For the first time, a researcher has documented the birth of a new language, occurring in Lajamanu, a remote village in Australia's Northern Territory. Nicholas Bakalar does a nice job of telling us the story in The New York Times, carefully noting the significance of the finding and explaining how the new language was discovered.
Oddly–it seems odd to me, if to nobody else–the language is appearing in children, whose parents speak Warlpiri and sometimes kriol, an English-based creole that aboriginal tribes use to communicate with one another. The children learn those languages, but they are also refining a language of their own, called Light Warlpiri.
"People in Lajamanu often engage in what linguists call code-switching, mixing languages together or changing from one to another as they speak. And many words in Light Warlpiri are derived from English or Kriol," Bakalar writes. But Light Warlpiri is not simply a mix of other languages–is something new, a "mother tongue," as one researcher tells Bakalar.
Why it is happening in Lajamanu, and why it is happening now, remain mysteries.
If you like Bakalar's story, check out the video. Mostly it recaps the story, but about halfway through you can hear a sample of Light Warlpiri. Cool.
-Paul Raeburn
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