Language documentation at the University of Melbourne
Linguistics at the University of Melbourne has a long tradition of supporting fieldwork-based research on endangered languages.

Theodora Narndu, May 2009 in Wadeye
Topics range from descriptive grammars of little known languages to more specific investigations of phonetics, morphology, semantics, discourse, lexicography, language acquisition and language documentation.
To those University of Melbourne students obtaining scholarship support for the Linguistics and Applied Linguistics PhD program, financial support for fieldwork through the Faculty Fieldwork Scheme is available (currently up to around AUD $10,000); in many cases further support from particular research projects is also available. A Language Documention lab provides a desk, filing cabinet and computer for each PhD student undertaking remote area fieldwork and language documentation.

working with singers Bruce and
Thomas Nabegeyo and didjeridu
player Stephen Ganeradj to
record and document kunborrk
songs near Gunbalanya, NT, July
2005 (Photo: Allan Marett)
Honours students can take field methods classes which may trigger an interest in the language studied that results in further research on that language. Languages that have been studied in the field methods course in recent years have included Lopit (Sudan), Ganalbingu (Australian), Golin, Enga (Papuan), Tetun Dili, Lau, Sasak, Bugis and Acehnese (Austronesian).
The program offers two regular courses on Australian Aboriginal languages, and a further course involving the study of a particular language family (eg the Aslian languages of the Malay Peninsula). We regularly offer workshops in topics in language documentation with a focus on software tools to support linguistic analysis.
Linguistics staff have been central in establishing the Pacific and Regional Archive for Digital Sources in Endangered Cultures (PARADISEC) and support long-term reusability of records produced during linguistic research. We also established the Resource Network for Linguistic Diversity to support language work and to network between researchers in the field, since 2019 called Living Languages, a key national organisation delivering grassroots training to Indigenous people across Australia.
Staff and affiliates

Taylor and the late Pijuka Itiwanu
in Karlamilyi (Rudall River) 1991
- Associate Professor Brett Baker - Ngalagkan, Wubuy (Australia)
- Dr Joe Blythe - Murrinh-Patha conversation and interaction
- Professor Janet Fletcher - Phonetics of Australian languages; intonation and prosody
- Dr Jennifer Green - Arandic languages, Central Australian sign languages, multimodal documentation
- Dr Barbara Kelly - Sherpa (Nepal)
- Dr Jean Mulder - Coast Tsimshian, Sm'algyax (Canada)
- Professor Rachel Nordlinger - Murrinh-Patha (Northern Australia), Bilinarra, Wambaya, the Doing great things with small languages project and the Language Acquisition in Murrinh-Patha (LAMP) project
- Professor Lesley Stirling - Kala Kawaw Ya (Torres Strait)
- Dr Aung Si - ethnobiology and language documentation in Arnhem land
- Dr Ruth Singer - Mawng, multilingual documentation
- Associate Professor Nick Thieberger - South Efate (Central Vanuatu), Warnman (Western Australia), CI in the Doing great things with small languages project
- Pacific and Regional Archive for Digital Sources in Endangered Cultures (PARADISEC)
- Resource Network for Linguistic Diversity (RNLD) now called Living Languages
- Professor Gillian Wigglesworth - Aboriginal Child Language Acquisition project (with Jane Simpson)
Graduate students with fieldwork-based research recently or currently enrolled (2014)

involved in an elicitation session
on Mawng. Warruwi, Goulburn
Island, May 2006 (Photo: Isabel
Bickerd)
- Brigitte Agnew - grammatical description of Mangarla (north Western Australia)
- Rosey Billington - Phonetics and phonology of Lopit (South Sudan)
- Lucy Davidson - investigating the ways in which children become cultural members of Murrinhpatha speaking society (Northern Australia)
- Daniela Diedrich - grammatical description of Paku, Kalimantan (Indonesia)
- Bill Forshaw - Acquisition of verbal morphology in Murrinh-Patha (Northern Australia)
- Kate Horrack - Argument structure in Wubuy (Northern Australia)
- Ivan Kapitonov - grammatical description of Kunbarlang (Northern Australia)
- Isabel O'Keeffe (née Bickerdike) - Kun-barlang language and songs in multilingual western Arnhem Land (Northern Australia)
- Jonathan Moodie - Grammatical description of Lopit (South Sudan)
- Gemma Morales - the development of Yolngu Matha (home language) literacy skills (Northern Australia)
Graduates
- Sara Ciesielski (2016) - Sherpa language socialisation (Nepal)
- Brighde Collins (2016) - Aspectual expression in Ngandi (Northern Australia)
- Hywel Stokes (2014) - Phonetics of Bininj Gun wok (Northern Australia)
- Aidan Wilson (2014) - Verbal morphology in Traditional Tiwi (Northern Australia)
- Lauren Gawne (2013) - Evidentiality in Lamjung Yolmo (Nepal)
- Amanda Brotchie (2009) - Grammar and Narrative in Tirax (Vanuatu)
- Samantha Disbray (2009) - Locational expressions in Wumparrarni English narratives (Warumungu and Kriol). (Northern Australia)
- Jenny Green (2009) - Integrating gesture, sand diagrams and speech in Alyawerre (Central Australia)
- Robyn Loughnane (2009) - Oksapmin (Papuan, PNG)
- Karin Moses (2009) - Child directed questions in Yakanarra (Kriol and Walmajarri) (Western Australia)
- Sebastian Fedden (2007) - A grammar of Miyan. (Papuan, PNG) (Now at MPI, Nijmegen)
- Anthony Jukes (2007) - A grammar of Makassarese (Indonesia) (Recently worked at SOAS, London)
- Felicity Meakins (2007) - Case marking in Gurindji Kriol (Northern Australia)
- Eva Fenwick (2007) - Beja (Sudan) (MA)
- Alice Gaby (2006) - A grammar of Kuuk Thaayorre (Cape York, Northern Australia)
- Ruth Singer (2006) - Topics in Mawng agreement (Northern Australia)
- Yon Mahyuni (2004) - Speech styles and cultural consciousness in the Sasak community, Lombok (Indonesia)
- Adam Saulwick (2004) - The verb in Rembarrnga, a polysynthetic language (Now working in Adelaide)
- Nicholas Thieberger (2004) - Topics in the grammar and documentation of South Efate, an Oceanic language of Central Vanuatu
- Domenyk Eades (2003) - A grammar of Gayo: a language of Aceh, Sumatra
- Jeanie Bell (2003) - A sketch grammar of the Badjala language of Gari (Fraser Island) (MA)
- Judith Bishop (2002) - Aspects of intonation and prosody in Biinj Gun-wok: an autosegmental-metrical analysis.(Northern Australia)
- Nick Enfield (2000) - Linguistic epidemiology: on the polyfuctionality of 'acquire' in mainland South East Asia
- Nicole Kruspe (1999) - Semelai
- Tonya Stebbins (1999) - Issues in Sm'algyax (Coast Tsimshian) Lexicography (Canada)
- Cathy Bow (1999) - The vowel system of Moloko (MA)
- Rachel Nordlinger (1993) A grammar of Wambaya
Other linguists at the University of Melbourne
- Steven Bird - Open Language Archives Community, Basic Oral Language Documentation (BOLD) PNG project (among others)
- Mike Ewing - Endangered Moluccan Languages: Eastern Indonesia and the Dutch Diaspora
- Professor John Hajek - Indigenous languages of Eastern East Timor: description and contact studies, Saliba (PNG), Tetun Dili and Waima'a (E Timor), Monégasque (Monaco), Bolognese (Italy)
- Yongxian Luo (Chinese studies) - Tai linguistics, semantics, lexicography