After 1788*

Abstract

Contemporary contact languages used by Indigenous people in Australia share many words and grammatical features and structures. I trace the development of contact varieties in Australia between 1788 to 1848, arguing that their similarities arise from the dominance of English-speakers among the invaders, their ways of talking to people who did not speak English fluently, the transfer of people between penal settlements, and the fact that sea traffic was the fastest form of travel between colonies. Evidence for zones of influence in which particular features appear is drawn from geographic distribution and time of first attestation. I use four types of reports for locating features: outsiders’ reports of direct speech by Aborigines and of outsiders’ speech to Aborigines, imitations by outsiders of Aboriginal speech, and outsiders’ comments on Aboriginal speech. Another kind of evidence comes from the adoption of contact variety words into Aboriginal languages. This is illustrated with a case study of words for ‘white woman’ in Aboriginal languages.