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Pitjantjatjara Elementary Course and Advanced Course
This elementary course in the Central Australian language Pitjantjatjara provides a basic grounding in the pronunciation and grammar of the language, and is accessible to absolute beginners. It was created between 1966 and 1968 by the Rev Jim Dixon, Gordon Ingkatji and Ken Hale. Pitjantjatjara audio was recorded by Gordon Ingkatji and a so far unidentified female speaker, and English audio by Henk Siliakus. The material was used for many years in Pitjantjatjara courses given at Adelaide University and the University of South Australia.
The course was later digitised by Paul Eckert and Mary-Ann Gale. The multimedia version here was created by Manny Rayner using the LARA toolkit and corrected by Sasha Wilmoth.
The course was later digitised by Paul Eckert and Mary-Ann Gale. The multimedia version here was created by Manny Rayner using the LARA toolkit and corrected by Sasha Wilmoth.
29 pages, ebook
First published January 1, 1966
3 people want to read
About the author
Jim Downing
6 booksRetired Navy Lt. Jim Downing was America’s second oldest known survivor of the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. He was also a member of The Navigators, a Christian ministry established in 1933. Jim wrote three books including his biography in 2016, The Other Side of Infamy. The book earned him a Guinness World Record as the oldest male author, having completed the book at age 102.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
September 30, 2025
[Original review, Dec 12 2022]
I liked Cliff Goddard's Pitjantjatjara/Yankunytjatjara Learner's Guide so much that I decided I had to find out more about these languages. I particularly wanted to get a better idea of what Pitjantjatjara sounds like. After searching around, I located a old course that had once been taught at Adelaide University; the material, both text and audio, was available for sale on USB sticks from a couple of Australian sites. The package looked like this:
I paid my AUD 30 and waited for it to arrive.
The course turned out to be excellent, and gives a solid introduction to Pitjantjatjara grammar and pronunciation: it had been developed between 1966 and 1968 by the the Rev Jim Downing, a Pitjantjatjara man called Gordon Ingkatji, and legendary MIT linguist Ken Hale, with audio recorded by Ingkatji and a so far unidentified female speaker. (I would love to know more about how these apparently very different people collaborated). In several places, knowledgeable people say it was the first course ever offered on an Indigenous Australian language.
I couldn't resist the temptation to convert it into LARA format so that text, sound and translations were all directly linked together. It took a while, but I fitted in a chapter every now and then and completed all 16 of them in a couple of months. When I thought I'd accomplished everything I could reasonably do unaided, I asked around again and a colleague put me in touch with a Melbourne linguist called Sasha Wilmoth, who'd just finished a PhD on Pitjantjatjara. Sasha went through my initial draft with amazing efficiency and the next day gave me a comprehensive list of things that needed fixing: luckily, they were all easy to take care of, and the second draft was a great deal better than the first. After a couple more rounds of fixing and improving, we decided we were done. We've just submitted a short paper about our efforts to a 2023 meeting.
This exercise was both enjoyable and instructive; I now feel I at least know something about Pitjantjatjara. The USB stick also contains a second course ("Advanced Pitjantjatjara", 12 units), and I'm thinking of having a go at converting that too. Stay tuned for further developments.
________________
[Update, Mar 27 2024]
Sasha and I did indeed convert the "Advanced Course", and our paper was presented at the 2023 edition of Computational Methods for Endangered Languages. You can access it here. We were feeling pleased with ourselves, but then disaster struck! Gordon Ingkatji's daughters, who'd previously told Sasha that they were very happy to see their father's memory honoured in this way, contacted her to say they'd reconsidered: in fact, they wanted financial compensation for allowing the course to be put online. The copyright situation was unclear, but in these situations the family's wishes are always considered first. Unfortunately, we had no budget to pay them, so we were forced to take the course down again.
But as of this week, there is a happy ending to the story. The people at AUSIL, who had distributed the USB stick version and have vast experience in dealing with Indigenous language rights issues, took on the case and negotiated an amicable settlement with the Ingkatji family. They have just put the course online again on their site; you'll find it here.
In my opinion, the reason why so many people were willing to give up their time to help make sure that the course was preserved is simply that it is very good. It is also an important historical document, representing a landmark in Indigenous language studies. I am really happy that I was able to make a small contribution to this effort.
________________
[Update, Sep 30 2025]
Whatever have I done to offend Samael Yetzerhara? He seems to have gone through my publications here on Goodreads and one-starred all of them (I've just picked this randomly as an example). I don't even recognise the name, though I imagine it's possible that he's someone I do know hiding under a pseudonym. I'm told this occasionally happens on the Web.
Okay Mr Yetzerhara or whoever you are, go for it! Post some nasty reviews too if that's what you feel like doing! As P.T. Barnum so wisely said, there's no such thing as bad publicity.
________________
[and literally minutes later...]
A quick Google search was enough to find this useful page, which explains as follows:
Okay, that is satisfactorily obscure, weird and creepy. Nice work.
I liked Cliff Goddard's Pitjantjatjara/Yankunytjatjara Learner's Guide so much that I decided I had to find out more about these languages. I particularly wanted to get a better idea of what Pitjantjatjara sounds like. After searching around, I located a old course that had once been taught at Adelaide University; the material, both text and audio, was available for sale on USB sticks from a couple of Australian sites. The package looked like this:
I paid my AUD 30 and waited for it to arrive.
The course turned out to be excellent, and gives a solid introduction to Pitjantjatjara grammar and pronunciation: it had been developed between 1966 and 1968 by the the Rev Jim Downing, a Pitjantjatjara man called Gordon Ingkatji, and legendary MIT linguist Ken Hale, with audio recorded by Ingkatji and a so far unidentified female speaker. (I would love to know more about how these apparently very different people collaborated). In several places, knowledgeable people say it was the first course ever offered on an Indigenous Australian language.
I couldn't resist the temptation to convert it into LARA format so that text, sound and translations were all directly linked together. It took a while, but I fitted in a chapter every now and then and completed all 16 of them in a couple of months. When I thought I'd accomplished everything I could reasonably do unaided, I asked around again and a colleague put me in touch with a Melbourne linguist called Sasha Wilmoth, who'd just finished a PhD on Pitjantjatjara. Sasha went through my initial draft with amazing efficiency and the next day gave me a comprehensive list of things that needed fixing: luckily, they were all easy to take care of, and the second draft was a great deal better than the first. After a couple more rounds of fixing and improving, we decided we were done. We've just submitted a short paper about our efforts to a 2023 meeting.
This exercise was both enjoyable and instructive; I now feel I at least know something about Pitjantjatjara. The USB stick also contains a second course ("Advanced Pitjantjatjara", 12 units), and I'm thinking of having a go at converting that too. Stay tuned for further developments.
________________
[Update, Mar 27 2024]
Sasha and I did indeed convert the "Advanced Course", and our paper was presented at the 2023 edition of Computational Methods for Endangered Languages. You can access it here. We were feeling pleased with ourselves, but then disaster struck! Gordon Ingkatji's daughters, who'd previously told Sasha that they were very happy to see their father's memory honoured in this way, contacted her to say they'd reconsidered: in fact, they wanted financial compensation for allowing the course to be put online. The copyright situation was unclear, but in these situations the family's wishes are always considered first. Unfortunately, we had no budget to pay them, so we were forced to take the course down again.
But as of this week, there is a happy ending to the story. The people at AUSIL, who had distributed the USB stick version and have vast experience in dealing with Indigenous language rights issues, took on the case and negotiated an amicable settlement with the Ingkatji family. They have just put the course online again on their site; you'll find it here.
In my opinion, the reason why so many people were willing to give up their time to help make sure that the course was preserved is simply that it is very good. It is also an important historical document, representing a landmark in Indigenous language studies. I am really happy that I was able to make a small contribution to this effort.
________________
[Update, Sep 30 2025]
Whatever have I done to offend Samael Yetzerhara? He seems to have gone through my publications here on Goodreads and one-starred all of them (I've just picked this randomly as an example). I don't even recognise the name, though I imagine it's possible that he's someone I do know hiding under a pseudonym. I'm told this occasionally happens on the Web.
Okay Mr Yetzerhara or whoever you are, go for it! Post some nasty reviews too if that's what you feel like doing! As P.T. Barnum so wisely said, there's no such thing as bad publicity.
________________
[and literally minutes later...]
A quick Google search was enough to find this useful page, which explains as follows:
In Judaism, yetzer hara (Hebrew: יֵצֶר הַרַע, romanized: yēṣer haraʿ) is a term for humankind's congenital inclination to do evil. The concept is prominent in rabbinic texts and in the works of the Syriac poet Narsai.
(...)
In traditional Judaism, yetzer hara is not a demonic force; despite this, Samael [an archangel in Talmudic and post-Talmudic tradition; a figure who is the accuser or adversary (Satan in the Book of Job), seducer, and destroying angel (in the Book of Exodus)] is considered the source of the yetzer hara, through man's misuse of things the physical body needs to survive. Thus, the need for food becomes gluttony due to the yetzer hara. The need for procreation becomes promiscuity, and so on.
Okay, that is satisfactorily obscure, weird and creepy. Nice work.
Displaying 1 of 1 review