Speakers: Dr Sasha Wilmoth (IAS Fellow, University of Melbourne) and Tom Ennever (Research Fellow, University of Surrey)
Closely related languages can share many of the same building blocks and yet arrange them in strikingly different ways. In this talk we look at the verbs of ten Western Desert varieties of Australia. These form a chain of closely related dialects spread across a vast area, and we use them to ask how such differences emerge and build up over time.
Two pressures pull against each other. One is the push to keep verbs predictable, so that knowing one form of a verb tells you the rest. The other is the push to keep each form’s meaning clear. Like the pieces of a kaleidoscope, the same elements fall into new patterns from one variety to the next. A single verb ending can cover a surprising bundle of meanings, such as commands, “let’s” suggestions, past habits, ongoing actions in the past or past events returning to a deictic centre. Each variety bundles them slightly differently. We also trace small extra syllables added to verbs. In some languages, they have a clear role in ensuring words conform to sound patterns and enhance predictability, but in others they have taken on more unexpected and less predictable roles.
Along the way, we reflect on what it takes to build shared digital records for comparing languages systematically, and where the Western Desert data encourage us to confront the theoretical assumptions we bring when using such tools.
