Abstract
Here, I report the pervasive distribution in numerous Aboriginal language groups all over Australia, of kinship terms with similar phonetic shapes and meanings, such as kaka MB, FZH, EF. It is argued that this distribution is consistent with the antiquity of this term in the language families in which it is found. Further, its pervasive presence in non-Pama-Nyungan (non-PNy) as well as in Pama-Nyungan (PNy) languages, is consistent with inheritance from a higher taxonomic level, possibly Proto-Australian, and beyond, and even possibly from the proto-language spoken by the first modern men who colonized Sahul, while the grounded idea of a primordial Kariera-like at the start of higher nodes in the Australian language phylum is consistent with the claim that the Proto-Australian kinship system was Kariera-like.
Highlights
Among the goals that the AustKin project1 has set out is the reconstruction of the PamaNyungan kinship system. McConvell & Keen (2011: 103) stress the fact that this is being done by collecting all the kin terms in Pama-Nyungan and other languages where relevant, together with other vocabulary items that appear to be related to kin terms
The symbols ♀ and ♂ found before kin type abbreviations indicate the sex of the person speaking; P-: ‘Proto-’; dial.: dialect; lang.: language; PNy: Pama-Nyungan; non-PNy: non-PamaNyungan; C: consonant; V: vowel; G-0: ego’s generation; G+1: first ascending generation; G-1: first descending generation etc.; syn.: synonym; Arandic possibly *kamerne MB (AM): Alain Matthey, pers. comm.: personal communication; Gur.: Gurindji
I present evidence for the existence all over Australia of kin terms with the phonetic shape kaka, or forms phonetically likely derived from kaka and most generally referring to MB, and I suggest that their distribution in Pama-Nyungan and non-PamaNyungan languages ( PNy and non-PNy) is consistent with their inheritance from a higher-level Australian linguistic group
Summary
I report the pervasive distribution in numerous Aboriginal language groups all over Australia, of kinship terms with similar phonetic shapes and meanings, such as kaka MB, FZH, EF. It is argued that this distribution is consistent with the antiquity of this term in the language families in which it is found. Its pervasive presence in non-Pama-Nyungan (non-PNy) as well as in Pama-Nyungan (PNy) languages, is consistent with inheritance from a higher taxonomic level, possibly Proto-Australian, and beyond, and even possibly from the proto-language spoken by the first modern men who colonized Sahul. The assumed existence of Kariera-like terminologies in the higher nodes in the Australian language phylum is consistent with the claim that the Proto-Australian kinship system was Kariera-like The symbols ♀ (or w) and ♂ (or m) found before kin type abbreviations indicate the sex of the person speaking; P-: ‘Proto-’; dial.: dialect; lang.: language; PNy: Pama-Nyungan; non-PNy: non-PamaNyungan; C: consonant; V: vowel; G-0: ego’s generation; G+1: first ascending generation; G-1: first descending generation etc.; syn.: synonym; AM: Alain Matthey (de l’Etang), pers. comm.: personal communication; Gur.: Gurindji
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