Palawa kani
| Palawa Kani | |
|---|---|
| Created by | Theresa Sainty, Jenny Longey, Palawa community |
| Date | 1999 |
| Purpose |
Language revival
|
| Sources | Tasmanian languages |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 |
None (mis) |
| Glottolog | None |
Palawa kani is a constructed language, a project to create a generic language that resembles the extinct languages once spoken by Aboriginal Tasmanians (Palawa).
The original Tasmanian languages became extinct in 1905 when the last native speaker died. As part of community efforts to retrieve as much of the original Tasmanian culture as possible, efforts are made to construct a language for the indigenous community. Due to the scarcity of records, Palawa kani is being constructed as a composite of the estimated dozen original languages.
Theresa Sainty and Jenny Longey were the first two "language workers" to work on the project in 1999.
The project employs various sources such as:
Another source of material for the project is community knowledge where a surprising number of words, phrases and snippets of lore have survived. The reconstruction project also uses linguistic data of related mainland native languages if necessary.
Developed in conjunction with the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre, community ownership of the language is maintained for the time being. The language project is entirely community based and the language is not taught in state schools but at various after-school events, organised camps and trips. There is obvious enthusiasm for the language especially among younger people and an increasing number of people are able to use the language to some extent, some to great fluency. Lutana Spotswood gave a eulogy in palawa kani at the funeral of the Tasmanian Premier Jim Bacon.
Palawa kani is also used on a number of signs in Tasmanian National Parks and Kunanyi has been accepted as an official name for Mount Wellington and the Asbestos Range National Park is now known formally as Narawntapu National Park.
Some question the possibility of recreating a truly generic Tasmanian language, given that scholarly opinion has emphasised the lack of information on the original tongues. While the importance of those languages is acknowledged as a source of knowledge about the deep linguistic prehistory of the southern periphery of Australia, and hence of global linguistic prehistory, little information was gathered on Tasmanian languages before they ceased to be spoken at the end of the 19th century. It has also been suggested that the creation of palawa kani by one particular group is linked to a political and cultural dispute between two Tasmanian groups (the Palawa and the Lia Pootah), both claiming Aboriginal descent.
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