A new dictionary that will provide a valuable learning tool for Western Arrarnte speakers is being launched today.
The dictionary is the result of a collaboration between the Alice Springs Language Centre and the Western Arrarnta Community.
“Western Arrarnta is the language spoken in the western area of Central Australia and its literacy has been taught in Ntaria/Hermannsburg since the German missionaries opened schools in the late 19th Century,” said Susan Moore, principal of the Language Centre.
The need for a dictionary came from the large number of senior secondary students taught by the Alice Springs Language Centre who study Certificates II and III in Arrarnta Applied Language Courses and Stage 2 Australian Language courses.
The dictionary will support students in completing their assessment tasks in their own dialect.
“Western Arrarnta speakers, who are continuing bilingual education, need the same resources available to other language speakers and this dictionary will become an invaluable tool for them to use as they improve their education,” Ms Moore said.
The dictionary has more than 2400-word entries. The planning, content and review of the dictionary was conducted by Western Arrarnta elders and language workers as well as the Language Centre’s linguist Dr David Moore.
“The dictionary will help to maintain the Western Arrarnta language,” said Senior Arrarnta Teacher Jannette McCormack.
A version is also available for students to use online, and future plans include the recording of sound files to include in the online version of the dictionary.
“It is important to have an online dictionary as our students do a lot of writing and translating between languages and they need to know how to spell consistently to read and write their language,” Ms McCormack said.
The Language Centre successfully applied for an Indigenous Languages and Arts grant from the Federal Government to create the dictionary.
