Aboriginal words and concepts in Australian English

Abstract

Pluricentric English is caught between the two complementary processes of nativization and homogenization. The former favours the adoption of local expressions and norms, the latter the maintenance of features from the old heritage or from other dominant varieties. The process of the nativization of English may originate in and be enhanced by contact with other languages, resulting in a specific variety which serves to express and to constitute a local cultural identity. The effects of language contact are not restricted to, for instance, the mere addition of loans to a previously structured (mental) dictionary; they are much more pervasive. Language contact may result in a restructuring of the cognitive maps of speakers in their respective cultural contexts. Australian English (AE) shows a number of features that are due to the contact between white and indigenous populations and that are taken to signal part of its local distinctiveness. But the question whether contemporary Australian speakers are aware of the Aboriginal heritage in AE is rarely asked. In fact AE today may lose some of its former distinctiveness and experience problems of communication inside its own epicentre.