9 Language Contact Varieties

Abstract

Since colonisation, the language ecology of Australia has shifted dramatically to accommodate English. Although a number of Aboriginal languages continue to be spoken, many have all but disappeared with only vestiges remaining in the notebooks of early enthusiasts and in the few words still maintained in the speech of some Aboriginal communities. Other Aboriginal languages have been maintained but have undergone restructuring under the influence of English or have fused with neighbouring languages into koines. Yet others have transformed into non-English-based pidgins created to accommodate settlers willing to learn the local language . More English influence is apparent in the languages which have formed conventionalised mixtures with English contact varieties in mixed languages. Finally a number of English-based pidgins and creoles have emerged which nonetheless preserve the phonology, semantics and some structural features common to many Aboriginal languages......The purpose of this chapter is to review the field of Australian contact languages as it stands and to point to ways that this work has or might engage with the theoretical concerns of the broader language contact community.

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