Published: 28 May 2019
Last updated: 4 March 2024
When Oxbridge-educated, Israeli linguist Ghil'ad Zuckermann made Australia his home in 2004, he wanted to find a way to give back to his adopted country.
“I asked myself how can I contribute? What did I have to offer as an expert in Hebrew revival?” Zuckermann says. “I found out that 96 per cent of Aboriginal languages were either endangered or had already become what I call “Dreaming, Sleeping Beauties”, so I decided to use my skills and intimate knowledge of the Hebrew revival to empower Aboriginal people through language reclamation, revitalisation and reinvigoration.”
Zuckermann, Professor of Linguistics and Endangered Languages at the University of Adelaide, focused on finding a community in South Australia who shared his passion for reviving their language.
He discovered a dictionary written in 1844 with 3,500 Barngarla words – a language that had not been spoken for 50 years.“It had been written by Clamor Wilhelm Schürmann, a German Lutheran missionary and had enough grammar for me to reconstruct the entire original language.”
In 2011 he invited representatives of the Barngarla community to his office to gauge their interest in working with him. Their response was resounding: “We’ve been waiting for you for 50 years”. So began the, so-far, eight-year-long project to reclaim Barngarla and develop the recently launched book Barngarlidhi Manoo (Speaking Barngarla Together). Every step was led by the Barngarla Language Advisory Committee (BLAC). “It's one hundred percent their book. I'm just the facilitator who helped them linguistically and revivalistically to make it happen, and the time is coming for me to, hopefully, hand over the reigns as the facilitator of the revival to a Barngarla person.”
The picture book is filled with images and artwork of community members. There is also a free app available that teaches pronunciation.
Hear more from Zuckermann and BLAC’s Jenna Roberts in this Radio National interview
Photo: Barngarla elders and Professor Ghil’ad Zuckermann
