Arrernte language

Upper Arrernte
Upper Arrernte
Region	Northern Territory, Australia
Ethnicity	Aranda people
Native speakers	4,000 (2005) to 5,500 (2006 census)
Language family	Pama–Nyungan Arandic Arrernte Upper Arrernte
Writing system	Latin
Signed forms	Aranda Sign Language
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Variously: amx – Anmatjirra aly – Alyawarr adg – Antekerrepenhe aer – Eastern Arrernte are – Western Arrernte axe – Ayerrerenge
Glottolog	aran1263
AIATSIS	C8 Arrernte, C14 Alyawarr, C8.1 Anmatyerre, C12 Antekerrepenh, G12 Ayerrerenge, C28* Akarre
ELP	Eastern and Central Arrernte Antekerrepenh

Arrernte or Aranda (/ˈærəndə/; Aboriginal pronunciation: [arəⁿɖə]) or more specifically Upper Arrernte (Upper Aranda), is a dialect cluster spoken in and around Alice Springs (Mparntwe in Arrernte) in the Northern Territory, Australia. The name is sometimes spelled Arunta or Arrarnta.

Varieties

Artist Albert Namatjira was a Western Arrernte man.

The varieties are as follows:

• Alyawarr (Alyawarra), spoken by the Alyawarre
• Anmatjirra (Anmatyerre)
• Antekerrepenhe (Andegerebinha)
• Ayerrerenge (Ayerreyenge)
• Eastern Arrernte (Ikngerripenhe) and Central Arrernte (Mparntwe Arrernte; east of Alice Springs)
• Western Arrernte (Akarre, Tyuretye Arrernte, Arrernte Alturlerenj; west of Alice Springs)

A Southern Arrernte (Pertame) is listed by Dixon, but not by Bowern, who also lumps together Central and Eastern.

There is much debate on whether these are dialects of an Arrernte language, or separate languages, both among linguists and among the Arrernte people themselves. Lower Arrernte, however, is clearly distinct.

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	ᵗn̪ ᵗn̪ʷ	ᵗn ᵗnʷ	ᵗɳ ᵗɳʷ
Prenasalized stop	ᵐb ᵐbʷ	ᵑɡ ᵑɡʷ		ᶮɟ ᶮɟʷ	ⁿd̪ ⁿd̪ʷ	ⁿd ⁿdʷ	ⁿɖ ⁿɖʷ
Lateral Approximant				ʎ ʎʷ	l̪ l̪ʷ	l lʷ	ɭ ɭʷ
Approximant		ɰ~ʁ w		j jʷ			ɻ ɻʷ
Tap						ɾ ɾʷ

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

Stops are unaspirated. Prenasalized stops are voiced throughout; prestopped nasals are voiceless during the stop. These sounds arose as normal consonant clusters; Ladefoged states that they now occur initially, where consonant clusters are otherwise forbidden, due to historical loss of initial vowels; however, it has also been argued that such words start with a phonemic schwa, which may not be pronounced (see below).

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 labialised 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 realised 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 that appear 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 Prenasalized stop mp mpw ngk ngkw nty ntyw nth nthw nt ntw rnt rntw 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

Kai Kai Western Arrernte, likely a speaker of Upper Arrernte; c. 1900.

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 language

The Arrernte have a highly developed sign language.

Arrernte in school

Hut of the Eastern Arrernte Basedow, Eastern Arrernte people, Arltunga district, Northern Territory; August 1920.

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 the workplace

Many Alice Springs workplaces require that employees learn at least basic Arrernte to communicate effectively with the large numbers of Arrernte people. 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 0-949659-98-3. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Breen, Gavan (2001). "The wonders of Arandic phonology". In Simpson, Jane; Nash, David; Laughren, Mary; Austin, Peter; Alpher, Barry (eds.). Forty Years On: Ken Hale and Australian Languages. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. pp. 45–69. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• 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. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Breen, Gavan; Pensalfini, Rob (1999). "Arrernte: A Language with No Syllable Onsets". Linguistic Inquiry. 30 (1): 1–25. doi:10.1162/002438999553940. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Dixon, R. M. W. (2002). Australian Languages: Their Nature and Development. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-47378-0. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Green, Jenny (2005). A learner's guide to Eastern and Central Arrernte. Alice Springs: IAD Press. ISBN 1-86465-081-8. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Henderson, John (1988). Topics in Eastern and Central Arrernte grammar. PhD dissertation. University of Western Australia. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Henderson, John; Veronica Dobson (1994). Eastern and Central Arrernte to English Dictionary. Alice Springs: IAD Press. ISBN 0-949659-74-6. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Henderson, John (2003). "The word in Eastern/Central Arrernte". In R. M. W. Dixon; Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald (eds.). Word: A Cross-Linguistic Typology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 100–124. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Ladefoged, Peter; Ian Maddieson (1996). The Sounds of the World's Languages. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers Ltd. ISBN 0-631-19815-6. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Mathews, R. H. (October–December 1907). "The Arran'da Language, Central Australia". Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. 46 (187): 322–339. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Strehlow, T. G. H. (1944). Aranda phonetics and grammar. Sydney: Oceania Monographs. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Wilkins, David P. (1988). "Switch-reference in Mparntwe Arrernte (Aranda): form, function, and problems of identity". In Austin, P. K. (ed.). Complex sentence constructions in Australian languages. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. pp. 141–176. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Wilkins, David P. (1989). Mparntwe Arrernte (Aranda): studies in the structure and semantics of grammar. PhD dissertation, Australian National University. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Wilkins, David P. (1991). "The semantics, pragmatics and diachronic development of "associated motion" in Mparntwe Arrente". Buffalo Working Papers in Linguistics. 91: 207–257. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Yallop, C. (1977). Alyawarra, an Aboriginal language of central Australia. Canberra: Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies. ISBN 0-85575-062-6. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

External links

• Omniglot.com
• Language
• Keeping The Aboriginal Language Strong
• Words
• Central Land Council
• Bibliographies of published, rare or special materials on Arrernte language and people, at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
• PARADISEC open-access collection of Eastern Arrernte recordings