Gurindji Kriol language

Gurindji Kriol is a mixed language which is spoken by Gurindji people in the Victoria River District of the Northern Territory (Australia). It is mostly spoken at Kalkaringi and Daguragu which are Aboriginal communities located on the traditional lands of the Gurindji. Related mixed varieties are spoken to the north by Ngarinyman and Bilinarra people at Yarralin and Pigeon Hole. These varieties are similar to Gurindji Kriol, but draw on Ngarinyman and Bilinarra which are closely related to Gurindji (Eastern Ngumpin languages).

Gurindji Kriol
Region	Kalkaringi and Daguragu, Northern Territory, Australia
Native speakers	25 (2021 census)
Language family	mixed Gurindji–Kriol
Writing system	Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3	gjr
Glottolog	guri1249

Gurindji Kriol emerged in the 1970s from pervasive code-switching practices. It combines the lexicon and structure of Gurindji and Kriol. Gurindji is a highly endangered language of the Ngumpin-Yapa subgroup (Pama-Nyungan family) and Kriol is an English-lexifier creole language spoken as a first language by most Aboriginal people across northern Australia (with the exception of Arnhem Land and Daly River area).

Gurindji Kriol exhibits a structural split between the noun phrase and verb phrase, with Gurindji contributing the noun structure including case-marking, and the verb structure including tense-aspect-mood (TAM) auxiliaries coming from Kriol. In this respect, Gurindji Kriol is classified as a verb-noun (V-N) mixed language. Other examples of V-N mixed languages include Michif and Light Warlpiri. The maintenance of Gurindji within the mixed language can be seen as the perpetuation of Aboriginal identity under massive and continuing cultural incursion.

Structural feature	Language of origin	Lexical feature	Language of origin
word order	Kriol	N-body parts	Gurindji
TAM auxiliaries	Kriol	N-colours	Kriol
verb suffixes	Kriol	N-artefacts	traditional (Gurindji), new (Kriol)
case suffixes	Gurindji	N-people	Kriol/Gur
other noun suffixes	Gurindji	N-kin	parents and their siblings (Kriol), siblings, grandparents, in-laws (Gurindji)
negation	Kriol	N-food	Kriol/Gur
regular pronouns	Kriol/Gur	N-plants	Gurindji
emphatic pronouns	Gurindji	N-animals	Kriol/Gur
possessive pronouns	Gurindji	V-state	Kriol/Gur
interrogative pronouns	Kriol	V-motion	Gurindji
demonstratives	Kriol/Gur	V-bodily functions	Gurindji
conjunctions	Kriol/Gur	V-impact	Gurindji
interjections	Gurindji	V-basic	Kriol
determiners	Kriol	V-verbalising	Kriol/Gur

Background

Gurindji Kriol originated from contact between non-Indigenous colonists and the Gurindji people. From 1855 onwards, the traditional lands of the Gurindji and neighbouring groups were seized by colonists who were searching for good cattle pastures. After initial attempts to cull the original inhabitants, cattle stations were set up and the remaining Gurindji people were brought to work on the stations in slave-like conditions with other Aboriginal groups. In 1966, the Gurindji initiated a workers' strike to protest against their poor conditions of employment and ultimately regain control of their traditional lands. Their campaign was called the Wave Hill Walk-off and went on for nine years, resulting in the first successful land claim by an Aboriginal group in Australia. Today the Gurindji continue to live on their traditional lands in two main communities - Kalkaringi and Daguragu.

The linguistic practices of the Gurindji are closely tied to these social circumstances. Before colonisation the Gurindji were multilingual, speaking the languages of neighbouring groups with whom they had familiar and ceremonial connections. The establishment of the cattle stations by colonisers saw the introduction of the cattle station pidgin and later Kriol into the linguistic repertoire of the Gurindji. In the 1970s Patrick McConvell observed that code-switching between Kriol and Gurindji was the dominant language practice of Gurindji people. It is likely that this code-switching and a certain amount of levelling between Gurindji and closely related neighbouring languages such as Ngarinyman and Bilinarra provided fertile ground for the formation of the mixed language. At this time, similar changes to local linguistic ecologies occurred in other places in northern Australia with Kriol becoming the dominant language in many areas such as Timber Creek and Katherine. Yet in Kalkaringi, a mixed language emerged from this situation. Felicity Meakins argues that maintenance of Gurindji elements in the mixed language relates closely to the land rights movement and can be considered an expression of the persistence of their ancestral identity. Additionally McConvell suggests that the homogeneity of the linguistic situation (one traditional language spoken at Kalkaringi) may have also aided the maintenance of Gurindji.

Current linguistic situation

Gurindji Kriol is situated within a complex picture of multilingualism, contact and code-switching. Gurindji continues to be spoken by older people and a neighbouring traditional Australian language, Warlpiri is also used by people of Warlpiri heritage. Standard Australian English is the language of government services and the school, though its use is generally restricted to these domains. Kriol and Aboriginal English are spoken with Aboriginal visitors from other communities. In this respect, Gurindji Kriol continues to be spoken alongside Gurindji and Kriol, and is a 'symbiotic' mixed language. In addition, code-switching continues to be an everyday practice at Kalkaringi, and it is common to find code-switching between Gurindji and Kriol, and between Gurindji Kriol and its source languages.

Lexicon

Lexically there is a mix between Kriol and Gurindji. Despite the verb-noun structural split, some verbs are derived from Kriol and others from Gurindji. Similarly nouns from both languages are present. In general, based on a 200 word Swadesh list, 36.6% of vocabulary is derived from Kriol and 35% finds its origins in Gurindji. The remaining 28.4% are synonymous forms from both languages, where the choice of word depends on a number of factors including the interlocutors. For example, more Gurindji vocabulary is used when addressing older Gurindji people or in the presence of outsiders. Some lexical specialisation can be noted, for example karnti which means "branch", "stick" or "tree" in Gurindji is generally only used to mean "branch" or "stick" in Gurindji Kriol whereas the Kriol form tri is used to mean "tree".

Phonology

The phonological system of Gurindji Kriol is relatively stratified, i.e. it has maintained separate Gurindji and Kriol phoneme inventories, syllable structures and many phonological processes.

In terms of vowels, Gurindji Kriol has a 5 vowel system. All Gurindji words contain only 3 vowel phonemes /ɪ/, /ɐ/ and /ʊ/ with diphthongs the result of combinations of vowels with glides in fast speech, for example /ɐw/ > [ɐʊ]. Kriol words make use of five vowel phonemes /ɛ/ and /ɔ/ in addition to /ɪ/, /ɐ/ and /ʊ/, plus diphthongs and long vowels.

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Mid	e		ɔ
Open		a

The consonant inventory is a complex fusion of Gurindji and Kriol consonants. Words of Gurindji origin contain a three-way coronal contrast for stops, nasals and laterals, and a distinction between a post-alveolar rhotic and an apical trill (sometimes pronounced as a tap). Kriol-derived words contrast with those from Gurindji in containing fricatives. No voicing distinction is made for stops or fricatives in either Gurindji- or Kriol-derived words; voicing depends on position within word or utterance, and place of articulation.

	Bilabial	Alveolar	Post-alveolar	Alveopalatal	Velar
Stop	p	t	ʈ	ɟ	k
Fricative	f	s		ʃ
Nasal	m	n	ɳ	ɲ	ŋ
Lateral		l	ɭ	ʎ
Rhotic		r, ɹ	ɻ
Glide				j	w

Stress is word initial for words of both Gurindji and Kriol origin. The maintenance of the two phonological systems is more obvious in syllable structure. A range of structures are permissible in words of both origins, e.g. CV and CVC, however VC syllables are only allowed in Kriol words. Gurindji and Kriol source words also diverge in their use of stop-final consonant clusters. Gurindji words allows syllable-final consonant clusters, though the cluster combination is rather restricted. The first consonant must be a liquid and the final consonant, a non-coronal stop or velar nasal. Even in the more acrolectal forms of Kriol words, final consonant clusters are never present at the surface level. Finally different phonological processes apply to the different component languages of Gurindji Kriol. For example, in Kriol words, the plosive series is occasionally hypercorrected to fricatives of a similar place of articulation. This process never occurs in words of Gurindji origin.

Noun phrase

The Gurindji Kriol noun phrase consists of a head plus a number of potential modifiers. Potential heads are: nouns, nominalised adjectives, emphatic pronouns and demonstratives (this/that); and modifiers are determiners (in/definite, plural/singular) and adjectives. Heads and modifiers can be distinguished by their ability to take case marking. Heads are case-marked, and modifiers are not. The order of noun phrase constituents is relatively fixed: DET - MOD - HEAD. Finally Gurindji Kriol is an optional ergative language where the transitive subject is optionally marked ergative and objects are unmarked.

dat

the

yapakayi

small

karu-ngku

child-ERG

i

3SG.SBJ

bin

PST

gon

go

ged-im-bat

get-TR-PROG

dat

the

karu

child

dat yapakayi karu-ngku i bin gon ged-im-bat dat karu

the small child-ERG 3SG.SBJ PST go get-TR-PROG the child

"The small kid goes to get the (other) kid."

green words are Gurindji-derived, and purple words are Kriol-derived

Gurindji Kriol contains many nominal suffixes, most of which are derived from Gurindji. These include case suffixes, number marking and derivational morphology. A number of these suffixes have Kriol-derived periphasic counterparts. For example, the privative suffix -murlung can also be expressed by gat no 'has no'.

Type	Form	Origin	Type	Form	Origin
Ergative	-ngku, -tu	Gurindji	And	-purrupurru	Gurindji
Locative	-ngka, -ta	Gurindji	Privative	-murlung	Gurindji
Dative	-yu, -wu, -ku	Gurindji	Comparative	-marraj	Gurindji
Allative	-ngkirri, -jirri	Gurindji	Factive	-k	Gurindji
Ablative	-nginyi(ng)	Gurindji	Alone	-wariny(j)	Gurindji
Comitative	-jawung, -yawung	Gurindji	Another	-kari	Gurindji
Plural	-rrat	Gurindji	Nominaliser	-wan	Kriol
Dual	-kujarra	Gurindji	Adjective	-bala	Kriol
Paucal	-walija	Gurindji	Focus	=na	Kriol
Associative	-nganyjuk, -mob	Gur/Kriol	Topic	=ma	Gurindji
Dual Assoc	-kuwang	Gurindji	Restrictive	=rni	Gurindji

Pronouns

Regular pronouns distinguish person (1st, 2nd and 3rd) and number (singular, dual and plural), and further make a distinction between inclusive and exclusive 1st person pronouns, though syncretism exists between subject forms. All subject pronouns are derived from Kriol and object pronouns find their origins in both languages. A general reflexive/reciprocal pronoun is derived from the Kriol reflexive pronoun. Emphatic pronouns are derived from Gurindji and are classified as nominals because they can be case-marked. Possessive pronouns are drawn from Gurindji and are also used as dative objects, e.g. nyununy 'your, to you'. (Note that this paradigm needs some work).

			Subject	Object	Emphatic	Possessive
1st person	singular	exclusive	ai	ngayu	ngayu	ngayiny
		inclusive	wi	ngali	ngali
	plural	exclusive	wi	ngaliwa	ngaliwa	ngaliwany
		inclusive	wi	ngantipa	ngantipa	ngantipany
2nd person	singular		yu	yu	nyuntu	nyununy
	dual		yutu(bala)	yutu(bala)
	plural		yumob	yumob	nyurru(lu)	nyurruluny
3rd person	singular		i	im	nyantu	nyanuny
	dual		tu(bala)	tu(bala)
	plural		dei	dem	nyarru(lu)	nyarruluny
reflexive/reciprocal				mijelp

Verb phrase

The verb phrase consists of a tense auxiliary₁ followed by a modal auxiliary₂ and the main verb₃. The auxiliary verbs are derived from Kriol and the main verb can come from either Gurindji or Kriol:

i

3SG.SBJ

bin₁

PST

labta₂

MOD

ged-im₃

get-TR

im

3SG.OBJ

nyanuny

3SG.DAT

mami-ngku

mother-ERG

na

FOC

i bin₁ labta₂ ged-im₃ im nyanuny mami-ngku na

3SG.SBJ PST MOD get-TR 3SG.OBJ 3SG.DAT mother-ERG FOC

"His mother had to get him."

green words are Gurindji-derived, and purple words are Kriol-derived

Gurindji Kriol distinguishes between past (bin) and present tense (zero-marked for nouns, -m for pronouns) and marks future time using a potential marker (garra) which is also used to express obligation. Many of the auxiliaries also have reduced forms which attach to subject pronouns, such as ai-rra > ai garra 'I will'.

Category	Form	Etymology	Function
tense	bin, in	been	past
	-m	I'm, am	present
	-l	I'll, will	future
aspect	olweis	always	present habitual
	yusta	used to	past habitual
	til	still	progressive
	stat	start	inceptive
modal	garra, -rra	got to	potential
	beta	had better	necessative
	haba	have a
	habta, labta	have to	necessative
	kan	can	ability
	shud	should	possibility
	traina	trying to	attempt
	wana, -na	wanna, want to	desire
voice	ø		active
	git	get	passive
negation	don	don't	imperative
	kaan	can't	ability/permission
	neba	never	simple
	top	stop	imperative
	not	not	simple

Bound verbal morphology is also predominantly Kriol-derived.

Category	Form	Etymology	Function
adverbial	-abat	about	idiosyncratic
	-abta	after	idiosyncratic
	-an	on	spatial, inceptive
	-ap	up	space, telic
	-(a)ran	around	spatial
	-(a)wei	away	spatial
	-at	out	telic
	-bek	back	spatial, telic
	-dan	down	spatial
	-oba	over	spatial, telic
	-op	off	telic
progressive	-in	-ing	lexicalised
	-bat	about	Kriol trans verbs
	-karra	Gurindji	in/trans verbs
	-ta	Gurindji	intrans verbs
transitive	-im	him, them	Kriol trans verbs

Simple sentences

Verbless clauses:

Ascriptive clauses consist of a subject noun and nominalised adjective.

ankaj

poor.thing

dat

the

karu

child

im

3SG

yapakayi-wan

small-NMLZ

ankaj dat karu im yapakayi-wan

poor.thing the child 3SG small-NMLZ

"Poor thing, that child is only a baby."

green words are Gurindji-derived, and purple words are Kriol-derived

Existential clauses contain a subject with locative phrase.

dat

the

warlaku

dog

im

3SG

andanith

underneath

jiya-ngka

chair-LOC

dat warlaku im andanith jiya-ngka

the dog 3SG underneath chair-LOC

"The dog is underneath the chair."

Possessive constructions consist of a nominal acting as a predicates, taking another nominal argument. In these clauses the head is marked dative. Inalienable nominals (body parts and kinship) are only optionally marked dative.

wartarra

hey

yu

2SG

bin

PST

kirt

break

dat

the

ngakparn-ku

frog-DAT

hawuj

house

wartarra yu bin kirt dat ngakparn-ku hawuj

hey 2SG PST break the frog-DAT house

"Hey you broke the frog's home (the bottle)."

Verbal clauses:

Intransitive clauses consist of a verb and a subject with no object. Adjuncts may be added to express the location or time of an action.

warlaku

dog

i=m

3SG.SBJ=PRS

makin

sleep

atsaid

outside

shop-ta

shop-LOC

warlaku i=m makin atsaid shop-ta

dog 3SG.SBJ=PRS sleep outside shop-LOC

"A dog sleeps outside the shop."

Transitive clauses consist of an optionally-ergative marked subject (66.5%) and an absolutive object. Word order is predominately SVO (87.6%) and the ergative marker is more likely to appear when the agent nominal is postverbal.

an

and

kengkaru

kangaroo

i

3SG.S

bin

PST

kil-im

hit-TR

kurrupartu-yawung

boomerang-COM

dat

the

karu-ngku

child-ERG

an kengkaru i bin kil-im kurrupartu-yawung dat karu-ngku

and kangaroo 3SG.S PST hit-TR boomerang-COM the child-ERG

"And the kangaroo he hit with a boomerang, the child did."

Semi-transitive clauses are composed of an optionally-ergative marked subject and a dative object.

naja-wan

another-NMLZ

kajirri

old.woman

jing-in-at-karra

call.out-PROG-out-PROG

bo

DAT

nyanuny

3SG.DAT

karu

child

naja-wan kajirri jing-in-at-karra bo nyanuny karu

another-NMLZ old.woman call.out-PROG-out-PROG DAT 3SG.DAT child

"Another woman calls out to her child."

Ditransitive clauses consist of an accusative object and dative indirect object, and alternate with a clause with two accusative objects.

dat

the

malyju

boy

gib-it

give-TR

dat

the

man

man

jumok

cigarette

dat malyju gib-it dat man jumok

the boy give-TR the man cigarette

"The boy gives the man a cigarette."

Passive clauses consist of an auxiliary verb git (< get) and the loss of the transitive marker from the main verb. The agent also loses ergative case marking as an adjunct and acquires ablative case instead.

man

man

i

3SG.SBJ

bin

PST

get

get

bait

bite

warlaku-nginyi

dog-ABL

wartan-ta

hand-LOC

man i bin get bait warlaku-nginyi wartan-ta

man 3SG.SBJ PST get bite dog-ABL hand-LOC

"The man got bitten by a dog on the hand."

Complex sentences

Conjoined clauses are often zero-marked such as the following sentence which was uttered within one prosodic contour. The link between the clauses is implied.

[warlaku

dog

i-m

3SG.S-PRS

lungkarra-karra

cry-PROG

nganta]

DUB

[i-m

3SG.S-PRS

tai-im-ap

tie-TR-up

nyantu

3SG

kuya

thus

nek-ta]

neck-LOC

[warlaku i-m lungkarra-karra nganta] [i-m tai-im-ap nyantu kuya nek-ta]

dog 3SG.S-PRS cry-PROG DUB 3SG.S-PRS tie-TR-up 3SG thus neck-LOC

"The dog might be crying (because) he tied him up by the neck like that."

A number of Kriol-derived conjunctions can be used to join verbal or nominal clauses such as an (and) and o (or). Others are only used to relate verbal clauses such as dumaji (because), bikos (because), bat (but), ib (if), den (then).

dat

the

marluka

old.man

bin

PST

trai

MOD

jidan

sit

jiya-ngka

chair-LOC

bat

but

i

3SG.SBJ

bin

PST

kirt

break

dat marluka bin trai jidan jiya-ngka bat i bin kirt

the old.man PST MOD sit chair-LOC but 3SG.SBJ PST break

"The old man tried to sit on the chair but it broke."

Subordination is mostly performed by marking the verb in the subordinate clause with a case-marker. This style of subordination is derived from Gurindji. For example, the locative marker can be used in a switch reference construction to indicate that the agent of the subordinate clause is the same as the object of the main clause.

wan

a

karu-ngku

child-ERG

i

3SG.SBJ

gib-it

give-TR

la-im

OBL-3SG.O

keik

cake

kajirri-yu

woman-DAT

makin-ta

lie-LOC

wan karu-ngku i gib-it la-im keik kajirri-yu makin-ta

a child-ERG 3SG.SBJ give-TR OBL-3SG.O cake woman-DAT lie-LOC

"A child gives a cake to the woman who is lying down."

Gurindji Kriol also contains asymmetrical serial verb constructions. There are three potential parts to the asymmetrical serial verb construction: auxiliary₁, minor verb₂ and main verb₃.

i

3SG.SBJ

garra₁

POT

put-im₂

put-TR

makin₃

lie.down

yard-ta

yard-LOC

i garra₁ put-im₂ makin₃ yard-ta

3SG.SBJ POT put-TR lie.down yard-LOC

He will lay him down in the yard.

References

• Charola, Erika. (2002). "The verb phrase structure of Gurindji Kriol Unpublished Honours". Melbourne University, Melbourne. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
• Jones, Caroline; Meakins, Felicity; Buchan, Heather (2011). "Citation-speech vowels in Gurindji Kriol and local Australian English". Australian Journal of Linguistics. 31 (3): 305–327. doi:10.1080/07268602.2011.598629. S2CID 62651692.
• Jones, Caroline; Meakins, Felicity; Muawiyath, Shujau (2012). "Learning vowel categories from maternal speech in Gurindji Kriol". Language Learning. 62 (4): 1052–1078. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9922.2012.00725.x.
• McConvell, Patrick (1985). "Domains and codeswitching among bilingual Aborigines". In M. Clyne (ed.). Australia, Meeting Place of Languages. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. pp. 95–125.
• McConvell, Patrick (1988). "Mix-im-up: Aboriginal codeswitching old and new". In M. Heller (ed.). Codeswitching: Anthropological and Sociolinguistic Perspectives. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. pp. 97–124.
• McConvell, Patrick (2007). Language ecology as determinant of language shift or language hybridity: Some Australian Aboriginal cases. International Symposium on Bilingualism. Hamburg, Germany.
• McConvell, Patrick (2008). "Mixed Languages as outcomes of code-switching: Recent examples from Australia and their implications". Journal of Language Contact. 2: 187–212. doi:10.1163/000000008792525327. hdl:1885/50173.
• McConvell, Patrick; Meakins, Felicity (2005). "Gurindji Kriol: A Mixed Language Emerges from Code-switching". Australian Journal of Linguistics. 25 (1): 9–30. doi:10.1080/07268600500110456. S2CID 62281541.
• Meakins, Felicity (2008a). "Land, language and identity: The socio-political origins of Gurindji Kriol.". In M. Meyerhoff; N. Nagy (eds.). Social Lives in Language. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. pp. 69–94.
• Meakins, Felicity (2008b). "Unravelling languages: Multilingualism and language contact in Kalkaringi". In J. Simpson; G. Wigglesworth (eds.). Children's Language and Multilingualism: Indigenous Language Use at Home and School. New York: Continuum. pp. 247–264.{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Meakins, Felicity (2009). "The case of the shifty ergative marker: A pragmatic shift in the ergative marker in one Australian mixed language". In J. Barddal; S. Chelliah (eds.). The Role of Semantics and Pragmatics in the Development of Case. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. pp. 59–91.
• Meakins, Felicity (2010). "The development of asymmetrical serial verb constructions in an Australian mixed language" (PDF). Linguistic Typology. 14 (1): 1–38. doi:10.1515/lity.2010.001. S2CID 722398.
• Meakins, Felicity (2011a). "Spaced out: Inter-generational changes in the expression of spatial relations by Gurindji people". Australian Journal of Linguistics. 31 (1): 43–78. doi:10.1080/07268602.2011.532857. S2CID 61447438.
• Meakins, Felicity (2011b). "Borrowing contextual inflection: Evidence from northern Australia". Morphology. 21 (1): 57–87. doi:10.1007/s11525-010-9163-4. S2CID 120670749.
• Meakins, Felicity (2011c). "Case marking in Contact: The Development and Function of Case Morphology in Gurindji Kriol". Amsterdam: John Benjamins. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
• Meakins, Felicity (2012a). "Which Mix? - Code-switching or a mixed language - Gurindji Kriol". Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages. 27 (1): 105–140. doi:10.1075/jpcl.27.1.03mea.
• Meakins, Felicity (2012b). "Gurindji Kriol". In S. Michaelis; P. Maurer; M. Haspelmath; M. Huber (eds.). Atlas of Pidgin and Creole Structures, vol II: The language surveys. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Meakins, Felicity; O'Shannessy, Carmel (2005). "Possessing variation: Age and inalienability related variables in the possessive constructions of two Australian mixed languages". Monash University Linguistics Papers. 4 (2): 43–63.
• Meakins, Felicity; O'Shannessy, Carmel (2010). "Ordering arguments about: Word order and discourse motivations in the development and use of the ergative marker in two Australian mixed languages" (PDF). Lingua. 120 (7): 1693–1713. doi:10.1016/j.lingua.2009.05.013. S2CID 51838191.
• O'Shannessy, Carmel; Meakins, Felicity (2011). "Comprehension of competing argument marking systems in two Australian mixed languages". Bilingualism: Language and Cognition. 15 (2): 378–396. doi:10.1017/S1366728911000307. S2CID 143698464.

External links

• ELAR archive of Gurindji Kriol