Languages and Language Families
Based on short wordlists, it appears that there were anywhere from five to sixteen languages on Tasmania, related to each other in perhaps four language families. There are historical records as well that indicate the languages were not mutually intelligible, and that a lingua franca was necessary for communication after resettlement on Flinders' Island. J.B. Walker, who visited the island in 1832 and 1834, reported that,
Robert Clark, the catechist, states that on his arrival at the Flinders' Settlement in 1834, eight or ten different languages or dialects were spoken amongst the 200 natives then at the establishment, and that the blacks were 'instructing each other to speak their respective tongues'. —JB Walker (1898:179)Reports from the subsequent settlement at Oyster Cove were similar:
The Aboriginal dialects made it difficult for the members of one family to understand that of another; "now however they all seem to have merged into one" —Lennox (1984:60)Schmidt (1952) distinguished five languages in the word lists:
- Eastern Tasmanian languages
- North-East
- East: East Central (Oyster Bay), South-East
- Western Tasmanian languages
- North Coast
- West Coast
The Eastern languages seem to share a common vocabulary, and use the nominal particle na. The Western languages use leā instead of na.
Read more about this topic: Tasmanian Languages
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