Aboriginal Language Resources

On this page, you’ll find a number of links to posts, downloadable resources, external sites and apps which will help people interested in learning to speak (Australian) Aboriginal languages.

Posts on AnthroYogini about Aboriginal Language Learning:

The ‘how-to’ series:

• Learning an Aboriginal Language – Some Reflections
• Learning an Aboriginal Language: A Quick & Dirty Guide to Learning Vocabulary
• A Method for Learning An Aboriginal Language

Downloadable Resources from AnthroYogini:

• PDF version A Method for Learning an Aboriginal Language
• FLR-Keywords.xls – Moses McCormack’s Foreign Language Road Running method
• Capell-WordList1.xls – An adaptation of the General Services list for Aboriginal languages
• Arrernte-U-Urenhe.xls – An example of how I structure my mnemonic method
• Arrernte Memory Palace Master Sheet PDF- Master list for the mnemonic method
• Arrernte Memory Palace Master Sheet Docx

Other Useful Blogs or Posts:

This is a non-exhaustive collection of posts or blogs dedicated to Australian Aboriginal languages in no particular order:

• That Munanga Linguist 
• Anggarrgoon
• Endangered Languages and Cultures
• Running from Buffalo
• Kriol Word of the Day
• Australian Aboriginal Languages Student Blog
• David Nash’s treasure trove for Central Australian languages
• Jarvis Ryan’s blog on teaching Yolgnu children
• Far From the Big Smoke (great posts on learning Pitjantjatjara)
• Why Warriors Blog (Richard Trudgen, author of ‘Why Warriors Lie Down and Die’)

If you know of another blog or blog post written by a Australianist linguist or language learner, please let me know in the comments and I’ll add it to the list.

Aboriginal Language Resources Online:

The resources listed below are NOT aimed at scholars/linguists, but people who are learning language. The selection focuses on audio/video/text/apps for Aboriginal languages:

• Living Archive of Aboriginal Languages (LOTS of school primers and simple texts for Northern Territory languages)
• ItalkLibrary – A treasure trove of video/audio clips in NT Aboriginal languages
• IAD Bookshop – THE bookshop for Aboriginal language learners’ guides and dictionaries
• AUSIL – Publish dictionaries and lots of free downloadable papers on Aboriginal languages (and their shop in Alice Springs – The Bible Place– is the BEST place to find out of print language guides & dictionaries)
• Ninti.Ngapartji.org – Online Pitjantjatjara language and cultural lessons
• UNI SA’s Pitjantjatjara Summer Language school
• Indigitube – LOTS of language clips and a few Pitjantjatjara lessons
• Warlpiri classes – Learn Warlpiri online (*pronounced Wail-BRI not waRRRRRL-peaRRRRR-ey as I’ve heard Americans massacre it!). Lessons and resources – highly recommended
• PAW Media – Warlpiri radio and video clips streamed online

If you know of any other fabulous resources for language learners – especially audio or video online, please let me know in the comments below.

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