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Language Lineage

Arandic

Arrernte, Anmatyerr, Kaytetye and Alyawarr, which reshaped the Pama-Nyungan word: initial consonants were lost, so words now begin with vowels, and final vowels reduced to a schwa.

c. 1st millennium BCE – presentCentral Australia, around Alice Springs (Mparntwe)
On this page
  1. A Reshaped Word
  2. Missions and the Telegraph
  3. Where it's spoken
  4. Turning points

01

A Reshaped Word

The Arandic languages of central Australia look very unlike their Pama-Nyungan relatives. Over time they dropped the initial consonant of most words and reduced final vowels. As a result many Arrernte words begin with a vowel and end in a weak e, and linguists have argued whether the Arrernte syllable should be analysed as VC rather than the usual CV. Harold Koch showed how these words can be traced back, sound by sound, to Proto-Pama-Nyungan.

02

Missions and the Telegraph

The Overland Telegraph line reached Alice Springs in 1872, bringing the first permanent settlers to Arrernte country. In 1877 Lutheran missionaries founded Hermannsburg (Ntaria) among the Western Arrarnta. The missionary Carl Strehlow and his successors wrote the language down and translated scripture into it, and it became one of the earliest written Aboriginal languages of central Australia. Arrernte is still spoken, and taught in Alice Springs schools.

On the map

Where it’s spoken

Spoken todayShading marks whole countries, not the regions within them.
  1. Australiac. 4,000–4,500

Figures are rough first-language estimates, rounded, from censuses and Ethnologue. Counts for small or scattered communities are especially uncertain.

Rings along the limb

Turning points

Oldest first.

  1. Sound lawProto-Arandic periodContested

    Initial consonants lost

    #C → ∅ · final V → ə (words now begin with a vowel)

    Arandic loses the initial consonant of most words and reduces final vowels, so that words typically begin with a vowel. The changes can be traced regularly from Pama-Nyungan forms, but they are not dated.

    Compare with other loss across families →

    Sources (1)
    • Koch, Harold. 1997. Pama-Nyungan reflexes in the Arandic languages. In Boundary Rider: Essays in Honour of Geoffrey O'Grady, ed. Darrell Tryon & Michael Walsh. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.
  2. Contact1872

    The Overland Telegraph

    The telegraph line and its repeater station at Alice Springs bring settlers, pastoralists and English into Arrernte country.

    Sources (1)
    • Kenny, Anna. 2013. The Aranda's Pepa: An Introduction to Carl Strehlow's Masterpiece Die Aranda- und Loritja-Stämme in Zentral-Australien (1907–1920). Canberra: ANU Press.
  3. Writing1877 onward

    Hermannsburg and Western Arrarnta

    Lutheran missionaries at Hermannsburg write Western Arrarnta in the Latin alphabet and translate scripture into it. Carl Strehlow's work makes it one of the best-documented Aboriginal languages of its time.

    Figures · Carl Strehlow (1871–1922)

    Sources (1)
    • Kenny, Anna. 2013. The Aranda's Pepa: An Introduction to Carl Strehlow's Masterpiece Die Aranda- und Loritja-Stämme in Zentral-Australien (1907–1920). Canberra: ANU Press.