Australian Languages
Their Nature and Development

Professor Dixon presents a comprehensive study of the indigenous languages of Australia.

R. M. W. Dixon (Author)

9780521046046, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 5 November 2007

780 pages, 3 b/w illus. 33 maps 38 tables
22.8 x 15.2 x 3.8 cm, 1.016 kg

Aboriginal people have been in Australia for at least 40,000 years, speaking about 250 languages. Through examination of published and unpublished materials on each of the individual languages, Professor Dixon surveys the ways in which the languages vary typologically and presents a profile of this long-established linguistic area. The areal distribution of most features is illustrated with more than 30 maps, showing that the languages tend to move in cyclic fashion with respect to many of the parameters. There is also an index of languages and language groups. Professor Dixon, a pioneering scholar in the field, brings an interesting perspective to this diverse and complex material.

List of maps
List of abbreviations and conventions
Preface
Acknowledgements
Conventions followed
List of languages and language groups
1. The language situation in Australia
2. Modelling the language situation
3. Overview
4. Vocabulary
5. Case and other nominal suffixes
6. Verbs
7. Pronouns
8. Bound pronouns
9. Prefixing and fusion
10. Generic nouns, classifiers, genders and noun classes
11. Ergative/accusative morphological and syntactic profiles
12. Phonology
13. Genetic subgroups and small linguistic areas
14. Summary and conclusion
References
Index of languages, dialects and language groups
Subject index.

Subject Areas: Historical & comparative linguistics [CFF]