Arrernte language explained

Arrernte language should not be confused with Lower Arrernte language.

Upper Arrernte
Nativename:	Arrernte
Region:	Northern Territory, Australia
Ethnicity:	Arrernte people, Alyawarre, Anmatyerre, Ayerrereng, Yuruwinga
Date:	2021 census
Ref:	^[1]
Familycolor:	Australian
Fam1:	Pama–Nyungan
Fam2:	Arandic
Fam3:	Arrernte
Sign:	Arrernte Sign Language
Script:	Latin
Lc1:	amx
Ld1:	Anmatjirra
Lc2:	aly
Ld2:	Alyawarr
Lc3:	adg
Ld3:	Antekerrepenhe
Lc4:	aer
Ld4:	Eastern Arrernte
Lc5:	are
Ld5:	Western Arrernte
Lc6:	axe
Ld6:	Ayerrerenge
Aiatsis:	C8
Aiatsisname:	Arrernte
Aiatsis2:	C14
Aiatsisname2:	Alyawarr
Aiatsis3:	C8.1
Aiatsisname3:	Anmatyerre
Aiatsis4:	C12
Aiatsisname4:	Antekerrepenh
Aiatsis5:	G12
Aiatsisname5:	Ayerrerenge
Aiatsis6:	C28
Aiatsisname6:	Akarre
Glotto:	aran1263
Glottorefname:	Aranda
Notice:	IPA
Map:	Arandic languages.png
Mapcaption:	Where Arandic is spoken
Map2:	Lang Status 80-VU.svg

Arrernte or Aranda (;^[2] pronounced as /aer/), or sometimes referred to as Upper Arrernte (Upper Aranda), is a dialect cluster in the Arandic language group spoken in parts of the Northern Territory, Australia, by the Arrernte people. Other spelling variations are Arunta or Arrarnta, and all of the dialects have multiple other names.

There are about 1,800 speakers of Eastern/Central Arrernte, making this dialect one of the widest spoken of any Indigenous language in Australia, the one usually referred to as Arrernte and the one described in detail below. It is spoken in the Alice Springs area and taught in schools and universities, heard in media and used in local government.

The second biggest dialect in the group is Alyawarre. Some of the other dialects are spoken by very few people, leading to efforts to revive their usage; others are now completely extinct.

Arrernte/Aranda dialects

"Aranda" is a simplified, Australian English approximation of the traditional pronunciation of the name of Arrernte pronounced as /aus/.

Glottolog defines the Arandic group of languages/dialects as comprising 5 Aranda (Arrernte) dialects, plus two distinct languages, Kaytetye (Koch, 2004) and Lower Southern (or just Lower) Aranda, an extinct language.^[3] Ethnologue defines 8 Arandic languages and classifies them slightly differently.^[4]

Two dialects are more widely spoken than any of the others:

• Eastern Arrernte (also known as Central Arrernte) dialects include Akarre, Antekerrepenh, Ikngerripenhe, Mparntwe Arrernte.^[5] Spoken in the Alice Springs area and others, there were 1,910 speakers in the 2016 census,^[6] making it the most widely spoken Arrernte, and Australian Aboriginal, language. This is the dialect most often referred to as "Arrernte" and the strongest of all in the group. There is a project encouraging its use, Apmere angkentye-kenhe,^[7]
• Alyawarra dialect is spoken by the Alyawarra people, in the Sandover and Tennant Creek areas as well as Queensland. In 2016 there were 1,550 speakers of the language, giving it a status of "Developing".^[8] It is similar to Western Arrernte. (Kaytetye is related to this dialect, but is classed as a separate language.^[9])

All of the other dialects are either threatened or extinct:

• Andegerebinha (or Antekerrepenhe or Ayerrerenge) was spoken in the Hay River area (east of Alice Springs), but is now extinct.^[10]
  • Ayerrerenge, (also known as Yuruwinga, Bularnu and other variations) was spoken by the Yuruwinga/Yaroinga people^[11] is the north-easternmost member of the Arrernte group of languages, and the least studied.^[9] It was spoken across the Queensland border in the Headingly, Urandangi, Lake Nash, Barkly Downs and Mount Isa areas, and near Mount Hogarth, Bathurst,^[12] and

Argadargada^[13] in the NT.^[14] It is now extinct.^[14] Breen (2001) says that the language was regarded as the same or similar to Andegerebinha/Antekerrepenhe by some speakers,^[9] and Glottolog regards it as a dialect of it.^[10]

• Anmatyerr (also spelt Anmatyerre and other variations), divided into Eastern and Western, is spoken by the Anmatyerr (or Anmatjirra) people.^[15] The Eastern form seems more closely related to Eastern Arrernte and Southern Alywarre than Western Anmatyerre, which is noticeably different phonetically from other Arandic languages.^[9] it is spoken in the Mount Allan and northwest Alice Springs regions. With only 640 speakers in the 2016 census, it is regarded as threatened.^[16]
• Western Arrarnta (Western Arrernte, Western Aranda, Akara, Southern Aranda, possible sub-dialect Akerre^[17]), spoken west of Alice Springs, is nearly extinct, being only spoken by 440 people in 2016.^[18] Other terms are Tyuretye Arrernte and Arrernte Alturlerenj. Breen distinguishes Tyurretye Arrernte (which he initially called Mbunghara) from Western Arrernte, saying that two speakers first recorded, from the Standley Chasm and Mbunghara, was not known until the mid-1980s, and that it may have been the "real" Western Arrernte, before the latter was mixed with Southern Arrernte (Pertame) at the Hermannsburg Mission. Anna Kenny has noted that the people of the Upper Finke River prefer their language to be known as Western Aranda.^[19] This dialect has similarities with Alyawarre and Kaytetye.

Sign language

The Arrernte also have a highly developed Arrernte sign language, also known as Iltyeme-iltyeme.

There is also an Anmatyerr sign language called iltyem-iltyem which is used by many Anmatyerr speakers to communicate non-verbally; the word iltja means 'hand, finger' and the term translates as 'signaling with hands'.^{[20] [21]} Sign language is used when Anmatyerr people when hunting, when talking to the deaf, when somebody passes away and when talking to elders.^[22]

Current usage and tuition

The Northern Territory Department of Education has a program for teaching Indigenous culture and languages, underpinned by a plan entitled Keeping Indigenous Languages and Cultures Strong – A Plan for Teaching and Learning of Indigenous Languages and Cultures in the Northern Territory with the second stage of the plan running from 2018 to 2020.

The Alice Springs Language Centre delivers language teaching at primary, middle and senior schools, offering Arrernte, Indonesian, Japanese, Spanish and Chinese.

There are two courses teaching Arrernte at tertiary level: at the Batchelor Institute and at Charles Darwin University.

There are books available in Arandic languages in the Living Archive of Aboriginal Languages.

Projects are being run to revive dying dialects of the language, such as Southern Arrernte/Pertame.

Eastern/Central Arrernte

Phonology

This description relates to Central or Eastern Arrernte.

Consonants

	Peripheral			Coronal
				Laminal		Apical
	Bilabial	Velar	Uvular	Palatal	Dental	Alveolar	Retroflex
Stop	pronounced as /ink/   pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /ink/   pronounced as /link/		pronounced as /ink/   pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /ink/   pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /ink/   pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /ink/   pronounced as /link/
Nasal	pronounced as /ink/   pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /ink/   pronounced as /link/		pronounced as /ink/   pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /ink/   pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /ink/   pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /ink/   pronounced as /link/
Prestopped nasal	pronounced as /link/   pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/   pronounced as /link/		pronounced as /link/   pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/   pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/   pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/   pronounced as /link/
Prenasalized stop	pronounced as /link/   pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/   pronounced as /link/		pronounced as /link/   pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/   pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/   pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/   pronounced as /link/
Lateral				pronounced as /ink/   pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /ink/   pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /ink/   pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /ink/   pronounced as /link/
Approximant	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/ ~ pronounced as /ink/		pronounced as /ink/   pronounced as /link/			pronounced as /ink/   pronounced as /link/
Tap						pronounced as /ink/   pronounced as /link/

pronounced as //ɰ ~ ʁ̞// is described as velar pronounced as /link/ by, and as uvular pronounced as /link/ by .

Stops are unaspirated. Prenasalized stops are voiced throughout; prestopped nasals are voiceless during the stop. These sounds arose as normal consonant clusters; Ladefoged states that they now occur initially, where consonant clusters are otherwise forbidden, due to historical loss of initial vowels; however, it has also been argued that such words start with a phonemic schwa, which may not be pronounced (see below).

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
High	(pronounced as /ink/)		(pronounced as /ink/)
Mid		pronounced as /ink/
Low		pronounced as /ink/

All dialects have at least pronounced as //ə a//.

The vowel system of Eastern/Central Arrernte is unusual in that there are only two contrastive vowel phonemes, pronounced as //a// and pronounced as //ə//. Two-vowel systems are very rare worldwide, but are also found in some Northwest Caucasian languages. It seems that the vowel system derives from an earlier one with more phonemes, but after the development of labialised consonants in the vicinity of round vowels, the vowels lost their roundedness/backness distinction, merging into just two phonemes. There is little allophonic variation in different consonantal contexts for the vowels. Instead, the phonemes can be realised by various different articulations in free variation. For example, the phoneme pronounced as //ə// can be pronounced pronounced as /[ɪ ~ e ~ ə ~ ʊ]/ in most contexts. However, it is required to be [ʊ] when phrase-initial before a labialized consonant (see below).^[23]

Phonotactics

The underlying syllable structure of Eastern/Central Arrernte is argued to be VC(C), with obligatory codas and no onsets. Underlying phrase-initial pronounced as //ə// is realised as zero, except before a rounded consonant where, by a rounding process of general applicability, it is realised as pronounced as /[ʊ]/. It is also common for phrases to carry a final pronounced as /[ə]/ corresponding to no underlying segment.

Among the evidence for this analysis is that some suffixes have suppletive variants for monosyllabic and bisyllabic bases. Stems that appear monosyllabic and begin with a consonant in fact select the bisyllabic variant. Stress falls on the first nucleus preceded by a consonant, which by this analysis can be stated more uniformly as the second underlying syllable.And the frequentative is formed by reduplicating the final VC syllable of the verb stem; it does not include the final pronounced as /[ə]/.

Orthography

Central/Eastern Arrernte orthography does not write word-initial pronounced as //ə//, and adds an e to the end of every word.

	Peripheral			Coronal
				Laminal		Apical
	Bilabial	Velar	Uvular	Palatal	Dental	Alveolar	Retroflex
Stop	p pw	k kw		ty tyw	th thw	t tw	rt rtw
Nasal	m mw	ng ngw		ny nyw	nh nhw	n nw	rn rnw
Prestopped nasal	pm pmw	kng kngw		tny tnyw	tnh/thn tnhw/thnw	tn tnw	rtn rtnw
Prenasalized stop	mp mpw	ngk ngkw		nty ntyw	nth nthw	nt ntw	rnt rntw
Lateral				ly lyw	lh lhw	l lw	rl rlw
Approximant	w	h		y yw			r rw
Tap/Trill						rr rrw

Front Central Back High (i/ey) (u/we) Mid e Low a

Grammar

Eastern and Central Arrernte has fairly free word order but tends towards SOV. It is generally ergative, but is accusative in its pronouns. Pronouns may be marked for duality and skin group.

Suffixes (Eastern/Central Arrernte)! suffix !! gloss

+aye	emphasis
+ewe	stronger emphasis
+eyewe	really strong emphasis
+ke	for
+le	actor in a sentence
+le	instrument
+le	location
+le-arlenge	together, with
+nge	from
-akerte	having
-arenye	from (origin), association
-arteke	similarity
-atheke	towards
-iperre, -ipenhe	after, from
-kenhe	belongs to
-ketye	because (bad consequence)
-kwenye	not having, without
-mpele	by way of, via
-ntyele	from
-werne	to
+ke	past
+lhe	reflexive
+me	present tense
+rre/+irre	reciprocal
+tyale	negative imperative
+tye-akenhe	negative
+tyeke	purpose or intent
+tyenhe	future
∅	imperative

Pronouns

Pronouns decline with a nominative rather than ergative alignment:

Non-skin-group-marking pronouns (Eastern/Central Arrernte)! person !! number !! subject !! object !! dative !! possessive

1	singular	ayenge/the	ayenge/ayenhe	atyenge	atyenhe/atyinhe
	dual	ilerne	ilernenhe	ilerneke	ilernekenhe
	plural	anwerne	anwernenhe	anwerneke	anwernekenhe
2	singular	unte	ngenhe	ngkwenge	ngkwinhe
	dual	mpwele	mpwelenhe	mpweleke	mpwelekenhe
	plural	arrantherre	arrenhantherre	arrekantherre	arrekantherrenhe
3	singular	re	renhe	ikwere	ikwerenhe
	dual	re-atherre	renhe-atherre renhe-atherrenhe	ikwere-atherre	ikwere-atherrenhe
	plural	itne	itnenhe	itneke	itnekenhe

Body parts normally require non-possessive pronouns (inalienable possession), though younger speakers may use possessives in this case too (e.g. akaperte ayenge or akaperte atyinhe 'my head').

Examples

Eastern and Central Arrernte examples^[24] ! Arrernte !! English

werte ware	G'day, What's new? Nothing much
Unte mwerre? Ye, ayenge mwerre	Are you alright? Yes, I'm alright
Urreke aretyenhenge Kele aretyenhenge	See you later OK, See you later

Cultural references

• Peter Sculthorpe's music theatre work Rites of Passage (1972–1973) is written partly in Arrernte and partly in Latin.
• Western and Southern Arrernte were used in parts of the libretto for Andrew Schultz' and Gordon Williams' Journey to Horseshoe Bend, based on the novel by Ted Strehlow.

Sources

• Book: Breen, Gavan . 2000 . Introductory Dictionary of Western Arrernte . Alice Springs . IAD Press . 978-0-949659-98-9.
• Book: Breen, Gavan . 2001 . The wonders of Arandic phonology . Simpson, Jane . Nash, David . Laughren, Mary . Austin, Peter . Alpher, Barry . Forty Years On: Ken Hale and Australian Languages . 45–69 . Canberra . Pacific Linguistics.
• Breen . Gavan . Dobson . Veronica . 2005 . Illustrations of the IPA: Central Arrernte . Journal of the International Phonetic Association . 35 . 2 . 249–254 . 10.1017/S0025100305002185. free .
• Breen . Gavan . Pensalfini . Rob . 1999 . Arrernte: A Language with No Syllable Onsets . Linguistic Inquiry . 30 . 1 . 10.1162/002438999553940 . 1–25. 57564955 .
• Book: Dixon, R. M. W. . R. M. W. Dixon . 2002 . Australian Languages: Their Nature and Development . Cambridge . Cambridge University Press . 978-0-521-47378-1.
• Book: Green, Jenny . 2005 . A learner's guide to Eastern and Central Arrernte . Alice Springs . IAD Press . 978-1-86465-081-5.
• Book: Henderson, John . 1988 . Topics in Eastern and Central Arrernte grammar . PhD dissertation. University of Western Australia.
• Book: Henderson, John . Veronica Dobson . 1994 . Eastern and Central Arrernte to English Dictionary . Alice Springs . IAD Press . 978-0-949659-74-3.
• Book: Henderson, John . 2003 . The word in Eastern/Central Arrernte . R. M. W. Dixon . Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald . Word: A Cross-Linguistic Typology . 100–124 . Cambridge . Cambridge University Press.
• Book: Kendon, Adam . Sign Languages of Aboriginal Australia: Cultural, Semiotic and Communicative Perspectives . 1988 . . 978-0-521-36008-1 .
• Book: Ladefoged, Peter . Ian Maddieson . 1996 . The Sounds of the World's Languages . Oxford . Blackwell Publishers Ltd . 978-0-631-19815-4.
• Web site: Lower Arrernte . Mobile Language Team . https://web.archive.org/web/20180930012019/http://www.mobilelanguageteam.com.au/languages/lower_arrernte . 30 September 2018 . 9 June 2019 . dead .
• Mathews . R. H. . R. H. Mathews . Oct–Dec 1907 . The Arran'da Language, Central Australia . Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society . 46 . 187 . 322–339.
• Web site: Northern Territory Government. Dept of Education. Indigenous Education Strategy - Issue 17: Keeping Arrernte strong. NT Government. 5 April 2018 . .
• Web site: Northern Territory Government. Dept of Education. Guidelines for the implementation of Indigenous languages and cultures programs in schools. NT Government. 2017 . .
• Web site: Pertame Project. Call for Australian languages and linguistics. 9 June 2019. 1 April 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20200401080640/https://call.batchelor.edu.au/project/pertame-southern-arrernte/. dead . .
• Web site: Schools. Alice Springs Language Centre. 10 June 2019. .
• Book: Strehlow, T. G. H. . 1944 . Aranda phonetics and grammar . Sydney . Oceania Monographs.
• News: To save a dying language. Alice Springs News Online. 23 May 2019. 9 June 2019.
• Web site: Have you ever wondered why Arrernte is spelt the way it is? . Turpin . Myfany . . August 2004 .
• Web site: ULPA search. University Languages Portal Australia . .
• Web site: LAAL. Living Archive of Aboriginal Languages. . 8 December 2019. 14 March 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20180314105952/http://laal.cdu.edu.au/. dead.
• Book: Wilkins, David P. . 1988 . Switch-reference in Mparntwe Arrernte (Aranda): form, function, and problems of identity . Austin, P. K. . Complex sentence constructions in Australian languages . 141 - 176 . Amsterdam . John Benjamins.
• Book: Wilkins, David P. . 1989 . Mparntwe Arrernte (Aranda): studies in the structure and semantics of grammar . PhD dissertation, Australian National University.
• Wilkins . David P. . 1991 . The semantics, pragmatics and diachronic development of "associated motion" in Mparntwe Arrente . Buffalo Working Papers in Linguistics . 91 . 207 - 257.
• Book: Yallop, C. . 1977 . Alyawarra, an Aboriginal language of central Australia . registration . Canberra . Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies . 978-0-85575-062-6.

Further reading

• Arrernte: Data collected on the Arrernte language (Sorosoro program for linguistic diversity, 2015)
• Arrernte (Arrernte angkentye) (Omniglot.com)
• Arrernte language - with map. (Aboriginal Art and Culture, Alice Springs)
• Gavan Breen Eastern Arrernte collection - written materials (PARADISEC open-access collection)
  • Book: Kimber, Richard. http://press-files.anu.edu.au/downloads/press/p17331/html/ch13.xhtml?referer=81&page=23. Aboriginal Placenames: Naming and re-naming the Australian landscape. Harold Koch. Luise Hercus. 9781921666087. Aboriginal History Monograph. 19. Chapter 13. Placenames of central Australia: Early European records and recent experience. 23. Australian National University. Aboriginal History Incorporated. 2009. 15 May 2019.
• Keeping The Aboriginal Language Strong (The Spoken Word)
• Published, rare items and special materials on Arrernte language and people: bibliographies of items held in the AIATSIS library
• Web site: Western Arrarnta picture dictionary . Compiled by David Roennfeldt with members of the communities of Ntaria, Ipolera, Gilbert Springs, Kulpitarra, Undarana, Red Sand Hill, Old Station and other outstations. - Version details . David. Roennfeldt. Trove .

Notes and References

1. Web site: Cultural diversity: Census. Australian Bureau of Statistics. 13 October 2022. 2021.
2. Laurie Bauer, 2007, The Linguistics Student's Handbook, Edinburgh; also
3. Web site: Glottolog. Arandic. 11 June 2019.
4. Web site: Arandic. Ethnologue. 11 June 2019.
5. Web site: Ikngerripenhe. Glottolog. 10 June 2019.
6. Web site: Eastern Arrernte. Ethnologue. 11 June 2019.
7. Web site: Home page. Apmere angkentye-kenhe. 15 June 2019.
8. Web site: Ethnologue. Alyawarr. 10 June 2019.
9. Book: Breen, Gavan. Chapter 4: The wonders of Arandic phonology. 2001. Forty years on: Ken Hale and Australian languages. Simpson. Jane. David. Nash. Mary. Laughren. Peter. Austin. Barry . Alpher. ANU. Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies. (Pacific Linguistics). https://www.researchgate.net/publication/43456489. pdf. Pacific Linguistics 512. 085883524X. 45–69.
10. Web site: Andegerebinha. Glottolog. 10 June 2019.
11. Web site: G12: Ayerrerenge. Austlang. 11 June 2019.
12. NOTE: Cannot find reference to a Bathurst in this region, but this map of Mt Hogarth shows a "Bathurst Bore".
13. Web site: Argadargada Waterhole (with map). Bonzle. 12 June 2019.
14. Web site: Ethnologue. Ayerrerenge. 10 June 2019.
15. Web site: Anmatyerre. Glottolog. 10 June 2019.
16. Web site: Anmatyerre. Ethnologue. 11 June 2019.
17. Web site: Akerre. Glottolog. 10 June 2019.
18. Web site: Western Arrarnte. Ethnologue. 11 June 2019.
19. Oceania. Aranda, Arrernte or Arrarnta? The Politics of Orthography and Identity on the Upper Finke River. Anna. Kenny. 87. 3. 261–281. 17 November 2017. 10.1002/ocea.5169.
20. Web site: Iltyem-iltyem – Australian Indigenous Sign Languages . 2024-06-24 . www.iltyemiltyem.com.
21. Web site: Iltyem-iltyem Indigenous Sign Languages of Central Australia . 2024-06-24 . Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet . en-US.
22. News: 2018-04-22 . Central Australian Aboriginal sign language shared in Tasmania . 2024-06-24 . ABC News . en-AU.
23. Ladefoged and Maddieson (1996)
24. Web site: Fact Sheet 3 . 13 June 2009 . https://web.archive.org/web/20090911234635/http://www.usmob.com.au/factsheets/Fact_Sheet_03.pdf . 11 September 2009 . dead .