Issue Details: First known date: 2017... 2017 Before Hercus : Pioneer Linguists in the South-east
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'When Luise Hercus began travelling around Victoria in the 1960s in search of speakers of Aboriginal languages, she was following in the footsteps of a number of nineteenth-century investigators. Most of the early recordists were missionaries or administrators with some training for the ministry. They were men, as one might expect, but some women played a part, including, Isabella Dawson, Mary Green, Frances Sievwright and Christina Smith, herself a lay missionary. In this paper I look at the records of these amateur scholars in the south-east (the Murray and south of the Murray), highlighting the problems that arise in interpreting their notation, in understanding their glosses, and in extracting grammar from their sentences, and I assess the value of the records, particularly with respect to language reclamation.'  (Introduction)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Language, Land and Song : Studies in Honour of Luise Hercus Peter Austin (editor), Harold Koch (editor), Jane Simpson (editor), Australia : Endangered Languages Publishing , 2017 15316152 2017 anthology criticism biography

    'The contributors to this book highlight current practice in language documentation, drawing on insights from anthropology, digital humanities, education, ethnography, history, linguistics and musicology. The book shows how the value of this multi-faceted documentation has become clear over the last 50 years.' (Publication summary)

    Australia : Endangered Languages Publishing , 2017
    pg. 131-144
Last amended 6 Dec 2018 07:21:16
131-144 Before Hercus : Pioneer Linguists in the South-eastsmall AustLit logo
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