Gurindji Kriol is defined as a ‘mixed language’, constructed with elements of Kriol P1 and Gurindji C20. Gurindji Kriol was formed in the 1960s-70s when the youngest generation were exposed to code-switching by adults speaking Kriol and Gurindji, but exists independently of both. Since the 1990s young children are acquiring Gurindji Kriol as a single language from caregivers who were the first to acquire it from older children. Neither Gurindji nor Kriol is being transmitted but passive knowledge of Gurindji exists in these generations. Gurindji Kriol is spoken as everyday language; Kriol is not used within the community but may be used with Aboriginal peoples from other groups. There are linguistic innovations in Gurindji Kriol which are not found in either Gurindji or Kriol (McConvell and Meakins, 2005).
Census results for Kriol P1 may be relevant.
Meakins, Felicity. 2005. Gurindji Kriol: a mixed language emerges from code-switching, in Australian Journal of Linguistics Vol. 25, no. 1, p. [9]-30.
Meakins, Felicity. 2008. Land, language and identity : the socio-political origins of Gurindji Kriol in Social lives in Language, sociolinguistics and multilingual speech communities edited by N. Meyerhoff & N. Nagy. Amsterdam : John Benjamins, p. 69-94.
Meakins, Felicity. 2012. Which mix - code switching or a mixed language? - Gurindji Kriol in Journal of pidgin and creole languages Vol. 27 no. 1, p. 105-140.
McConvell, Patrick and Felicity Meakins. 2005. Gurindji Kriol ; a mixed language emerges from code-switching in Australian Journal of Linguistics Vol. 25, no. 1, p. [9]-30. <https://arts.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0006/1753521/gurindji...
Meakins, Felicity, Patrick McConvell, Erika Charola, Norm McNair, Helen McNair, Lauren Campbell. 2013. Gurindji to English dictionary. Batchelor NT: Batchelor Press.
Most Gurindji people now live on their traditional lands at Kalkaringi and Daguragu, remote Aboriginal communities situated on the Victoria Rver west of Wave Hill Station (Meakins et al. 2013: 1). See also Gurindji C20.
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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).
