The ABC's pronunciation of Aboriginal words
At the beginning of June, Tiger Webb, a language specialist with the Australian Broadcasting Commission wrote a piece for ABConline suggesting changes to the ABC pronunciation guide.
At the beginning of June, Tiger Webb, a language specialist with the Australian Broadcasting Commission wrote a piece for ABConline suggesting changes to the ABC pronunciation guide. The article recommended including the sounds of Australian Indigenous Languages in the pronunciation guide used across the organisation. Announcers on ABC radio and television are often required to use the names of Indigenous languages and places. These words contain sounds from Australian Indigenous languages that may be unfamiliar to an announcer. The current ABC pronunciation guide uses a pronunciation key based around English (including a little knowledge of French), but does not have many sounds common in Indigenous languages. This can lead to confusion and mispronunciation. During the preparation for the piece Tiger Webb talked with Dr. Hywel Stoakes and Dr. Jill Vaughan from RUIL and Tracey Cameron, a Gamilaraay language specialist who teaches at the University of Sydney, who gave suggestions about which sounds would be appropriate to include. The main suggestion was that the unique sounds of Indigenous languages should be added to the pronunciation key, including initial velar nasals [ŋ], retroflex sounds and dental consonant sounds. These sounds would be illustrated in the pronunciation key using Indigenous language names such as Ngunnawal (for initial velars), Warlpiri (for retroflex /l/-sounds) and Guugu Yimithirr (for dental consonants). These proposals haven’t been adopted by the organisation yet, but we remain hopeful that the ABC’s board will consider the suggestion.
For more on the pronunciation of Australian Indigenous languages visit the “The Sounds of Australian Aboriginal Languages” series on the RUIL website.