Peter Austin (linguist)

Peter Austin
Nationality Australian
Occupation Linguist
Academic work
Institutions SOAS, University of London

Peter Austin is an Australian linguist, widely published in the fields of language documentation, syntax and linguistic typology.

Work

He has done fieldwork on several Australian languages.In addition to Gamilaraay, he also did intensive work on Diyari. He first learned Diyari in 1974, from a retired cattle station hand, Leslie Russell, whom he encountered in Marree. Russell died the following year.[1]

Austin has also worked on the Austronesian languages Sasak and Samawa . He is currently the Märit Rausing Chair in Field Linguistics at SOAS, University of London.[2] Austin is deeply involved in work to salvage languages that are otherwise on the verge of extinction.[3]

Language blog

Since 2013 Austin has maintained a blog on Diyari.[1] The blog is one of a number of language revitalisation and reclamation activities held in conjunction with the Dieri community. He also pioneered, with David Nathan, the first fully page-formatted hypertext dictionary of an Australian language with the creation of the 1994 Gamilaraay online dictionary.[4]

Awards

On 30 January 2015 Austin received an honorary doctorate from the Faculty of Languages at Uppsala University for playing "a crucial international part in drawing attention to endangered languages by emphasising the importance of documenting the human cultural heritage represented by the thousands of languages at risk of vanishing in the near future. His motto that 'every lost word means yet another lost world' has boosted schools' and the public's interest in endangered languages."[5]

Notes

    Citations

    Sources

    • Austin, Peter. "Ngayana Diyari Yawarra Yathayilha: Supporting the Dieri language".
    • Austin, Peter; Nathan, David. "Kamilaroi/Gamilaraay Dictionary".
    • Austin, Peter K. (17 August 2008). "Peter K Austin's top 10 endangered languages". The Guardian.
    • Dixon, R. M. W. (2002). Australian Languages: Their Nature and Development. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-47378-1.
    • Dixon, R. M. W. (2011). Searching for Aboriginal Languages: Memoirs of a Field Worker. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-108-02504-1.
    • Langton, Marcia (2012). "The Diaspora and the Return: History and Memory in Cape York Peninsula, Australia". In Hendry, Joy; Fitznor, Laara. Anthropologists, Indigenous Scholars and the Research Endeavour: Seeking Bridges Towards Mutual Respect. Routledge. pp. 171–184. ISBN 978-1-136-33115-2.
    • "Peter K. Austin at The Linguistic Summer Institute 2015". 2015. Archived from the original on 10 January 2016.
    • "Two new honorary doctors at Faculty of Languages". Uppsala University. 16 October 2014.


    This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.