AUSTRALIAN LANGUAGES

Rembarnga, a language of central Arnhem Land Graham R. McKay Edith Cowan University RMW Dixon (series ed.) Rembarrnga is polysynthetic Aboriginal language of central Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory of Australia. It is one of the ‘prefixing’ languages of northern Australia, having both prefixes and suffixes, and has been classified as a Gunwinyguan language. Verb morphology is complex, with the verb word able to constitute a sentence on its own and frequently doing so. The incorporation of nouns and other elements into the verb is a prominent feature of this verb complexity. The approach taken in this grammar of the language is primarily descriptive, drawing on a variety of theories of its time for different aspects of the description, but largely using traditional grammatical terminology to maximise the work’s usefulness to linguists with various theoretical backgrounds and to people with practical aims in view such as school programs, literacy work or language learning. Areas of particular focus in this description are: medial geminate consonants; syllabic glottal stops; pronoun categories, including first person inclusive and its number implications; morphology, including noun incorporation into the verb; and syntax, especially a generalised subordinate clause construction. The work features extensive exemplification and some short texts, plus a list of botanical species names. ISBN 9783862880898. Outstanding grammars from Australia 05. 406pp. 2011. Grammar and Texts of the Yugambeh-Bundjalung dialect chain in Eastern Australia Margaret Sharpe The University of New England The Yugambeh-Bandjalang chain of dialects (most now either extinct or having only limited use) stretches from some 16 km south of Brisbane to north of Yamba on the mouth of the Clarence River in New South Wales, and inland almost to Tenterfield (NSW) and past Warwick (Qld). It is a member of the Pama-Nyungan family of Australian languages. Dialect names (which include Yugambeh, Bandjalang and Gidhabal) were mostly named for the way some words were pronounced, the named being assigned sometimes by the group in question and sometimes by their neighbours. Reasonably uncommon among Australian languages there are fricative allophonic variations in the four obstruents (written b, d, j/dh/dj, g/k in practical orthographies); word medially /d/ and /j/ collapse together to an interdental fricative, an alveopalatal stop or a sibilant fricative according to dialect. The language is ergative; however pronouns and nouns for large animate creatures also have accusative inflection. There are or were four genders, masculine and feminine applying to humans, arboreal to trees, and neuter to everything else. There are no bound pronouns, and the language is aspect prominent, with a number of orders of verbal suffixes including one for antipassivity/reflexivity. Up to about 14 common verbs are irregular to a lesser or greater degree, but all other inflections of verbs and nouns followed predictable patterns. ISBN 9783895867842. Languages of the World/Materials 370. 194pp. 2005. Topics in Eastern and Central Arrernte Grammar John Henderson University of Western Australia RMW Dixon (series ed.) Eastern/Central Arrernte is a range of closely-related dialects spoken in an area around and including Alice Springs in the Northern Territory of Australia. It can be considered one of the strongest Australian Indigenous languages, with an estimated 2,000 speakers and continuing transmission to children. Nonetheless, Arrernte is under pressure and must be considered endangered. There are four areas of particular focus in this work. The focus on segmental phonology reviews and extends modern analyses of the vowel system, and in the consonant system presents instrumental articulatory evidence on the contrast between alveolar and post-alveolar phonological categories. Three fundamental aspects of the morphological structure are presented, primarily in relation to verbs. A range of complex verb types is distinguished, including an analysis of variation in which a single verb may alternatively constitute either a single word or more than one word. Prosodic units are shown to play an important role in a rich variety of morphological processes which include suffix allomorphy, reduplication, compounding and verb splitting. The final area of focus is verbal and deverbal derivation. The approach throughout is basically descriptive. Numerous natural language examples are provided. ISBN 9783862884261. Outstanding grammars from Australia 12. 450pp. 2013.