Social:Macro-Pama–Nyungan languages

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Macro-Pama–Nyungan
(controversial)
Geographic
distribution		northern Australia
Linguistic classificationProposed language family
Subdivisions
GlottologNone
Macro-Pama-Nyungan languages.png
Pama–Nyungan (yellow), Garawa and Tangkic (green), and Macro-Gunwinyguan (orange)

Macro-Pama-Nyungan is an umbrella term used to refer to a proposed Indigenous Australian language family. It was coined by the Australian linguist Nicholas Evans in his 1996 book Archaeology and linguistics: Aboriginal Australia in global perspective, co-authored by Patrick McConvell.[1] The term arose from Evans' theory suggesting that two of the largest Indigenous Australian language families share a common origin, and should therefore be classified as a singular language family under "Macro-Pama-Nyungan".[2]

The two main families that Evans refers to are the Macro-Gunwinyguan family from Northern Australia,[3] and the most widespread Pama–Nyungan family that spans across mainland and Southern Australia.[4] The different theories regarding Australian linguistic prehistory and Australian language family evolution are widely debated, therefore Macro-Pama-Nyungan is an inconclusive language family classification that is often dissented by linguists in the Aboriginal Australian language community.[5]

As of May 2020, the legitimacy of the Macro-Pama-Nyungan classification and supporting theories remain open to question since language reconstruction of Indigenous Australian language families is in its early stages.[5][citation needed]

The proposed language families included in this proposal are:

Macro-Pama-Nyungan term and origins

The term "Macro-Pama-Nyungan", or otherwise interchangeably referred to as 'Gunwinyguan-Tangkic-Karrwan (Garrwan)-Pama-Nyungan',[1] was first coined in the 1997 book Archaeology and linguistics: Aboriginal Australia in global perspective, by the Australian linguist Nicholas Evans, co-authored by Patrick McConvell.[2] It refers to a proposed classification of a large Indigenous Australian language family sharing a common linguistic origin that geographically spreads across the continent from Arnhem Land in Northern Australia to Southwestern Australia.[2]

Evans explores this claim of a higher-level "Macro-Pama-Nyungan" Indigenous Australian language family classification[6] in several of his works. His most notable books are The Cradle of the Pama-Nyungans: Archaeological and Linguistic Speculations, published in 1997 co-authored by Rhys Jones,[7] and The non-Pama-Nyungan languages of northern Australia: comparative studies of the continent's most linguistically complex region published in 2003 and edited by Evans.[6] In his works, Evans uses the Macro-Pama-Nyungan term to propose that the majority of Indigenous languages across Australia have a common origin and share an inheritance with a common linguistic ancestor.[6]

According to Evans, the Macro-Pama-Nyungan language family is made up of the Gunwinyguan languages from Arnhem Land in Northern Australia, the Tangkic languages from Mornington Island in the Wellesley Islands of Queensland, the Garrwan (or Karrwan) languages from Queensland and the Northern Territory, and the larger Pama–Nyungan language family[6] that geographically covers approximately 90% of the Australian continent.[8] The grouping of the Gunwinyguan, Tangkic and Garrwan language families from northern Australia forms the "macro" extension of Pama–Nyungan language family to form the Macro-Pama-Nyungan term.[6] The larger Pama–Nyungan family includes around 300 Aboriginal languages, mainly located across southern parts of Australia .[4]


Considering that the vast majority of Australian Aboriginal languages have become extinct with no living speakers and that many of the remaining Australian Aboriginal languages are also endangered to some degree,[9] many linguists acknowledge that language family classification is an inconclusive debate that needs further exploration and research since Indigenous Australian language family reconstruction is in its early stages,[5] and the legitimacy of chosen reconstruction methods is widely debated.[10]

Linguistic Expansion Theories

Proto-Macro-Pama-Nyungan language tree diagram showing the connection between language families proposed by Nicholas Evans' (2002) in Australian Languages Reconsidered: A Review of Dixon.[11]

There is considerable debate over which of the linguistic elements found across language groups are attributed to a shared inheritance from a common ancestor, and which elements are attributed to more recent contact between linguistic groups.[10] These two points form two theories surrounding the extent to which Pama–Nyungan languages are proposed to have spread across Australia ,[8] leading to the ongoing classification and declassification debate over the possibility of a legitimate Macro-Pama-Nyungan language family.[12]

The first theory suggests that the size and spread of the Pama–Nyungan language family is attributed to demic diffusion resulting from climatic changes, causing people to seek refuge in inhabitable areas.[8] The timing of Pama–Nyungan language family expansion as the largest hunter-gatherer language family in the world has possible origins in the Gulf Plains region,[8] with four possible timings for demic diffusion put forth. The first is upon initial colonisation of Australia , the second as late Pleistocene, the third as early Holocene, and the fourth as after the Last Glacial Maximum.[8]


According to the Diversification of the Pama–Nyungan language family tree presented in figure 2 of The origin and expansion of Pama–Nyungan languages across Australia by Bouckaert, Bowern and Atkinson, the earliest three subgroups to break off from the Pama–Nyungan language family were the Western branch, the Southern group and the Tangkic branch.[8] These groups collectively expand across South Australia, Western Australia, the Northern Territory, Victoria, the majority of New South Wales and the Southeast Queensland coast.[8] Bouckaert, Bowern and Atkinson acknowledge the existence of patterns consistent with language group settlement along watercourses that could indicate rivers and coastline areas as possible launching points for group and language fission, however this is not supported by the migration model put forth in the same journal article.[8]

Language Family Classification

Due to the extinction of many Indigenous Australian languages, there is limited access to linguistic evidence. Linguists have therefore used geographic, genetic, archaeological and linguistic methods to form language family reconstructions and associations.[13] The legitimacy of these methods is questioned amongst linguists and has formed a widespread debate on the classification and declassification of certain Indigenous Australian language families and their subgroups.[10]


Evans proposes that the Gunwinyguan family could be a sister to the Macro-Pama-Nyungan family that contains Tangkic, Garrwan and core Pama–Nyungan. Of these three subgroups, Tangkic is considered one of the earliest formed branches of the Greater-Pama-Nyungan language family,[8] and Bowern acknowledges that some linguists suggest Tangkic has close relations to the Pama–Nyungan Yolŋu languages.[8] McConvell and Bowern mention the linguistic geography hypothesis put forward by Hale stating that the Pama–Nyungan family originates from the base of the Gulf of Carpentaria, and note that according to Evans, this places Pama–Nyungan families in close proximity to the Garrwan and Tangkic families.[10]

Macro-Pama-Nyungan Dissent

The Macro-Pama-Nyungan claim is an inconclusive language family classification, yet Aboriginal Australian linguists acknowledge the possible legitimacy of the claim.[5] Due to the lack of evidence and questionable methods used to make linguistic reconstructions and associations between language families and their subgroups,[10] the Macro-Pama-Nyungan claim is widely dissented among linguists in the Aboriginal Australian language community.[citation needed]


Bowern argues that the Gunwinyguan family contains a number of Arnhem Land languages that are not considered to be closely related to the Pama–Nyungan language family, disputing Gunwinyguan, Tangkic and Garrwan as classifiable under Macro-Pama-Nyungan.[5] In regard to Evans' claims that Gunwinyguan could possibly be a sister to the Macro-Pama-Nyungan family, McConvell and Bowern both note that Gunwinyguan cannot be classed as both a sister to the Macro-Pama-Nyungan family and as a part of the Arnhem Land family subgroup simultaneously.[10]

Footnotes

Citations

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Evans & McConvell 1996, pp. 385-417.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Evans & McConvell 1996.
  3. ↑ Macro-Gunwinyguan languages, https://www.spectroom.com/1021934755-macro-gunwinyguan-languages, retrieved 22 April 2020 
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Frawley 2003.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 Bowern 2010.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 Evans 2003.
  7. ↑ Evans & Jones 1997.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 8.6 8.7 8.8 8.9 Bouckaert, Bowern & Atkinson 2018.
  9. ↑ "Loss of Aboriginal Languages". https://www.creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture/language/loss-of-aboriginal-languages. 
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 10.5 McConvell & Bowern 2011.
  11. ↑ Evans 2005.
  12. ↑ Harvey 2008.
  13. ↑ Lilley, Ian (2010), Review of Archaeology and linguistics: Aboriginal Australia in global perspective, Australian Archaeological Association 

References



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