Pertame
Southern Arrernte, Southern Aranda
Pertame
RegionSouth-Eastern Northern Territory, along the Finke River
Extinct2018[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3–
Glottologpert1234
AIATSIS[2]C46

Pertame, also known as Southern Arrernte or Southern Aranda, is an Arandic language (but not of the Arrernte language group) from the country south of Alice Springs, along the Finke River, north and north-west of the location inhabited by speakers of Lower Arrernte.[3] Ethnologue classes Pertame as a variant name for Lower Southern, but other sources vary in their classifications and descriptions of this language.

Language revival

With only 20 fluent speakers left by 2018,[1] the Pertame Project is seeking to retain and revive the language, headed by Pertame elder Christobel Swan.[4]

As of 2020, Pertame is one of 20 languages prioritised as part of the Priority Languages Support Project, being undertaken by First Languages Australia and funded by the Department of Communications and the Arts. The project aims to "identify and document critically-endangered languages — those languages for which little or no documentation exists, where no recordings have previously been made, but where there are living speakers".[5]

Speakers

Renowned artist Erlikilyika (Jim Kite) was a Pertame speaker.

References

  1. ^ a b "To save a dying language". Alice Springs News Online. 23 May 2019. Retrieved 9 June 2019.
  2. ^ C46 Pertame at the Australian Indigenous Languages Database, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
  3. ^ "Lower Arrernte". Mobile Language Team. Archived from the original on 30 September 2018. Retrieved 15 June 2019.
  4. ^ "Pertame Project". Call for Australian languages and linguistics. Retrieved 9 June 2019.
  5. ^ "Priority Languages Support Project". First Languages Australia. Retrieved 13 January 2020.


Categories