Arrernte language

Arrernte
Spoken in	Northern Territory, Australia
Ethnicity	Arrernte people
Native speakers	1,500  (date missing)
Language family	Pama–Nyungan Arandic Arrernte
Writing system	Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Variously: amx – Anmatjirra aly – Alyawarr adg – Antekerrepenhe aer – Eastern Arrernte are – Western Arrernte

Arrernte (or Aranda) is a dialect cluster spoken in and around Alice Springs (Mparntwe in Arrernte) in the Northern Territory, Australia. This group includes the following:

• Anmatjirra
• Alyawarr
• Ayerrerenge
• Antekerrepenhe
• Eastern Arrernte or Ikngerripenhe
• Central Arrernte or Mparntwe Arrernte
• Western Arrernte, Tyuretye Arrernte or Arrernte Alturlerenj
• Southern Arrernte or Pertame
• Lower Arrernte or Alenjerntarpe

Opinions vary as to their status as dialects or distinct languages.^{[citation needed]}

Phonology

Consonants

	Peripheral			Coronal
				Laminal		Apical
	Bilabial	Velar	Uvular	Palatal	Dental	Alveolar	Retroflex
Stop	p pʷ	k kʷ		c cʷ	t̪ t̪ʷ	t tʷ	ʈ ʈʷ
Nasal	m mʷ	ŋ ŋʷ		ɲ ɲʷ	n̪ n̪ʷ	n nʷ	ɳ ɳʷ
Prestopped nasal	ᵖm ᵖmʷ	ᵏŋ ᵏŋʷ		ᶜɲ ᶜɲʷ	ᵗ̪n̪ ᵗ̪n̪ʷ	ᵗn ᵗnʷ	ʈɳ ʈɳʷ
Lateral Approximant				ʎ ʎʷ	l̪ l̪ʷ	l lʷ	ɭ ɭʷ
Approximant	w	ɰ~ʁ		j jʷ			ɻ ɻʷ
Tap/Trill						r rʷ

/ɰ~ʁ/ is described as velar ([ɰ]) by Breen (2005), and as uvular ([ʁ̞]) by Henderson (2003).

Stops are unaspirated.

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
High	(i)		(u)
Mid		ə
Low		a

All dialects have at least /ə a/.

The vowel system of Arrernte is unusual in that there are only two contrastive vowel phonemes, /a/ and /ə/. Two-vowel systems are very rare worldwide, but are also found in some Northwest Caucasian languages. It seems that the vowel system derives from an earlier one with more phonemes, but after the development of labialized consonants in the vicinity of round vowels, the vowels lost their roundedness/backness distinction, merging into just two phonemes. There is no allophonic variation in different consonantal contexts for the vowels. Instead, the phonemes can be realized by various different articulations in free variation. For example, the phoneme /ə/ can be pronounced [ɪ ~ e ~ ə ~ ʊ] in any context.

Phonotactics

The underlying syllable structure of Arrernte is argued to be VC(C), with obligatory codas and no onsets. Underlying phrase-initial /ə/ is realised as zero, except before a rounded consonant where, by a rounding process of general applicability, it is realised as [ʊ]. It is also common for phrases to carry a final [ə] corresponding to no underlying segment.

Among the evidence for this analysis is that some suffixes have suppletive variants for monosyllabic and bisyllabic bases; stems which look like they're monosyllabic and begin with a consonant in fact select the bisyllabic variant. Stress falls on the first nucleus preceded by a consonant, which by this analysis can be stated more uniformly as the second underlying syllable. And the frequentative is formed by reduplicating the final VC syllable of the verb stem; it does not include the final [ə].

Orthography

Arrernte orthography does not write word-initial /ə/, and adds an e to the end of every word.

Peripheral Coronal Laminal Apical Bilabial Velar Uvular Palatal Dental Alveolar Retroflex Stop p pw k kw ty tyw th thw t tw rt rtw Nasal m mw ng ngw ny nyw nh nhw n nw rn rnw Prestopped nasal pm pmw kng kngw tny tnyw tnh/thn tnhw/thnw tn tnw rtn rtnw Lateral ly lyw lh lhw l lw rl rlw Approximant w h y yw r rw Tap/Trill rr rrw

Front Central Back High (i/ey) (u/we) Mid e Low a

Grammar

Arrernte has fairly free word order but tends towards SOV. It is generally ergative, but is accusative in its pronouns. Pronouns may be marked for duality and skin group.

Suffixes (Eastern/Central Arrernte)

suffix	gloss
+aye	emphasis
+ewe	stronger emphasis
+eyewe	really strong emphasis
+ke	for
+le	actor in a sentence
+le	instrument
+le	location
+le-arlenge	together, with
+nge	from
-akerte	having
-arenye	from (origin), association
-arteke	similarity
-atheke	towards
-iperre, -ipenhe	after, from
-kenhe	belongs to
-ketye	because (bad consequence)
-kwenye	not having, without
-mpele	by way of, via
-ntyele	from
-werne	to
+ke	past
+lhe	reflexive
+me	present tense
+rre/+irre	reciprocal
+tyale	negative imperative
+tye-akenhe	negative
+tyeke	purpose or intent
+tyenhe	future
Ø	imperative

Pronouns

Pronouns decline with a nominative rather than ergative alignment:

Non-skin-group-marking pronouns (Eastern/Central Arrernte)

person	number	subject	object	dative	possessive
1	singular	ayenge/the	ayenge/ayenhe	atyenge	atyenhe/atyinhe
	dual	ilerne	ilernenhe	ilerneke	ilernekenhe
	plural	anwerne	anwernenhe	anwerneke	anwernekenhe
2	singular	unte	ngenhe	ngkwenge	ngkwinhe
	dual	mpwele	mpwelenhe	mpweleke	mpwelekenhe
	plural	arrantherre	arrenhantherre	arrekantherre	arrekantherrenhe
3	singular	re	renhe	ikwere	ikwerenhe
	dual	re-atherre	renhe-atherre renhe-atherrenhe	ikwere-atherre	ikwere-atherrenhe
	plural	itne	itnenhe	itneke	itnekenhe

Body parts normally require non-possessive pronouns (inalienable possession), though younger speakers may use possessives in this case too (e.g. akaperte ayenge or akaperte atyinhe 'my head').

Sign

The Arrernte had a highly developed sign language.

Arrernte in schools

In most primary schools in Alice Springs, students (of all races and nationalities) are taught Arrernte (or in some cases Western Arrernte) as a compulsory language, often alongside the French or Indonesian languages. Additionally, most Alice Springs high schools give the option to study Arrernte language throughout high school as a separate subject, and it can also be learned at Centralian College as part of a TAFE course. Future plans are that it will be included as a university subject.

Arrernte in workplaces

Many Alice Springs workplaces require that employees learn at least basic Arrernte in order to communicate effectively with the large numbers of Arrernte people (approximately 25% of Alice Springs residents speak Arrernte as their first language^{[citation needed]}). Many workplaces offer learning of Arrernte as an option and will fund the course.

Examples

Eastern and Central Arrernte examples

Arrernte	English
werte ware	G'day, what's up? Nothing much
Unte mwerre? Ye, ayenge mwerre	Are you alright? Yes, I'm alright
Urreke aretyenhenge Kele aretyenhenge	See you later OK, See you later

Cultural references

Peter Sculthorpe's music theatre work Rites of Passage (1972–73) is written partly in Arrernte and partly in Latin. Western and Southern Arrernte were also used in parts of the libretto for Andrew Schultz' and Gordon Williams' Journey to Horseshoe Bend, based on the novel by T.G.H. Strehlow.

References

• Breen, Gavan (2000). Introductory Dictionary of Western Arrernte. Alice Springs: IAD Press. ISBN 0949659983. 

• Breen, Gavan (2001). "The wonders of Arandic phonology". In Simpson, Jane, Nash, David, Laughren, Mary, Austin, Peter & Alpher, Barry. Forty Years On: Ken Hale and Australian Languages. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. pp. 45–69. 
• Breen, Gavan; Dobson, Veronica (2005). "Illustrations of the IPA: Central Arrernte". Journal of the International Phonetic Association 35 (2): 249–254. doi:10.1017/S0025100305002185. 
• Breen, Gavan; Rob Pensalfini (1999). "Arrernte: A Language with No Syllable Onsets". Linguistic Inquiry 30 (1): 1. doi:10.1162/002438999553940. 
• Dixon, R. M. W. (2002). Australian Languages: Their Nature and Development. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521473780. http://www.cambridge.org/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=0521473780. 

• Green, Jenny (1994(2005?)). A learner's guide to Eastern and Central Arrernte. Alice Springs: IAD Press. ISBN 1864650818. 

• Henderson, John (1988). Topics in Eastern and Central Arrernte grammar. PhD dissertation. University of Western Australia. 
• Henderson, John; Veronica Dobson (1994). Eastern and Central Arrernte to English Dictionary. Alice Springs: IAD Press. ISBN 0949659746. 
• Henderson, John (2003). "The word in Eastern/Central Arrernte". In R. M. W. Dixon and Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald. Word: A Cross-Linguistic Typology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 100–124. 
• Ladefoged, Peter; Ian Maddieson (1996). The Sounds of the World's Languages. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers Ltd. ISBN 0631198156. 
• Mathews, R. H. (Oct.–Dec. 1907). "The Arran'da Language, Central Australia". Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 46 (187): 322–339. 
• Strehlow, T. G. H. (1944). Aranda phonetics and grammar. Sydney: Oceania Monographs. 
• Wilkins, David P. (1988). "Switch-reference in Mparntwe Arrernte (Aranda): form, function, and problems of identity". In Austin, P. K.. Complex sentence constructions in Australian languages. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. pp. 141–176. 
• Wilkins, David P. (1989). Mparntwe Arrernte (Aranda): studies in the structure and semantics of grammar. PhD dissertation, Australian National University. 
• Wilkins, David P. (1991). "The semantics, pragmatics and diachronic development of "associated motion" in Mparntwe Arrente". Buffalo Working Papers in Linguistics 91: 207–257. 
• Yallop, C. (1977). Alyawarra, an Aboriginal language of central Australia. Canberra: Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies. ISBN 0855750626. 

External links

• Omniglot.com
• Dictionary
• Language
• Keeping The Aboriginal Language Strong
• Words
• amx, aly, adg, aer, are at Ethnologue (16th ed., 2009)
• Arrernte language at LINGUIST List, Arrernte language at LINGUIST List, Arrernte language at LINGUIST List, Arrernte language at LINGUIST List, Arrernte language at LINGUIST List