Thalanji

Peter Austin, SOAS

Project Summary:

Thalanji is an Australian Aboriginal language traditionally spoken along the Ashburton River in the north-west of Western Australia. Today it continues to be spoken by an extended family living in the town of Onslow and has perhaps a dozen fluent speakers.

Peter Austin studied Thalanji with speakers in Western Australia between 1978 and 1994 and has published a small bilingual dictionary of the language. He is currently preparing a larger comprehensive comparative dictionary of Thalanji and its neighbouring related languages: Payungu, Purduna and Pinikura.

Ongoing project description:

The Wangka Maya Pilbara Aboriginal Language Centre in Onslow has done some work on Thalanji.