Lismore CBD Magazine | August Issue Vol. 1 No. 2

The Kaiadilt are an Aboriginal A u s t r a l i a n p e o p l e o f t h e South Wellesley group in the Gulf of

Carpentaria, Queensland,A u s t r a l i a . T h e y a r e n a t i v e t o

Bentinck Island, but also maden o m a d i c f i s h i n g a n d h u n t i n g f o r a y st o b o t h Sweers and Allen Islands.

M o s t K a i a d i l t p e o p l e n o w l i v e o n Mornington Island, although one g r o u p h a s r e t u r n e d t o Bentinck

Island. Sally Gaboori (Image) isf r o m t h e Lardil people.

ABORIGINAL LINGUIST NICHOLAS EVANS

▷

about 40 percent of the world’s 7,000 languages are at risk of vanishing

◁

Linguist Nicholas Evans had heard the Kaiadilt people, anAboriginal group in Northern Australia, utter “malji” onthe beach many times.

Prof Nicholas EvansD i s t i n g u i s h e d P r o f e s s o r ,

D e p a r t m e n t o f Linguistics, School

o f Culture, History & Language;

ARC Laureate Fellow; Director,A R C C e n t r e o f E x c e l l e n c e f o r t h eD y n a m i c s o f L a n g u a g e , S c h o o l o f

C u l t u r e , H i s t o r y & L a n g u a g e

He knew the term meant “schools of mullet” and “holes of a fishing net,” but they would say it even when pointing at empty water.

It wasn’t until he saw a local artist’s painting of malji—a blue canvas covered in pink and red eyelets—that he realized the word also described the bubbles of light that indicate where the catch might be.

A s w i t h m a n y s m a l l , r e m o t e c u l t u r e s , t h e K a i a d i l t ’ s n a t i v e K a y a r d i l d v o c a b u l a r y g o t m u f f l e d b y E u r o p e a n s a n d m i s s i o n a r y t e a c h i n g s . I n m o d e r n h i s t o r y , t h e t o n g u e ’ s n e v e r h a d m o r e t h a n a f e w h u n d r e d s p e a k e r s . T o d a y , a c c o r d i n g t o U N E S C O , a b o u t 4 0 p e r c e n t o f t h e w o r l d ’ s 7 , 0 0 0 l a n g u a g e s a r e a t r i s k o f v a n i s h i n g i n t h e n e x t c e n t u r y o r t w o .

Losing them means letting go of ancient knowledge about little-known places embedded within the words—and gleaned from multigenerational observations.

“ E a c h l a n g u a g e h o l d s c l u e s t h a t h e l p u s u n d e r s t a n d a l lp e o p l e , b u t y o u d o n ’ t k n o w u n t i l y o u l o o k , ” s a y s E v a n s , w h o ’ s

a l s o a p r o f e s s o r a t A u s t r a l i a n N a t i o n a l U n i v e r s i t y .

CBD

LISMORE

MAGAZINE

Dying Words Endangered Languages and What They Have to Tell Us By: Nicholas Evans

A U G U S T 2 0 2 1 I S S U E

www.popsci.com/story/science/why-save-dying-languages/

PAGE 4