Book chapters by David Moore
Overseer Fibbs and three stockmen Beaumont, Deane and Fahey, taking with them all the horses 36, ... more Overseer Fibbs and three stockmen Beaumont, Deane and Fahey, taking with them all the horses 36, in number 30 were loaded with packs, and 6 reserved for riding, started from this camp to perform his journey to the interior. Intending also to establish a depot on or near the Jasper Plains about 80 miles to the Southward.
Translating and Interpreting in Australia and New Zealand: Distance and Diversity, Edited by Judy Wakabayashi and Minako O'Hagan. , 2022
Interpreters and users of their services in Australia’s Northern Territory frequently encounter c... more Interpreters and users of their services in Australia’s Northern Territory frequently encounter communication problems in courts, tribunals and governance meetings. Focusing on the Indigenous languages of Central Australia, the arid southern part of the Northern Territory, this chapter illustrates the difficulties of legal interpreting in Indigenous contexts and how court officers often misunderstand the nature of the interpreter’s task. Significant linguistic and worldview differences underlie the problem. Australian legal officers are usually monolingual and unaware of language differences and the role of the interpreter.
The first part of this chapter focuses on the linguistic background to Central Australia, particularly how missionary work influenced approaches to the translation of Indigenous languages. The second part focuses on language differences, providing examples of legal concepts and terms that cause difficulties for interpreters and arguing that more appropriate forms of language could be used in courts. I discuss recent attempts to create key terms for use in court, tribunals and human rights contexts for translations into Central Australian languages, as well as the challenges and limitations associated with this endeavour. The chapter concludes with an evaluation of some of the problems which interpreters face in Central Australian courts.
In Sabine Dedenbach-Salazar Sáenz [ed.] 2019. Translating Wor(l)ds: Christianity Across Cultural Boundaries. Anthropos Collecteana, 2019
German missionaries working in Central Australia were cultural translators who had a strong groun... more German missionaries working in Central Australia were cultural translators who had a strong grounding in philology, a discipline which developed in Germany to a high standard throughout the nineteenth century. The missionaries aimed to translate the Bible and hymnbook containing Luther’s Small Catechism, hymns and prayers, into the Aranda language. Their adoption of Altjira for ‘God’ was radical considering the literalness of their translations and their wariness of syncretism. Soesilo (2007: 176) maintains that “the acceptable translation of divine names is an area of debate in Bible translation in many areas of the world” as “there are missionaries and Christian workers who think that adopting local divine names can lead to confusion and syncretism.” Given concerns about syncretism and considering that Kempe usually borrowed Latin terms for key theological terms, it is surprising that he chose Altjira as the term for ‘God’. Over time Altjira has changed meaning and is now different from the one prior to European settlement of Australia. Changes in meaning are also found in other languages, where meanings have diverged in different ways. [Altjira; Arandic languages; literal translation; interlanguage; loanword]
Encountering Aboriginal Languages: Studies in the history of Australian Linguistics
Encountering Aboriginal Languages: Studies in the history of Australian linguistics
Papers by David Moore
Journal of Friends of Lutheran Archives, 2022
This paper examines the linguistic contribution of Missionary Carl FT Strehlow (1871–1922), who p... more This paper examines the linguistic contribution of Missionary Carl FT Strehlow (1871–1922), who published linguistic descriptions and translations of Central Australian languages between 1900 and 1910 and translated the Aranda New Testament in the following decade. I argue that language was central to Strehlow’s concerns throughout his training in the late nineteenth century and the following decades until his untimely death at remote Horseshoe Bend in the Northern Territory in October 1922.
In a monolingual courtroom, an assumption is made that Aboriginal witnesses know and understand t... more In a monolingual courtroom, an assumption is made that Aboriginal witnesses know and understand the English language; and can testify with minimal interpreting assistance. But what variety of English do they know? This article will focus on communication failures in legal interpreting, based upon the author’s recent experiences as a legal interpreter in courts and in police interviews.
In the last issue I claimed that due to incommensurability between concepts key terms are often b... more In the last issue I claimed that due to incommensurability between concepts key terms are often based upon words which have no direct translation. For example matter has many senses
Police officers encourage literal translation by asking an interpreter to 'interpret as literally... more Police officers encourage literal translation by asking an interpreter to 'interpret as literally as possible' between English and Aboriginal languages. False Friends are one of the reasons why 'direct translation' between languages is not possible. False Friends can be defined as words which sound the same and usually have a common origin but which have different meanings.
The Reformation shaped the practices of churches, missions and schools for the next five hundred ... more The Reformation shaped the practices of churches, missions and schools for the next five hundred years. It was through Lutheran churches and schools that the influence of the Reformation was brought to remote regions, including the first linguistic work in the Indigenous languages of South Australia and the Northern Territory. This paper explores the influence of Martin Luther and the Lutheran Reformation on the linguistic practices of the missionaries in Central Australia who undertook the first Bible translations into Australian Aboriginal languages.
Translations by David Moore
A comparative wordlist of the Arrernte and Luritja languages of Central Australia.
Proposals by David Moore
Uploads
Book chapters by David Moore
The first part of this chapter focuses on the linguistic background to Central Australia, particularly how missionary work influenced approaches to the translation of Indigenous languages. The second part focuses on language differences, providing examples of legal concepts and terms that cause difficulties for interpreters and arguing that more appropriate forms of language could be used in courts. I discuss recent attempts to create key terms for use in court, tribunals and human rights contexts for translations into Central Australian languages, as well as the challenges and limitations associated with this endeavour. The chapter concludes with an evaluation of some of the problems which interpreters face in Central Australian courts.
Papers by David Moore
Translations by David Moore
http://www.nintione.com.au/resource/DKCRC_Angka-Akatyerr
Proposals by David Moore
The first part of this chapter focuses on the linguistic background to Central Australia, particularly how missionary work influenced approaches to the translation of Indigenous languages. The second part focuses on language differences, providing examples of legal concepts and terms that cause difficulties for interpreters and arguing that more appropriate forms of language could be used in courts. I discuss recent attempts to create key terms for use in court, tribunals and human rights contexts for translations into Central Australian languages, as well as the challenges and limitations associated with this endeavour. The chapter concludes with an evaluation of some of the problems which interpreters face in Central Australian courts.
http://www.nintione.com.au/resource/DKCRC_Angka-Akatyerr
Alyawarr verbs are agglutinative, suffixing and compounding. Alyawarr is in rich inflectional and derivational morphology. One significant category is Motion.
Chapter One is an introduction to the Alyawarr language and reviews the literature on the language. Verb roots and types of word formation are explored in Chapter 2. Subsequent chapters explore different categories which follow the verb root. Chapter 3 covers Derivation and Number. Chapter 4 explores the categories of Motion and Aspect. Chapter 5 is dedicated to the inflectional categories of Tense and Mood and to complex clauses.
This research represents seventeen years of research in the Alyawarr language based upon extensive text collections and data elicitation. Although this thesis builds on that of Stanham (1972), Turtle (n.d) and Yallop (1977), it contains new perspectives on understanding the Alyawarr verb and further refines previous analyses.
This thesis is also distinctive and interesting because of further detailed information about reduplication in Alyawarr. Basic Motion verbs are explained and the category of Motion including an account of vertical motion. Another feature of this thesis is an exploration of the aspectual system of Alyawarr and its relationship to the categories of tense and mood along with a number of hitherto undescribed inflections.
References
Green, Jennifer, David Blackman and David Moore. Alyawarr to English Dictionary 2nd Edition. Alice Springs: IAD Press.
Humphris, Kathryn Celeste. (2017). A morphosyntactic sketch of Lower Arrernte, Central Australia. Brisbane: University of Queensland BA (Hons) thesis.
Moore, David (2019). German Lutheran Missionaries and the Description of Central Australian Languages 1890-1910. PhD Thesis. Linguistics, University of Western Australia.
Wilkins, David P. (1989). Mparntwe Arrernte (Aranda) Studies in the structure and semantics of grammar. Ph.D thesis, Linguistics. Australian National University.
Die Eingeborenen der Kolonie Südaustralien; Dietrich Reimer (Repr. NY 1966), Berlin 1908