ADNYAMATHANHA LANGUAGE RECORDING TRIP

December 21, 2017

In November, Clayton and Bea from the MLT travelled throughout Vulkathunha (Flinders and Gammon Ranges) recording Adnyamathanha people speaking their language. The trip included recording people in Quorn, Ikara (Wilpena Pound), Leigh Creek and Copley, with people more than willing to be involved in this important work.

The purpose of this trip was to record speakers of the language, and then add those sound files into a database that the MLT is building for the Adnyamathanha language. This database will be available to the wider Adnyamathanha community, with the intention of it being used as the foundation for a significant amount of language resource creation moving into the future.

An interesting aspect of the recording process, was capturing the differences in speech and orthography from different people within the community.

As many people may not know, there are different dialect groups within Adnyamathanha, with people identifying as Kuyani-Adnyamathanha, Wailpi-Adnyamathanha, Yadliawarda-Adnyamathanha, Pirlatpa-Adnyamathanha, or simply Adnyamathanha.

It is important to record the linguistic diversity of the region, as this maintains peoples’ heritage and family and cultural history. 

The database will give people the opportunity to identify with whichever orthography they wish within the database, eliminating the commonly held belief that there is only one way to spell or pronounce the Adnyamathanha language.

This trip is the first of many, with more trips planed for 2018 to capture this distinct language before it’s too late.

To find out more about the work being done with the Adnyamathanha language, please feel free to email Clayton at clayton.cruse@adelaide.edu.au or give him a buzz on (08) 8313 0186.