Aboriginal English became a stable variety of English that Aboriginal people used to communicate with the white settlers and also among themselves.
It’s not a distorted version of English. It refers to Indigenised varieties of English spoken by Aboriginal people around Australia. There are enough similarities between the different varieties of Aboriginal English for us to refer to them collectively as Aboriginal English.
In more urban areas where Aboriginal people have a lot of exposure to Australian English, Aboriginal English sounds fairly close to Australian English. For Aboriginal English speakers who have regular exposure to their ancestral Aboriginal languages, the sounds system of their English is closer to the traditional Aboriginal ancestral languages.
(NESA, 2014)
Aboriginal English and Australian English began to evolve from the time of first settlement in NSW when British colonists and Aboriginal people first began to communicate with each other. Watch the clip to find out more about how Aboriginal English developed.
Jessica Mauboy is Yipirinya School's official Ambassador. Yipirinya is an independent Indigenous School located in Alice Springs in the Northern Territory of Australia. Yipirinya is teaching 'two ways' delivering culture including four Indigenous languages as well as the Australian curriculum.
Tribal languages have unique morphological elements. Anyone familiar with the romantic languages such as French knows that words within the language are categorized according to "case markings". In French and Italian, these case markings are on the basis of gender. In some aboriginal languages these case markings follow objects such as animals, plants and flora. As a result of this more detailed case marking, many aboriginals won't use plural or tense morphemes such as "s" or "ed". For example and Aboriginal speaker might say "my two kid" rather than adding the plural "s".
Some Indigenous Australians are bidialectal. They’ve learnt to use two different Englishes – the one they use at home or with their community, and the one they use in school or in non-Aboriginal society.
A lot of people dismiss Aboriginal English as slang, or just a lazy way of speaking. They assume we all speak the same English and that it’s just that some people are better educated and have a better command of the language.
But when this assumption is made, Aboriginal people are greatly disadvantaged. Because they don’t conform to what’s considered ‘normal’, the way they speak is treated as inferior and they’re classed as non-achievers.
(NESA, 2015)
Semantics or the study of meaning within language can differ substantially in Aboriginal English. For example, the word "mob" in Aboriginal English refers to one's family whereas in Standard English is defined as a disorderly group of people, bent on riotous or destructive action or the mafia. Other examples remaining within the familial grouping are the works "aunty" and "uncle" which in Aboriginal English may refer to respected elders in the community and in Standard English the siblings of one's parents.
Aboriginal English has many phonological comparisons with informal English. This includes the omission of some sounds sometimes referred to as slurred words such as;
the omission of "e" from eleven - "leven"
Lack of distinction in spoken language;
Hunting becomes "hunding"
