The documentation of Gurindji Kriol, an Australian mixed language

Felicity Meakins, University of Manchester

Project Details:

Individual Postgraduate Fellowship. Duration: 2008-2010. £94,667

Project Summary:

Gurindji Kriol (GK) is an endangered mixed language (ML) spoken in Australia. It fuses Gurindji (Pama-Nyungan), with Kriol (English-lexifier) to create a unique system. GK is an important language to younger Gurindji people, entailing both modern and traditional Aboriginal ideologies. It is also significant linguistically, displaying a rarely observed mixed structure. GK provides a unique opportunity to document a ML. MLs often represent a prolonged stage of language change which precedes language shift. Thus the existence of MLs often goes by unobserved. In the case of GK, documentation is urgently required, with Kriol finding increasing currency with Gurindji teenagers.