Australian Aboriginal English facts for kids

Australian Aboriginal English (AAE or AbE) is a dialect of English used by a large section of the Indigenous Australian (Aboriginal Australian and Torres Strait Islander) population. It is made up of a number of varieties which developed differently in different parts of Australia, and grammar and pronunciation differs from that of standard Australian English, along a continuum. Some of its words have also been adopted into standard or slang Australian English.

General description

There are generally distinctive features of accent, grammar, words and meanings, as well as language use in Australian Aboriginal English, compared with Australian English. Pronunciation is one of the fundamental differences: even where the words mean the same thing in both varieties of English, some Aboriginal people pronounce words and letters differently; letters may be overcompensated, left out or substituted. The language is also often accompanied by a lot of non-verbal cues.

There exists a continuum of varieties of Aboriginal English, ranging from light forms, close to standard Australian English, to heavy forms, closer to Kriol. The varieties developed differently in different parts of Australia, by Aboriginal peoples of many language groups. Kriol is a totally separate language from English, spoken by over 30,000 people in Australia. Several features of AAE are shared with creole languages spoken in nearby countries, such as Tok Pisin in Papua New Guinea, Pijin in the Solomon Islands, and Bislama in Vanuatu.

Speakers have been noted to tend to change between different forms of AAE depending on whom they are speaking to, e.g. striving to speak more like Australian English when speaking to a non-Indigenous English-speaking person. This is sometimes referred to as diglossia and is common among Aboriginal people living in major cities.

AAE terms, or derivative terms, are sometimes used by the broader Australian community. Australian Aboriginal English is spoken among Aboriginal people generally, but is especially evident in what are called "discrete communities", i.e. ex-government or mission reserves such as the DOGIT communities in Queensland. Because most Aboriginal Australians live in urban and rural areas with strong social interaction across assumed rural and urban and remote divides, many urban people also use Aboriginal English.

Grammar

Auxiliary verbs

Aboriginal English does not make use of auxiliary verbs, such as to be and to have, or copulas to link things together. For example, the Aboriginal English equivalent of "We are working" would be "We workin'". Linguists do not regard this as "just dropping words out", but as a fundamental change to the way in which English is constructed.

Pronouns

In Aboriginal English, particularly in northern Australia, the pronouns he and him may be used for females and inanimate objects in additional to the expected masculine case. This is also shared in standard English with the masculine pronouns possessing a neuter case, uncommonly (often historically) referring to an unspecified sex (e.g. one must brush his teeth). The distinction between he as the nominative form and him as the oblique form is not always observed, and him may be found as the subject of a verb.

Phonology

Sutton (1989) documents that some speakers of Aboriginal English in the area around Adelaide in South Australia have an uncommon degree of rhoticity, relative to both other AAE speakers and Standard Australian English speakers (which are generally non-rhotic). These speakers realise /r/ as [ɹ] in the preconsonantal postvocalic position – after a vowel but before another a consonant – within stems. For example: [boːɹd] "board", [t̠ʃɜɹt̠ʃ] "church", [pɜɹθ] "Perth"; but [flæː] "flour", [dɒktə] "doctor", [jɪəz] "years". Sutton speculates that this feature may derive from the fact that many of the first settlers in coastal South Australia – including Cornish tin-miners, Scottish missionaries, and American whalers – spoke rhotic varieties. Many of his informants grew up in Point Pearce and Point McLeay.

Most Australian Aboriginal languages have three- or five-vowel systems, and these form the substrate for Aboriginal English vowel pronunciations, especially in more basilectal accents. More basilectal varieties tend to merge a number of vowels, up to the point of merging all Australian English vowels into the three or five vowels of a given speaker's native language. That said, the diphthongs, and especially the face and choice diphthongs, tend to be maintained in all but the heaviest accents, albeit they are frequently shortened.

Although indigenous language and basilectal Aboriginal English vowel systems are small, there is a high degree of allophony. For example, vowels may be heavily fronted and raised in the presence of palatal consonants.

Many Aboriginals, including those who speak acrolectal varieties of English and even those who do not speak an indigenous language, do not nasalize vowels before nasal consonants, unlike other Australian English speakers.

Acrolectal Aboriginal accents tend to have a smaller vowel space compared to Standard Australian English. The Aboriginal English vowel space tends to share the same lower boundary as indigenous language vowel spaces, but shares an upper boundary with Standard Australian English, thus representing an expansion upwards from the indigenous vowel space. There are other differences between acrolectal Aboriginal English and Standard Australian English vowel qualities, which tend to represent conservatism on the part of Aboriginal speakers.

Lexicon

Balanda

Balanda is a word used by the Yolŋu people for European people; originally from the Makassar language, via the Malay "orang belanda" (Dutch person).

Blackfella

Aboriginal people (particularly those in the Outback and in the Top End) often refer to themselves and other Aboriginals as "blackfellas". The Australian Kriol term for an Aboriginal is "blackbala", which comes from this term.

Business

Many Aboriginal people use the word business in a distinct way, to mean "matters". Funeral and mourning practices are commonly known as "sorry business". Financial matters are referred to as "money business", and the secret-sacred rituals distinct to each sex are referred to as "women's business" and "men's business". "Secret women's business" was at the centre of the Hindmarsh Island Bridge controversy.

Camp

Many Aboriginal people refer to their house as their camp, particularly in Central Australia and the Top End of the Northern Territory.

Cheeky

"Cheeky" (or "tjiki") may be used to mean "sly, cunning, malicious, malevolent, spiteful, ill-disposed, ill-natured, mischievous, vicious, bad, wicked, [or] evil", so can be used to describe a person, dog, mosquito or snake.

Country

The word "country" has special meaning for Aboriginal people; it has a "spiritual and philosophical dimension" by which they relate to a certain place. This meaning is now regarded to be part of Australian English, as it has become familiar to non-Indigenous Australians, for example in Welcome to Country ceremonies and the term connection to country, signifying the deep attachment to, and obligation to care for, the traditional lands of their group.

Country (short for "countryman") can be used as a greeting or salutation for someone from one's own group or home location.

Dardy

Dardy originates in South-western Western Australia and means "cool", or really good.

Deadly

Deadly is used by many Aboriginal people to mean excellent, or very good, in the same way that "wicked", "sick" or "awesome" is by many young English speakers. Deadly Awards (aka Deadlys) were awards for outstanding achievement by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

This usage is not exclusive to Aboriginal people. It is commonly heard in Ireland.

Fella

In some forms of Aboriginal English, "fellow" (usually spelt fella, feller, fullah, fulla, etc.) is used in combination with adjectives or numerals, e.g. "big fella business" = "important business", "one-feller girl" = "one girl". This can give it an adverbial meaning, e.g. "sing out big fella" = "call out loudly". It is also used with pronouns to indicate the plural, e.g. "me fella" = "we" or "us", "you fella" = "you all". Other words include blackfella (an Aboriginal man) and whitefella (a white man).

Gammon

In Victorian era slang used by criminals, "gammon" was to swindle someone or cheat them, used for example in the sense of creating a distraction while pickpocketing; or, more generally, nonsense, "humbug". Its origin has been variously thought to be related to leg of cured ham known as gammon or the game of backgammon.

The word is used across Australian Aboriginal communities, with its meaning given variously as inauthentic, cheap or broken; to be pretending or joking; or just pathetic or lame. Macquarie Dictionary's Australian Word Map ascribes six meanings, based on feedback from around the country, in which the word is used as several different parts of speech, mainly relating to deceit, joking, and false, but also to a lame (pathetic, bad) idea. As a verb ("gammon/gamin/gammin around") means to fool around, and may also be used as an expression equivalent to "As if!". The word is also used by non-Aboriginal people, and it has been noted that the PNG Tok Pisin word for liar is giaman or giamon.

Gubbah

Gubbah, also spelt gubba, is a term used by some Aboriginal people to refer to white people or non-Aboriginal people. The Macquarie Dictionary has it as "n. Colloq. (derog.) an Aboriginal term for a white man". Also, "gubba, n. Colloq. (derog.) 1. a white man. 2. a peeping tom. [Aboriginal: white demon]". A 1972 newspaper article suggested that the word is the "diminutive of garbage".

It is said to be derived from "government", and while can be used derogatorily, is also used to refer to friends as "gubba mates". Other words for white people are balanda (see above), migaloo, and wadjela.

Gunyah

Used in Nunga English (South Australia) to refer to non-Aboriginal people.

Humbug

Whereas humbug in broader English (see Charles Dickens's Scrooge character) means nonsensical, or unimportant information, humbug in Aboriginal English means to pester with inane or repetitive requests. The Warumpi Band released an album entitled Too Much Humbug. In the Northern Territory, humbug is used by both black and white in this latter, Aboriginal way. The most commonly recognised definition of humbug refers to an Aboriginal person asking a relative for money. Humbugging can become a serious burden where the traditional culture is one of communal ownership and strong obligations between relatives.

Mob

Colloquially used to mean a group of Aboriginal people associated with an extended family group, clan group or wider community group, from a particular place or "Country". It is used to connect and identify the person and where they are from. "My mob" means my people, or extended family.

Mob is often used to refer to a language group, as in "that Warlpiri mob".

Mob and mobs are also used to describe a lot of people or things when an actual number is not stated, and is usually associated with "big" or "biggest". Examples include, "There was a big mob (or the biggest mob) at the football." or "There was no moon, so we could see the biggest mobs of stars".

Rubbish

While "rubbish" as an adjective in many dialects of English means wrong, stupid, or useless, in the north of Australia, "rubbish" is usually used to describe someone who is too old or too young to be active in the local culture. Another use is meaning something is "not dangerous"; for example, non-venomous snakes are all considered to be "rubbish", while in contrast, venomous snakes are "cheeky". In both cases, "rubbish" approximately means "inert".

Yarn

Yarn is an English word for a long story, often with incredible or unbelievable events. Originally a sailors' expression, "to spin a yarn", in reference to stories told while performing mundane tasks such as spinning yarn.

In Aboriginal English, the word is used as a verb (yarning), referring to a "conversational and storytelling style where Indigenous people share stories based on real experience and knowledge, from intimate family gatherings to formal public presentations". A "yarning circle" is a way of passing on cultural knowledge and building respectful relationships within a group. A 2021 article about Indigenous health communication says that yarning "includes repetition as a way to emphasise what is important in the message", and suggests that using the method can be useful in imparting health information. Yarning circles have been introduced in men's and women's prisons across New South Wales, starting with Broken Hill Correctional Centre, in a bid to connect Indigenous inmates with their culture, and reduce reoffending and the high rates of incarceration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Unna

Often conjoined with the word "deadly", "unna" means "ain't it?". It is used primarily by the Nunga (including Ngarrindjeri), Noongar, and Yolngu peoples. This word is used frequently in the 1998 novel Deadly, Unna? by Phillip Gwynne.

Whitefella

In Aboriginal communities, particularly those in the outback and the Top End, Aboriginals often refer to white people as "whitefellas". In Australian Kriol, "waitbala" means "a white person" and comes from this word.

Other words

Some other words with particular meanings in Aboriginal English, or derived from an Aboriginal language, and/or pertaining to Aboriginal culture, include:

See also

• Australian Aboriginal Pidgin English
• List of English words of Australian Aboriginal origin
• Neo-Nyungar
• Torres Strait Creole
• Aboriginal English in Canada
• American Indian English