Overview

Few resources exist to assist the learner of Kaurna, the language of the Adelaide Plains, South Australia. This Kaurna Learners' Guide, Kulurdu Marni Ngathaitya!, has been developed as a step-by-step guide for learning to speak the language and to assist teachers of Kaurna language. It assumes no previous knowledge though, of course, many Kaurna people will know some of the language already. Organised into two main sections, Part One (Chapters 1-16) introduces common words and expressions for use in a range of contexts on topics that are often spoken about, allowing the learner to dive straight into the language. Part Two (Chapters 17-25) guides the learner through various aspects of Kaurna grammar and sentence construction and provides detailed explanation. Language learning is rewarding. Learning Kaurna can provide insights into Kaurna culture and the way of thinking of Kaurna people as they lived in the nineteenth century.

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9781743057131

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Rob Kudnuitya Amery, a non-Aboriginal man, started working with Kaurna in 1989 and began running Kaurna language workshops in the early 1990s. From 1995 to 1998 he studied the language intensively for a PhD which was published as Warrabarna Kaurna! Reclaiming an Australian Language in 2000. He has been instrumental in setting up Kaurna language programs in schools and universities. Rob has published widely on the Kaurna language and efforts to reclaim it. Working together with Kaurna people, he continues to research many aspects of the language (placenames, Dreamings, historical materials, its current use, etc.). In 2002, together with Kauwanu Lewis and Ngarpadla Alitya, he set up Kaurna Warra Pintyanthi to plan and develop the language and to establish a process to deal with numerous requests for names and translations. Jane Kartanya Simpson, a non-Aboriginal woman, studied Linguistics at the Australian National University in 1975-76 where she undertook a major assignment on the Kaurna language, tracking down old sources. She has taken a keen interest in Kaurna and other closely related Thura-Yura languages ever since. In 1991 she made the handwritten Teichelmann (1857) Kaurna wordlist available in typescript and electronic form. Jane, a linguist, has worked closely with Rob Amery over the years in interpreting historical records of the Kaurna language. She supervised Rob's PhD project in the mid-1990s and has collaborated closely in the production of Kulurdu Marni Ngathaitya!, writing Chapters 21 and 24.

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