A Linguistic Description of Lockhart River Creole Joanna Ewa Mittag Master in Applied Linguistics – University of New England, Armidale NSW Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics – University of New England, Armidale, NSW Bachelor of Arts – Charter Oak State College, New Britain, CT, USA A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of the University of New England November 2016 I Acknowledgements I would like to thank Professor Jeff Siegel and Dr Mark Post for their supervision of the work outlined in the present study. I am very grateful for their very detailed feedback which has been instrumental in the process of writing this thesis. I would also like to thank Dr Margaret Sharpe, Professor Diana Eades, and Professor Nick Reid of the Linguistics Department at the University of New England for their advice on conducting research in Aboriginal communities in Australia. My special thanks and words of gratitude are directed to the members of the Lockhart River Aboriginal Shire Council, namely, Mayor Wayne Butcher, Deputy Mayor Norman Bally, Veronica Piva, Paul Piva, and Dorothy Hobson, for granting their permission for me to undertake my project in their community. This study could not have been completed without the assistance of many people in the Lockhart River Aboriginal Community, as well as the Lockhart River People residing in Cairns, North Queensland. In particular I thank Patrick Butcher, Josiah Omeenyo, Irene Namok, Dorothy Short, Elizabeth “Queenie” Giblet, Susan Pascoe, Lucy Hobson, Greg Omeenyo, Beverley Butcher, Beverley Pascoe, Nullam Clark, Christina Hobson, Margaret Hobson, Emily Pascoe, John Butcher, Priscilla Mattisey, Marjorie Accoom, Leila Clarmont, Brain Claudie, and Beatrice Mary Hobson who shared their knowledge of Lockhart River and their language with me. I would also like to thank the Staff at the Lockhart River Art Centre, and particularly Peter Neal, for introducing me to a number of the Lockhart River artists, for allowing me to use the premises of the Art Centre to record people and conduct my research, for offering advice and showing interest in my work, and for accommodating me in any way possible. Special thanks go to Clair Hill and David Thompson who not only provided me with invaluable advice on Lockhart River and its People, but who also personally introduced me to the Lockhart River Community, when they invited me to join them ii on their trip there in July 2013. I would also like to thank David Thompson and his wife Margaret for allowing me to stay at their place in June 2014 and for introducing me to the community of the Lockhart River People residing in Cairns. Words of gratitude go to Professor Bruce Rigsby who not only got me in touch with both Clair Hill and David Thompson, but also shared his own invaluable data with me and invited me to visit him and his wife Barbara in Brisbane. Professor Athol Chase, whom I met during my trip to Brisbane, also shared his time and knowledge of Lockhart River and its People with me. I would like to extend my thanks to Denise Angelo and Jennifer Munro who shared their knowledge with me and offered many words of encouragement to pursue the research project outlined in this thesis. I wish to also thank the library staff at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) in Canberra for their assistance with locating sources relevant to my research project. I thank the staff at Dixson Library at the University of New England for promptly providing me with the requested materials. iii Abstract Lockhart River Creole (LRC) is an English-based contact variety spoken in the Lockhart River Aboriginal Community located on Cape York Peninsula approximately 780km north of Cairns. Considering that LRC has not been previously studied, analysed, and described, the focus of the present study is to provide its linguistic description, design an orthographical system allowing for the language to be used in the written form, ascertain if LRC is a creole or a variety of Aboriginal English, establish similarities and differences between LRC and other contact varieties spoken in the Pacific basin, and determine the scope of the influence of the two substrate languages, namely, Kuuku Ya’u and Umpila. While Chapter 1 provides information on the Lockhart River area and its linguistic configuration, theoretical background, language data and methodology, as well as sources consulted for the purpose of the present project, Chapter 2 constitutes a detailed description of historical factors that contributed to the emergence and development of LRC. Chapter 3 examines segmental phonemes of LRC, namely, consonants, vowels, and diphthongs, as well as variation and phonotactics, i.e. syllable structure, in addition to such suprasegmental features as vowel length, stress, and intonation. Furthermore, Chapter 3 also discusses the proposed phonemically-based orthographical system. In addition to morphological processes, Chapter 4 explores the LRC word classes, namely, nouns, pronouns, determiners, quantifiers, adjectives, prepositions, verbs, adverbs, conjunctions, and interjections. Chapter 5 discusses the noun phrase, including both simple and complex NPs, as well as pronominal NPs, and prepositional phrases. This is followed by the presentation of the word and phrase coordination. In addition to the coordination of verbs and verb phrases, Chapter 6 investigates the verb phrase, including bare, intransitive, transitive, ditransitive, and complex head verbs. This is then followed by the examination of oblique complements, serial verb constructions, prepositional phrases and adverbs within the verb phrase. Chapter 7, which is devoted to simple sentences, provides an overview of the five types of predicates, the predicate constituents, sentences with and without the subject, as well as declarative sentences, including negative markers, and interrogative sentences, both ‘yes-no’ and iv information questions. Chapter 8 presents complex sentences and discusses complement and adverbial clauses, relative clauses, left dislocation, as well as the coordination and subordination of complex sentences. Chapter 9 examines the LRC vocabulary, as well as emphatic and discourse markers. Concluding remarks are provided in Chapter 10. Each chapter contains original and substantial information pertinent to the linguistic description of LRC. Furthermore, numerous comparisons of many LRC features with their equivalents in other contact varieties, namely, Australian Kriol, Torres Strait Creole, Solomon Islands Pijin, Vanuatu Bislama, and Papua New Guinea Tok Pisin, are provided throughout this thesis. v I certify that the substance of this thesis has not already been submitted for any degree and is not currently being submitted for any other degree or qualification. I certify that any help received in preparing this thesis and all sources used have been acknowledged in this thesis. Signature vi Table of Contents Acknowledgements…………………………………………………………………...i Abstract…………………………………………………………………………….. iii Certification………………………………………………………………………….v Table of Contents…………………………………………………………………...vi List of Tables……………………………………………………………………...xvii List of Figures……………………………………………………………………...xix List of Abbreviations………………………………………………………………..xx Chapter 1 Introduction……………………………………………………………….1 1.1 Lockhart River…………………………………………………………...2 1.2 Linguistic Configuration of Lockhart River……………………………..6 1.3 Theoretical Background………………………………………………….9 1.4 Language Data and Methodology………………………………………16 1.5 Sources………………………………………………………………….20 1.6 Organisation of the Thesis……………………………………………...20 1.7 Conclusion………………………………………………………………22 Chapter 2 Historical Background…………………………………………………...24 2.1 Pre-European Contact…………………………………………………..24 2.2 Increased Contact with Outsiders……………………………………….25 2.3 LR Anglican Mission During Pre-WWII Times………………………..29 2.4 World War II and the Post-War Times…………………………………33 2.5 Post-Mission Times at LR………………………………………………36 2.6 The Emergence and Development of LRC……………………………..37 2.7 Conclusion………………………………………………………………52 Chapter 3 Phonology………………………………………………………………..53 3.1 Segmental Phonemes…………………………………………………...53 3.1.1 Consonants……………………………………………………….53 3.1.1.1 Description and Distribution of Consonants…………….54 3.1.1.1.1 Voiceless Stops…………………………..........54 vii 3.1.1.1.2 Voiced Stops…………………………………..57 3.1.1.1.3 Nasals………………………………………….58 3.1.1.1.4 Voiceless Fricatives…………………………...60 3.1.1.1.5 Voiced Fricatives……………………………...62 3.1.1.1.6 Voiceless Palato-Alveolar Affricate /tʃ/……….64 3.1.1.1.7 Voiced Palato-Alveolar Affricate /dʒ/…….......64 3.1.1.1.8 Apico-Alveolar Lateral /l/……………………..65 3.1.1.1.9 Voiced Apico-Alveolar Rhotic /r/……………..65 3.1.1.1.10 Voiced Lamino-Palatal Semivowel (Glide) /j/.66 3.1.1.1.11 Voiced Labiovelar Semivowel (Glide) /w/…..66 3.1.1.1.12 Glottal Stop /ʔ/ (Marginal Phoneme)………...67 3.1.2 Vowels ……………………………………………………………67 3.1.2.1 Description and Distribution of Vowels…………………67 3.1.2.1.1 Short Front Vowels…………………………….68 3.1.2.1.2 Central Vowels…………………………………69 3.1.2.1.3 Back Vowels…………………………………...70 3.1.2.1.4 Long Vowels…………………………………...71 3.1.3 Diphthongs……………………………………………………….71 3.1.3.1 Description and Distribution of Diphthongs…………….72 3.2 Orthography…………………………………………………………….73 3.3 Variation………………………………………………………………...74 3.4 Phonotactics…………………………………………………………….80 3.4.1 Variation within Syllables………………………………………..81 3.4.2 Consonant Clusters within a Single Syllable…………………….82 3.4.2.1 Onsets……………………………………………………83 3.4.2.2 Codas…………………………………………………….83