T4: North Midlands Tasmanian

AIATSIS code: 
T4
AIATSIS reference name: 
North Midlands Tasmanian

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Name
ABN name
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ABS name
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Horton name
Tyerrernotepanner
Ethnologue name
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ISO 639-3 code
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Tindale name
North Midlands
Thesaurus heading language
palawa kani language T16
Thesaurus heading (old)
Tyerrernotepanner / North Midlands people (Tas SK55-04)
Tindale (1974)
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O'Grady et al (1966)
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Glottocode
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Other sources
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Synonyms
Tyerrernotepanner, North Midlands tribe, Mid eastern
Comment
Comments: 
The Tasmanian languages/dialects records are sparse. Crowley and Dixon say North Midlands (T4) is probably a distinct language; the language data coincide with Cape Portland (54%) but not with Port Sorrell (19%), making a language group between them and the Ben Lomond T7 data unlikely (1981:402). Crowley (1993:54) concludes from examination of vocabulary lists and comments from colonial observations about who could and who could not understand each other, that at least eight separate languages and possibly as many as twelve belong to Tasmania. Crowley and Dixon (1981:404) conclude there is no evidence to indicate a single Tasmanian language family, available evidence indicates two, four or even eight distinct families. Bowern (2012) groups twelve languages into four language macro-families (northeastern, Oyster Bay, southeastern (Bruny) and western) using methods from evolutionary biology to systematically investigate vocabularies, from thirty five language lists. Crowley and Dixon (1981:402-403) compare collected vocabularies from fifteen regions. This database assigns reference names for Tasmania based on this regional list. See also Northern T1; Oyster Bay T2; North-western T3; South-eastern T5; Macquarie Harbour T6; Ben Lomond T7; Big River T8; Cape Portland T9; South-western T10; Robbin Island T11; Circular Head T12; Port Sorrell T13; Piper River T14 and Little Swanport T15. The area defined as North Midlands in Crowley and Dixon's map (1981:394) roughly coincides with the area defined as Tyerrernotepanner by Horton in the AIATSIS map of Aboriginal Australia. Northern Midlands Tasmanian language data, along with historical sources from all Tasmanian languages and dialects, form the basis of palawa kani language T16 construction.
References: 
  • Bowern, Claire. 2012. The riddle of Tasmanian languages. Proceedings of the Royal Society. 279, 4590-4595. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2012.1842
  • Crowley, Terry, and R. M. W. Dixon. 1981. Tasmanian. In Handbook of Australian languages vol. 2, eds R. M. W. Dixon and B. J. Blake, 395-421 + map p. Canberra: ANU Press.
  • Crowley, Terry. 1993. Tasmanian Aboriginal language : old and new identities. In Language and Culture in Aboriginal Australia, eds Michael Walsh and Colin Yallop, 51-71. Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press.
  • Plomley, Norman JB. 1976. A word-list of the Tasmanian aboriginal languages. Launceston: The Author in association with Government of Tasmania.
  • Taylor, John Albert. 2010. Dictionary of Palawa ('Tasmanian Aboriginal') Place Names. MS 4970.
Status: 
Confirmed
Location
State / Territory: 
TAS
Location information: 
TAS
Maps: 
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Programs
Activities: 
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People: 
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Indigenous organisations: 
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Speakers
Year Source Speaker numbers
1975Oates-
1984Senate-
1990Schmidt-
1996Census-
2001Census-
2004NILS-
2005Estimate-
2006Census-
2011Census-
2016Census-

Speaker numbers were measured differently across the censuses and various other sources listed in AUSTLANG. You are encouraged to refer to the sources.

Speaker numbers for ‘NILS 2004’ and ‘2005 estimate’ come from 'Table F.3: Numbers of speakers of Australian Indigenous languages (various surveys)' in 'Appendix F NILS endangerment and absolute number results' in McConvell, Marmion and McNicol 2005, pages 198-230 (PDF, 2.5MB).

Documentation
Type Documentation Status Documentation Score
Word list Less than 20 pages 1
Text Collection None 0
Grammar None 0
Audio-visual None 0
Manuscript note: 
not available
Grammar: 
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Dictionary: 
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Classification
Source Family Group Sub-group Name Relationship
Ethnologue (2005)
Dixon (2002)
Wurm (1994) Tasmanian Stock Tasmanian Languages
Walsh (1981) Tasmanian Languages Mid-eastern
Oates (1975)
Wurm (1972)
O'Grady, Voegelin and Voegelin (1966)