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Kaurna, the Aboriginal language of the Adelaide Plains in South Australia, lost its last known native speaker in 1929. Since 1989, Kaurna people and linguists have been reviving it from community memory and nineteenth-century records, and it is now taught and used in public life.

Kaurna language

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The story behind the card

In 1840 two German Lutheran missionaries, Christian Teichelmann and Clamor Schürmann, published a record of Kaurna with about 3,000 words, a short grammar and hundreds of sentences; they ran a school at Piltawodli in Adelaide. As colonisation broke up Kaurna life, the language fell out of daily use, and Ivaritji, its last known native speaker, died in 1929. From 1989 Kaurna elders and the linguist Rob Amery used the missionaries' records to rebuild pronunciation and coin words for modern life. In 2002 the elders Lewis Yerloburka O'Brien and Alitya Wallara Rigney founded, with Amery, Kaurna Warra Pintyanthi ('creating Kaurna language'). Every park in Adelaide's city parklands now has a Kaurna name, and Whitmore Square also bears the name Iparrityi, after that last speaker.

Türkçe oku
Kaurna dili, Güney Avustralya'daki Adelaide Ovaları'nın Aborjin diliydi; onu anadili olarak konuşan bilinen son kişi 1929'da öldü. 1989'dan bu yana Kaurna halkı ve dilbilimciler, topluluğun hafızası ve 19. yüzyıl kayıtlarıyla dili yeniden canlandırıyor; bugün okullarda öğretiliyor ve kamusal hayatta kullanılıyor.

1840'ta iki Alman Lutheryen misyoner, Christian Teichelmann ve Clamor Schürmann, yaklaşık 3.000 sözcük, kısa bir dilbilgisi ve yüzlerce cümle içeren bir Kaurna dili kaydı yayımladı; ikisi Adelaide'deki Piltawodli'de bir okul yönetiyordu. Sömürgecilik Kaurna halkının yaşamını dağıttıkça dil gündelik kullanımdan çıktı; onu anadili olarak konuşan bilinen son kişi Ivaritji 1929'da öldü. 1989'dan itibaren Kaurna büyükleri ve dilbilimci Rob Amery, misyonerlerin kayıtlarından yola çıkarak telaffuzu yeniden kurdu ve bugünün hayatı için yeni sözcükler türetti. 2002'de Kaurna büyüklerinden Lewis Yerloburka O'Brien ve Alitya Wallara Rigney, Amery ile birlikte Kaurna Warra Pintyanthi'yi (“Kaurna dilini yaratmak”) kurdu. Bugün Adelaide'yi çevreleyen parkların her birinin Kaurna dilinde bir adı var; Whitmore Meydanı'na da Ivaritji'nin anısına ikinci ad olarak Iparrityi verildi.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Kaurna language
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