of a book of the same title published by
Cambridge University Press in 1981 (itself a revision of my PhD thesis of 1978). The
original book has been out of print for some time, yet it continues to be used and
quoted by scholars. In addition, a language programme for Diyari (the local community
prefers the name Dieri) has been established in Port Augusta, South Australia, and
language lessons in Diyari for the community in northern South Australia are being
prepared (see dieriyawarra.wordpress.com for some examples; Greg Wilson’s massive
work Ngayana Dieri Yawarra Yathayilha is forthcoming). I have decided to revise the
book with corrections and minor amendments in order to make it more readily
available and consistent with the materials being prepared for revitalization.
The only really major change in the second edition is revision of the transcription
of Diyari (and other Aboriginal languages) to a practical orthography which has been
agreed upon for language revitalisation; it is similar to one I used in my other published
work on Diyari during the 1980s. I have also changed the analysis of the morphology
of the case system and now make a distinction in the glosses between forms that
encode ergative (transitive subject, A), nominative (intransitive subject, S), and
accusative (transitive object, P (abbreviated O in the 1981 version)); this means I now
treat the split-ergative case system as involving case form syncretism, rather than three
separate systems. In addition, I have added a sixth chapter on previous work on Diyari
– this appeared in my PhD thesis but was excluded for reasons of space from the 1981
CUP book. I have also added a few more comparative materials on neighbouring and
related languages, having had the opportunity to obtain copies of Gavan Breen’s
recordings of Ngamini and to transcribe and analyse them. At some future date I may
do a more extensive revision of the text to take into account research on Diyari and
neighbouring languages that has been carried out over the 32 years since the original
publication.
For assistance with preparing this revision I am grateful to the University of
Melbourne who provided secretarial support in 1998 to enable the original text to be
typed up as Microsoft Word files (the 1981 original was typed on a mechanical
typewriter in pre-computer days). The second edition was finalised while I was a
Humboldt Researcher at the University of Frankfurt October to December 2010; I am
grateful to the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, and my sponsors Jost Gippert,
Arndt Graf and Bernd Nothofer for their support. This version (2.4) has also benefitted
from input from Greg Wilson and Ruth Kramer who spotted several typographical
errors.
I am especially grateful to the many speakers of Diyari and neighbouring
languages with whom I was able to work in preparing my PhD thesis. Unfortunately,
all of these people have now passed away, however there are still a few fluent speakers
of Diyari (the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of people with whom I studied)
who are working on developing materials on the language. I have enjoyed the
8 Table of Contents
opportunity during 2013 to work with them at four language revitalization workshops
organised by the Dieri Aboriginal Corporation and funded by an Indigenous Languages
Support grant from the Australian Office for the Arts.
Many people in the Dieri community have a strong interest in the language,
culture and history and it is my hope that they will find something of use in this book.
Peter K. Austin
London
October 2013
Preface to the first edition
Diyari is an Australian Aboriginal language spoken by about a dozen people living at
various places in the north-east of South Australia. It consists of two dialects, Thirari
with one remaining speaker, and Diyari proper. Although the language is still in use
among some families at Marree, its future is not bright as children are no longer
learning to speak it and the youngest fluent speaker is aged about fifty.
The present grammar is a revised version of my PhD thesis presented at the
Australian National University in 1978. A number of points of my earlier analysis have
been changed in this revision, especially the account of the phonemic status of /d/ and
discussion of the nominal cases. I now distinguish more rigorously between case forms
and case functions, describing the complex semantic and syntactic links between them.
Some areas of the grammar are dealt with in greater detail than others. There is a
full discussion of the classification of main verbs both in terms of transitivity and in
terms of co-occurrence with certain characteristic stem-forming affixes. Attention is
also focussed on the system of auxiliary verbs which is unusual in Australia and seems
to be a local development in Diyari and its immediate neighbours. Over half of the
book deals with the syntax of the language, covering both simple and complex
sentences, with an emphasis on exemplification of points to be explained. Wherever
possible examples are drawn from texts, especially the two texts included in the
Appendix. The syntax chapters are especially concerned with an analysis of the split-
ergative nominal case system and with an account of the dependent clause structures.
Diyari is a language which shows switch-reference, that is, expression of cross-clausal
coreferentiality or non-coreferentiality of subjects through verb marking. The various
syntactic and semantic functions of and constraints on this device are examined in
detail. Clausal and phrasal co-ordination is also discussed.
Throughout the text comparative notes on other Australian languages have been
included in small type. In many cases reference is made to the neighbouring and
apparently related languages Ngamini and Yarluyandi, both of which are now almost
extinct. Preparation of a full comparative study of these languages is planned.
Diyari was once the vehicle of a vigorous culture which has disintegrated under
the impact of over 120 years of forced contact with the outside world. I hope that this
record of the language contributes in some small way to our understanding of the
culture and heritage of the karna who remain.
Cambridge, Mass.
March 1980
Acknowledgements
This study would not have been possible without the interest and help of the last fluent
speakers of Diyari. I owe a particular debt of gratitude to Ben Murray, Rosa Warren
and the late Frieda Merrick who spent so much time teaching me Diyari and sharing
with me their memories of “the old days”. I hope this book goes some way towards
repaying their enthusiasm for their language.
The Australian National University financed my fieldwork on Diyari and
neighbouring languages, and the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies provided a
grant to check bibliographical resources at the Lutheran Archives, Adelaide. The
revision of my thesis for publication was carried out while I was a post-doctoral fellow
in Linguistics at the University of California, Los Angeles and the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology. I wish the thank the Commonwealth Fund of New York for its
generous support through the Harkness Fellowships programme and departmental
chairmen Peter Ladefoged (UCLA) and Jay Keyser (MIT) for enabling me to come and
be part of such stimulating departments.
Bob Dixon introduced me to the study of Australian languages and supervised
my research on Diyari. His criticism, advice and encouragement have been invaluable
at all stages of my work. Harold Koch and Luise Hercus discussed and commented on
drafts of my thesis as did a number of students and staff at the Linguistics Department,
School of General Studies, Australian National University, in particular Avery
Adnrews, Terry Crowley, Tamsin Donaldson, Bill Foley, Howard and Frances Morphy,
Michael Walsh and Anna Wierzbicka. Luise Hercus introduced me to the Aboriginal
community in eastern South Australia and shared a number of fieldtrips to Marree and
points beyond. I am grateful to Bob Ellis and Enid Moore who made my visits to the
field much more pleasant than they would have been otherwise.
A number of people read and commented on all or part of my thesis, providing
data and/or criticism which has greatly improved this revision; my thanks to Barry
Alpher, Gavan Breen, Ken Hale, Rodney Huddleston, Mona Lindau-Webb, Pam
Munro, David Nash and Sandra Thompson.
My wife Randy has been unfailing in her interest in and support of my research.
She gave up her own work to accompany me to the United States and spent many
months typing and correcting the revised manuscript. For all this, all I can say is 唔該
