The Djiringanj , also spelt Dyirringañ , are an Aboriginal Australian people of the southern coast of New South Wales . They are one of a larger group, known as the Yuin people, who all speak or spoke dialects of the Yuin–Kuric group of languages .
30-521: Robert M. W. Dixon classifies the Djiringanj language as distinct from both Thaua and Dhurga . They are all Yuin–Kuric languages. The Djiringanj's tribal lands encompassed roughly 1,200 square miles (3,100 km) southwards along the coast from Cape Dromedary to beyond Bega . Their inland extension ran up to the scarp of the Great Dividing Range east of Nimmitabel . They were wedged between
60-522: A Language and Culture Research Centre within the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at JCU, Cairns, in 2011. Currently, Aikhenvald is director and Dixon deputy director of the centre. (The list below is incomplete. ) References: During the 1960s, Dixon published two science-fiction short stories under the name of Simon Tully, and in the 1980s two detective novels under the name of Hosanna Brown. Boumaa Fijian Fijian ( Na vosa vaka-Viti )
90-629: A comprehensive grammar of Boumaa Fijian , a Polynesian language (1988), and Jarawara , an Arawá language from southern Amazonia (2004), for which he received the Leonard Bloomfield Book Award from the Linguistic Society of America. Dixon's work in historical linguistics has been highly influential. Based on a careful historical comparative analysis, Dixon questions the concept of Pama–Nyungan languages, for which he argues sufficient evidence has never been provided. He also proposes
120-604: A few consonant clusters to the alphabet. These newcomers were necessary to handle words entering Standard Fijian from not only English, but from other Fijian languages or dialects as well. These are the most important additions: ⟨z⟩ [ ⁿdʒ ] , as in ⟨ziza⟩ ' ginger ' and ⟨h⟩ [ h ] , as in ⟨haya⟩ ' hire ' . For phonological reasons ⟨ti⟩ and ⟨di⟩ are pronounced [tʃi] , [ⁿdʒi] rather than [ti] , [ⁿdi] (cf. Japanese chi kana , or in standard Brazilian Portuguese ). Hence,
150-675: A linguistics professor at the University of the South Pacific in Suva. They have stated that recognition of the Fijian language is essential for the basic identity of the nation and acts as a unifying factor for the multicultural society of Fiji. Mahendra Chaudhry , the leader of the Fiji Labour Party , also supported the cause to make Fijian a national language and a compulsory subject in schools with
180-648: A new "punctuated equilibrium" model, based on the theory of the same name in evolutionary biology, which is more appropriate for numerous language regions, including the Australian languages. Dixon puts forth his theory in The Rise and Fall of Languages , refined in his monograph Australian Languages: their nature and development (2002). Dixon is the author of a number of other books, including Australian Languages: Their Nature and Development and Ergativity . His monumental three-volume work Basic Linguistic Theory (2010–2012)
210-532: A question of efficiency and value of different languages. His editorial work includes four volumes of Handbook of Australian Languages (with Barry Blake ), a special issue of Lingua on ergativity, and, jointly with Alexandra Aikhenvald, numerous volumes on linguistic typology in the series Explorations in Linguistic Typology , the fundamental The Amazonian languages (1999), and The Cambridge Handbook of Linguistic Typology (2017). His most recent book
240-624: A specially built boat and handmade traditional net, young men from the community will target species like flathead , bream , and mullet , and hand over their catch to local elders . They see it as a way of helping people who live below the poverty line , and suffer from poor nutrition, particularly lack of iodine , and diseases such as heart disease and diabetes brought on partly by poor nutrition. Source: Tindale 1974 , p. 193 Robert M. W. Dixon Robert Malcolm Ward "Bob" Dixon (born 25 January 1939, in Gloucester , England )
270-439: A written form of the language. By 1840, they had already developed a writing system, and had published various books on the different dialects of the language. After the independence of Fiji in 1970, Fijian has been used in radio, television, books, and periodicals, and has been taught in schools. In May and June 2005, several prominent Fijians sought to promote the status of the Fijian language. Fiji had no official language before
300-471: Is The Unmasking of English Dictionaries (2018), which offers a concise history of English dictionaries unmasking their drawbacks, and suggests a new innovative way of dictionary making. His "We used to eat people", Revelations of a Fiji islands traditional village (2018) offers a vivid portrayal of his fieldwork in Fiji in the late 1980s. In 1996, Dixon and another linguist, Alexandra Aikhenvald , established
330-514: Is a Professor of Linguistics in the College of Arts, Society, and Education and The Cairns Institute, James Cook University , Queensland . He is also Deputy Director of The Language and Culture Research Centre at JCU. Doctor of Letters (DLitt, ANU, 1991), he was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Letters Honoris Causa by JCU in 2018. Fellow of British Academy ; Fellow of the Australian Academy of
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#1732852450282360-513: Is an Austronesian language of the Malayo-Polynesian family spoken by some 350,000–450,000 ethnic Fijians as a native language. The 2013 Constitution established Fijian as an official language of Fiji , along with English and Fiji Hindi and there is discussion about establishing it as the " national language ". Fijian is a VOS language. Standard Fijian is based on the Bau dialect, which
390-504: Is an East Fijian language . A pidginized form is used by many Indo-Fijians and Chinese on the islands, while Pidgin Hindustani is used by many rural ethnic Fijians and Chinese in areas dominated by Indo-Fijians. The Fijian language was introduced to Fiji c. 3500 years ago by the islands' first settlers. For millennia, it was the only spoken language in Fiji. In 1835, Methodist missionaries from Australia worked in Fiji to develop
420-537: Is not usually indicated in writing, except in dictionaries and textbooks for learners of the language, where it is indicated by a macron over the vowel in question; Dixon, in the work cited below, doubles all long vowels in his spelling system. Diphthongs are ⟨ai au ei eu oi ou iu⟩ , pronounced [ɛi̯ ɔu̯ ei̯ eu̯ oi̯ ou̯ i̯u] . In order to negate a phrase or clause in Fijian, certain verbs are used to create this distinction. These verbs of negation are known as semi-auxiliary verbs. Semi-auxiliary verbs fulfil
450-519: Is only rarely pronounced with a trilled release; the primary feature distinguishing it from ⟨d⟩ is that it is postalveolar , [ɳɖ] , rather than dental/alveolar. The sounds [ p ] and [ f ] occur only in loanwords from other languages. The sounds [ x ] and [ h ] only occur for speakers from certain regions of the country. The sounds [ tʃ ] and [ ⁿdʒ ] occur as allophones of / t / and / ⁿd / . The glottal stop / ʔ / occurs in
480-403: Is the rising diphthong / i̯u / . Syllables can consist of a consonant followed by a vowel (CV) or a single vowel (V). Word stress is based on moras : a short vowel is one mora, diphthongs and long vowels are two morae. Primary stress is on the penultimate mora of the phonological word. That is, if the last syllable of a word is short, then the penultimate syllable will be stressed, while if
510-536: The 1997 Constitution , which made the Fijian language co-official with English and Fiji Hindi ; however, it was not required to be taught in schools. The minister of education, Ro Teimumu Kepa , has also supported appeals to Chairman of the Great Council of Chiefs Ratu Ovini Bokini . Similar appeals have been made by Misiwini Qereqeretabua , Director of the Institute of Language and Culture, and by Apolonia Tamata ,
540-674: The Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies in north-east Queensland, working on several of the Aboriginal languages of Australia , but taking a particular interest in Dyirbal . Dixon has written on many areas of linguistic theory and fieldwork, being particularly noted for his work on the languages of Australia and the Arawá languages of Brazil. He has published grammars of Dyirbal , Yidiɲ , Warrgamay , Nyawaygi , and Mbabaram . He published
570-627: The Walbanga to their north and the Thaua to their south, while their western limits touched those of the Ngarigo . In early 2020, men from the Bermagui Wallaga Lake Djiringanj men's group were able to resume their traditional practice of fish with nets on Wallaga Lake for the first time in decades. After obtaining a special cultural fishing permit, that allows them to fish once a week using
600-483: The Boumaa Fijian used to illustrate this article, but is not found in the standard language. It descends from an earlier / k / sound in most Fijian dialects. Note the difference in place of articulation between the voiced-voiceless fricative pairs: bilabial [ β ] vs. labiodental [ f ] , and dental [ ð ] vs. alveolar [ s ] . The vowel phonemes are: In addition, there
630-439: The Fijian name for Fiji, ⟨Viti⟩ , from an allophonic pronunciation of [βitʃi] as [ɸidʒi] . In addition, the digraph ⟨dr⟩ stands for retroflex [ ᶯɖ ] , or a prenasalized trill [ r] in careful pronunciation, or more commonly for some people and in some dialects. The vowel letters ⟨a e i o u⟩ have roughly their IPA values, [a ɛ~e i ɔ~o u] . The vowel length contrast
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#1732852450282660-585: The Humanities , and Honorary member of the Linguistic Society of America , he is one of three living linguists to be specifically mentioned in The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Linguistics by Peter Matthews (2014). Dixon was born in Gloucester , in the west of England , in 1939 and as a child lived at Stroud and later at Bramcote near Nottingham , where his father became principal of
690-566: The People's College of Further Education. He was educated at Nottingham High School and then at the University of Oxford , where he took his first degree in mathematics in 1960, and finally at the University of Edinburgh , where he was a Research Fellow in Statistical Linguistics in the English department from July 1961 to September 1963. After that until September 1964 he did field work for
720-851: The Research Centre for Linguistic Typology at the Australian National University in Canberra . On 1 January 2000, the centre moved to La Trobe University in Melbourne . Both Dixon (the director of the centre) and Aikhenvald (its associate director) resigned their positions in May 2008. In early 2009, Aikhenvald and Dixon established the Language and Culture Research Group (LCRG) at the Cairns campus of James Cook University . This has been transformed into
750-441: The exception of the imperative or in a me (classifier) clauses. When sega takes a NP as its subject, the meaning "there are no-" is assumed: e 3SG sega not a ART kolii dog (i+na in+ ART koro village yai) this e sega a kolii (i+na koro yai) 3SG not ART dog in+ART village this "there are no dogs (in this village)" Predicate clauses can also be negated in Fijian with
780-409: The functions of main verbs (in terms of syntactic form and pattern) and have a NP or complement clause as their subject (complements clauses within negation are introduced by relators ni (which refers to an event, which is generally a non-specific unit) or me (which refers is translated as "should", referring to the event within the complement clause should occur)). Within a complement clause,
810-478: The last syllable contains either a long vowel or a diphthong, then it receives primary stress. Stress is not lexical and can shift when suffixes are attached to the root . Examples: The Fijian alphabet is based on the Latin script and consists of the following letters. There is almost a one-to-one correspondence between letters and phonemes. In the 1980s, scholars compiling a dictionary added several more consonants and
840-561: The same status as Fiji Hindi, a position echoed by Krishna Vilas of the National Reconciliation Committee. Since 2013, when a new constitution was adopted, Fijian is established as an official language of Fiji alongside Fiji Hindi and English. The consonant phonemes of Fijian are as shown in the following table: The consonant written ⟨dr⟩ has been described as a prenasalized trill [ ⁿr ] or trilled affricate [ ⁿdr ] . However, it
870-405: The semi-auxiliary verb qualifies the predicate. One semi-auxiliary verb used to express negation in Fijian is sega . This semi-auxiliary can be translated as either "there are no-" or "it is not the case that", depending on the subject it relates to. In terms of numerical expression, sega is also used to express the quantity "none". This negator can be used in almost all situations, with
900-690: Was published by the Oxford University Press. His further work on Australian languages was published in Edible gender, mother-in-law style, and other grammatical wonders: Studies in Dyirbal, Yidiñ and Warrgamay , 2015. His further influential monographs include work on English grammar, especially A new approach to English grammar (1991, revised edition 2005), and Making New Words: Morphological Derivation in English (2014). His recent monograph Are Some Languages Better than Others (2016, paperback 2018) poses
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