SUMMARY OF TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER

Summary of Torres Strait Islander

Summary of Torres Strait Islander

Introduction

In this paper, we would examine the lives of Torres Island Strait, not focusing all the areas of their living, but emphasis on certain objects. Such as traditional communication of the Torres Strait people, along with the controversies with English language, protocol in relation with communication and understanding, and their cultural importance. The number of Aboriginal languages of Australia by today is approximately about 260, but it is likely that only 150 to 200 of them are still spoken. Languages of Indigenous Australians are distinct family: the Australian family. The presence of very old (more than 35 000 years) of Aboriginal people in Australia have created a phenomenon of linguistic fragmentation. The languages of these peoples, who are currently among the oldest in the world, were originally very closely interconnected, but due to the accumulation of these ancient languages eventually evolve differently, so much that is hardly possible by today to recognize the original affinities.

Discussion

Some 200 Australian languages are still used a few (less than ten) are spoken by over 1000 speakers: the Alyawarra language (1500) in the Northern Territory and Queensland, the Anindilyakwa (1000) in the Territory North and the Gulf of Carpentaria, the West Arunta (1000) and the Eastern Arunta (1500-2000) in the Northern Territory, kala lagaw (3000-4000) in the Strait Islander Torres and in Queensland , the Murrinbata (1000) in the Northern Territory, the Pitjantjara (2500) in South Australia, the Warlpiri (3000) in the Northern Territory and the Wik-mungknh (1000) in Queensland (Fuary, 1997, pp. 247). The number of speakers of a language often Australian oscillates around 100 to 500, but most languages have more than a few dozen speakers, if some (often less than ten). In all likelihood, there will be very few Australian languages in two or three decades. The approximately 353,000 of indigenous Australians in 1996 (approximately 1.5% of the population), only 40,000 or 50,000 of them would keep knowledge of their ancestral language. These are the so-called Aboriginal Australians "purebred", which are mostly elderly people. Many Aboriginal Australians today who are unaware of their ancestral languages, while many others do aborigines have often imperfect notions, or very fragmentary. Moreover, nearly 95% of the Aboriginal population speaks English, if not mother tongue, at least as a second language. Those who speak indigenous languages are often multilingual and can speak and understand a number of other languages Creole and English.

Communication

Some indigenous communities have found a way to communicate with members of other language communities. They invented new languages such as Creole languages based on English. Some would say simply that the English learned by the aborigines has been modified in a language that is easier to understand (Jones & Barnett, 2006). There are two forms of Creole in Australia.

Creole

In some parts of the country, particularly in the Northern Territory , Western Australia and Queensland, some Indigenous speak Kriol, an English-based Creole and used by at least 10,000 mother tongue speakers and ...