Customer Reviews

Searching for Aboriginal Languages: Memoirs of a Field Worker

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This is a fascinating book.

First off, it presents a close-up view of what the last stages of language death are like -- the language is spoken by only two or three people very old people. They may speak it well, or may speak it haltingly, or may only remember a few phrases. And then they die, and there went the language. Since most of the languages in the US and in the world are headed toward that fate in the next forty years, I think it's time people get to see what it looks like, and what a great loss it is.

Second off, this book is the closest I've seen anyone manage to explaining what it is that we linguists do. If only this book got half the press that Steven Pinker's ramnblings get!

And third off, this book recalls some of the daily experiences of the author's travels in rural Australia, among the Aborigines. As one rarely reads anything about Australian Aborigines, or rural Australia in general, this alone makes it interesting. I, for one, had no idea that the Aborigines were, until recently, in a situation combining some of the worst features of Apartheid and of what the US was doing to its Natives in the 19th century.

Having read "The Languages of Australia" by this same author, I was aready a fan of both his work and the languages that he has spent his life documenting, but this book was the first that I've ever turned right around and reread upon finishing it the first time.

"Searching for Aboriginal Languages" is an autobiographical account of linguistic researcher Robert Dixon's decades of field-work among the last remaining speakers of languages spoken along the northeast coast of Australia around Cairns. The book details his research methods and itinerary, but even more interstingly, leads the reader to a better understanding and appreciation of his Aboriginal informants and their traditional way of life that was all but lost even then. There are many examples from the languages that illustrate exotic aspects of grammar and vocabulary, including the avoidance speech-style known as Jalnguy in several of the languages.

I leave this book a greater fan not only of the author, but of the people and languages of Native Australia, so fascinatingly different from those of other lands and yet so well adapted to the land they evolved to over countless generations.

If you're a young linguist (I'm an old one), read this book and become charged with a fervor to understand and preserve the dying languages of the world before they are irretrievably lost! I myself have spent the last 20 years studying the Chinookan languages once spoken along the banks of the Columbia River, and have in more recent years taken up the study and recording of several of the waning Amerind languages still spoken here in my native Oklahoma, but there are so many understudied languages and enigmatic folkways out there awaiting another Dixon or Sapir.

This work describes the travels, adventures, and characters of a linguistics field-worker, mostly in 1960's Australia.

Although there is much in this book specific to the work of a linguistics field-worker, it is full of enough interesting tales, characters and recent Australian history to make it accessible to a more general audience. It also acts as both a guide for the new linguistics researcher and will probably help anyone making their first forays in this area.

The writing style is clear and easy to read. For the general reader the diversions into areas of linguistics related to Australian Aboriginal languages should not be too distracting. It is certainly worth reading for an understanding of the political and social situation for Aboriginals in modern day Australia. Dixon makes an insightful point that white society was able to destroy traditional Aboriginal culture, religions and values very effectively in many areas of Australia, but was much less effective in replacing these with anything.

The only drawback for me was that there were some descriptions of the details of driving around Australia which seemed somewhat gratuitous (eg., "drove back to the town, took the first left, crossed the bridge and stopped at the third house"). Not all such descriptions feel unnecessary - many give a real sense of the areas in which Dixon's informants lived. Dixon states at the end of the book that he wrote the whole first draft from memory - considering the detail of his recollections, this is an impressive feat!

It's sad to think that even all these years since the events described (and the book being published), Aboriginal culture is still not widely appreciated by most Australians. Aboriginal languages are finally being taught in some schools, but mostly in those areas with a high percentage of Aboriginal students. As this book shows, greater understanding between different peoples can only grow with an appreciation and understanding of each other's language and culture.

In short, if the description of the book sounds like something you might be interested in, then I can say you won't be disappointed and you will be richer for the experience.