Port Sorell language

Port Sorell
Port Sorell Tasmanian
RegionNorth-central coast of Tasmania
EthnicityNorthern tribe of Tasmanians
Extinct19th century
Northern–Western Tasmanian?
Language codes
ISO 639-3xpl
Glottologport1278
AIATSIST13

Port Sorell is an extinct aboriginal language of Tasmania in the reconstruction of Claire Bowern. It was spoken near Port Sorell, in the center of the north coast, just east of Northern Tasmanian proper. Dixon & Crowley (1981) agree that there is unlikely to be a close connection to other varieties of Tasmanian.

Port Sorell Tasmanian is attested from at least two word lists: One of 268[dubious – discuss] words collected by Charles Robinson (the son of George Augustus Robinson) at Port Sorell, and another of only 77 words, the "Little Jemmie’s" vocabulary collected by George Augustus Robinson.

Among the Robinson papers (call number A7085, item 6) held at the Mitchell Library, Sydney, there are 6 word lists of Port Sorell Tasmanian that were handwritten by Charles Robinson, with significant duplication; one of the lists is titled only as Larmuric (the informant's name). The Mitchell Library's A7085 manuscript set also has the following word lists that were handwritten by Charles Robinson, all of which are partly duplicated.

References

  1. ↑ T13 Port Sorell at the Australian Indigenous Languages Database, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
  2. ↑ Bowern, Claire (2012-11-22). "The riddle of Tasmanian languages". Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 279 (1747): 4590–4595. doi:10.1098/rspb.2012.1842. ISSN 0962-8452. PMC 3479735. PMID 23015621.
  3. ↑ Crowley, T; Dixon, R. M. W. (1981). "Tasmanian". In Dixon, R. M. W.; Blake, B. J. (eds.). Handbook of Australian languages. Vol 2. Canberra: Australian National University Press. pp. 394–421.
  4. ↑ Bowern (2012), supplement
  5. 1 2 Plomley, N. J. B. (1976). A Word-list of the Tasmanian Aboriginal Languages. Launceston: Government of Tasmania. ISBN 0724601988.