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  • Introductory dictionary of Western Arrernte
  • Claire Bowern
Introductory dictionary of Western Arrernte. Comp. by Gavan Breen. Alice Springs: IAD Press, 2000. ISBN 0949659983. €26.24.

Western Arrernte, an Australian language, is spoken in Central Australia, in Alice Springs and in the country to the west of Alice Springs. This dictionary was compiled by Gavan Breen from historical sources and through the knowledge of the Western Arrernte community. It is a preliminary dictionary and will form the basis of a much more extensive work in the future.

The core of the dictionary is the Western Arrernte-to-English dictionary. There is also an English-to-Western Arrernte finderlist (giving only English words and their Western Arrernte counterparts; one must then look up the Western Arrernte word in the main part of the dictionary to ascertain if it is the desired word).

The audience for a dictionary of this sort is potentially very diverse, and B has done a good job of making it as accessible as possible to a variety of people who may want to use it—for example, native speakers in literacy projects, people for whom Western Arrernte is a heritage language, linguists, and others.

The dictionary is organized by bolded headword. Derivations from the headword are listed as subentries. Phrases are listed under both members; for example, alknge pange ‘blind’ is listed under both alknge ‘eye’ and pange ‘closed’. There is no part of speech given. Some cultural items and flora and fauna are illustrated, and example sentences in Western Arrernte and English are given. Some usage comments also appear; for example, under kngeye ‘father’ it is noted that karte is a much more common word. Information about usage of some traditional items, such as ilepe ‘stone axe’, is given in English.

Rather than an English-Western Arrernte section, the dictionary has an English finderlist that gives Western Arrernte translation equivalents for English words. The finderlist also has subentries; for example, under ‘learn’ kaltyirreme we also find ‘quick to learn’ inangkerle and ‘learner’ kaltyirrenhirrenhe. Place names also appear in the finder.

There are some problems to be overcome in printing dictionaries of this sort. For example, Western Arrernte has no standard written form, and there are considerable differences in pronunciation between the different Western Arrernte-speaking areas which can lead to words being written quite differently. The orthography problem is particularly apparent with the rounding of consonants with initial u-; also, initial retroflex stops are sometimes written without the ret-roflexion, so there is alternation not only between uC vs. Cw (untyare vs. ntyware) but also between urt and tw, for example, urtape and twape. In many cases, B lists both.

Introductory dictionary of Western Arrernte is a welcome addition to our records of Central Australian languages.

Claire Bowern
Harvard University
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