T7: Ben Lomond

AIATSIS code: 
T7
AIATSIS reference name: 
Ben Lomond

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Name
Thesaurus heading language
Thesaurus heading people
ABN name
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Horton name
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ISO 639-3 code
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Tindale name
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Tindale (1974)
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O'Grady et al (1966)
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Other sources
North-eastern Tasmanian (Bowern 2012)
Synonyms
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Comment
Comments: 

The Tasmanian languages/dialects records are sparse. Crowley and Dixon (1981:402) say that Piper River T14, Cape Portland T9 and Ben Lomond (T7) form an 'interrelated group' - either the first two, or all three, could be dialects of a single language. However if Ben Lomand (T7) is a separate language, it is likely to be 'genetically related' to Piper River T14 and Cape Portland T9. 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. 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; Northern Midlands T4; South-eastern T5; Macquarie Harbour T6; 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 areas defined as Ben Lomond (T7), Piper River T14 and Cape Portland T9 in Crowley and Dixon's map (1981:394) coincide with the area defined as Pyemmairrener by Horton in the AIATSIS map of Aboriginal Australia. Ben Lomond language data, along with historical sources from all Tasmanian language varieties, form the basis of palawa kani T16.

 

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.
  • Davies, R H. 1878. Song of the Ben Lomond Tribe. In The Aboriginaes of Victoria, vol 2, ed Robert Brough Smyth, 379-409. Melbourne:Government Printer. RBF S 667.85/A1 VOL 2 4
  • Plomley, Norman J.B. 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
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Location information: 

TAS

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Speakers
Year Source Speaker numbers
1975Oates-
1984Senate-
1990Schmidt-
1996Census-
2001Census-
2004NILS1-
2005Estimate-
2006Census-
2011Census-
2014NILS2
2016Census-
2018-2019NILS3

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
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Classification
Source Family Group Sub-group Name Language-dialect relationships
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