{"id":670,"date":"2010-05-19T22:00:15","date_gmt":"2010-05-19T20:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/elanguage.net\/blogs\/booknotices\/?p=670"},"modified":"2010-05-11T12:21:31","modified_gmt":"2010-05-11T10:21:31","slug":"the-non-pama-nyungan-languages-of-northern-australia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/?p=670","title":{"rendered":"The Non-Pama-Nyungan languages of Northern Australia"},"content":{"rendered":"
The Non-Pama-Nyungan languages of Northern Australia<\/strong>: Comparative studies of the continent\u2019s most linguistically complex region. Ed. by Nicholas Evans<\/strong>. (Pacific linguistics 552.) Canberra: Pacific Linguistics, 2003. Pp. X, 513. ISBN 085883538X<\/a>. $83.38.<\/div>\n

Reviewed by Harald Hammarstr\u00f6m<\/a><\/strong>, Chalmers University<\/em><\/p>\n

The present volume is a collection of sixteen papers mainly stemming from a conference in 1989. Its appearance now, however, is very welcome given the renewed controversy over the applicability of the comparative method and the genetic relations of Australia\u2019s languages. The volume concerns only non-Pama-Nyungan\u2014the continent\u2019s least known and linguistically most diverse set of languages\u2014but not every non-Pama-Nyungan group is given detailed treatment.<\/p>\n

The introductory chapter by the editor covers history, summarizes the contributions in the present volume, enumerates non-Pama-Nyungan groups not featured in the volume, and hints at the future, namely, the possibility of proving the bulk of non-Pama-Nyungan as a genetic unit based on pronouns resemblances. Subsequent chapters are family or subgroup surveys of varying depth. For example, diachronic typology of head-marking in Jarragan is discussed by McConvell; Southern Daly is demonstrated through articles by I. Green and Reid; Eastern Daly is demonstrated by Harvey (verb systems and object enclitics); and Garrwa and Wanyi are separate but genetically related languages as shown by Breen (with an update by Belfrage).<\/p>\n

Nyulnyulan is demonstrated by Stokes and McGregor using the comparative method and lexicostatistics, though here one is left with some questions since the authors choose to call it a family-like unit (the meaning of this vs. \u2019family\u2019 or \u2019genetic unit\u2019 is never explained) despite their clear application of the comparative method. Also, illogically they argue (60) that lexicostatistic evidence is admissible if and only if it confirms the conclusions from the application of the comparative method (and if so, the conclusions reached from the comparative method are said to be strengthened!).<\/p>\n

In my opinion, the biggest contributions are the demonstration of an extended Gunwinyguan family (also with an evidence-backed subgrouping) through a first proto-phonology by Harvey, and evidence from verb morphology by Harvey, Alpher, Evans, Merlan, and R. Green. Whereas Alpher, Evans, and Harvey want to include Mangarrayi on the counts of verbal morphology, Merlan convincingly argues that evidence from nominal prefixation gives precedence to an inclusion in Jeff Heath\u2019s Maran (aka Marra-Alawa) family.<\/p>\n

Finally, there is a chapter by Harvey on the tentative reconstruction of pronominals for a hypothetical proto non-Pama-Nyungan language spanning most but not all non-Pama-Nyungan languages.<\/p>\n

All articles show a very high level of awareness of the problem of distinguishing diffusion vs. inheritance in historical linguistics. They also cite unpublished descriptive materials\u2014not fieldnotes, AIATSIS documents, or soon-to-be-published drafts, but extensive typed-up grammar sketches and dictionaries that have apparently been circulated for ages among the initiated. It would be more beneficial if they were somehow made available (in whatever form). Sadly, this situation is seen in linguistic typology all too often. Indeed, if something is worth citing, it is foul play to fail to allow the whole scientific community to learn from it.<\/p>\n

With its wealth of detailed, otherwise hard-to-find data this book is a must for researchers in Australian linguistics. It is also very valuable for those interested in historical\/areal typology since most of the book discusses grammatical rather than lexical forms. World linguists will appreciate the hard evidence for genetic groupings of non-Pama-Nyungan languages, though it is sometimes a tough read for the nonexpert. The articles freely mention well-established families in the same manner as premature groupings (proto-Arnhem Land, proto-non-Pama-Nyungan, proto-Australian, family-level isolate (a lexicostatistics term), Gunwinyguan with\/without Anindilyakwa, etc.) so one has to keep track of the evidence oneself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Non-Pama-Nyungan languages of Northern Australia: Comparative studies of the continent\u2019s most linguistically complex region. Ed. by Nicholas Evans. (Pacific linguistics 552.) Canberra: Pacific Linguistics, 2003. Pp. X, 513. ISBN 085883538X. $83.38. Reviewed by Harald Hammarstr\u00f6m, Chalmers University The present volume is a collection of sixteen papers mainly stemming from a conference in 1989. Its […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=670"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":671,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670\/revisions\/671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}