Western Desert lexicography
A mid-1989 status report

There are numerous vocabularies of various forms of the Western Desert language. I list below, in roughly the order of their creation, the ones of which I am aware. As it happens, all but McConvell's are in machine-readable form, at least in their latest and "master" version. Apart from Douglas' and Marsh's, the machine-readable files are deposited at the AIAS, under various conditions of access and use.

• Geoffrey N. O'Grady's 1967-68 comparative Australian project at the University of Hawaii keyboarded some Western Desert vocabularies among the over forty languages included in the study.

  The language name codes used, and the sources for the material of each language as used in O'Grady's machine-readable files are:

  code language entries source
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------
  GRD Gardudjarra 1488 Jim Marsh (?), Eric Lindgren ?
  WRN Warnman 353 O'Grady 1954, 1960, 1967
  YUL Yulbaridja 1204 O'Grady 1954, Sept-Oct 1967 at LaGrange; Klokeid Aug 1967 possibly on punched cards

  The items are in alphabetical order, with various fields in particular absolute column ranges.

• Susan Woenne Green & Eric Ten Raa's 1974 machine-readable compilation of Western Desert lexical material to that date has now been retrieved. The current file is 2106k, with has 13,590 records; the records are derived from punched cards, and contain much unnecessary "whitespace", and are all in upper case. Often the material of one lexical entry extends over two or more lines. The AIAS National Lexicography Project is now assisting Nick Thieberger at the Pilbara Aboriginal Languages Centre to structure it and clean it up.

  [List of sources used]

• Fr K.R. McKelson's "topical vocabulary" of Yulparija has been keyboarded and edited by Diana McCallum, working under Fr McKelson's supervision at La Grange in early 1989, with support from the AIAS National Lexicography Project. The master file in field-oriented standard format, with 2545 entries, in about 128k bytes. Entries are tagged with semantic codes, viz. the section numbers of McKelson's revised topical scheme (that Fr McKelson has used for his Topical Vocabulary of Northern Nyangumarta). The file has been printed out as plain text, and it is hoped to format it for a better print out soon, and to re-order the files into the revised topical order, and also provide an alphabetical listing.

• An encyclopedic dictionary of Kukatja (Balgo) has been extracted from the late Fr A.R. Peile's "Body & Soul" ms. (with Hesperian Press) The extraction from the machine-readable form of the manuscript was requested by Fr Peile in 1988; the work of extraction and assembly of entries was done by Adrian Clynes, an ANU student who worked at AIAS during January-May 1989 with the support of the National Lexicography Project. The lexical files are in field-oriented standard format, in alphabetical order, just over 2M byte in size. There are 4598 entries and sub-entries, containing 3393 illustrative sentences. Each sub-entry preserves references back to the numbered sections of Fr Peile's manuscript.

  The files have not been printed out. What happens to this material now depends on the terms of Fr Peile's will, and Hesperian Press.

• Wilf Douglas's An Introductory Dictionary of the Western Desert Language. xii+316pp. Perth: Institute of Applied Aboriginal Studies, WACAE, 1988. ISBN 0-7298-0067-9

  Available from: The Language Centre Bookshop, Attn. Annie Folk, 555 Beaufort St, Mount Lawley WA 6050, tel. (09)328 8965.

  This contains 2,400 "basic vocabulary items", arranged alphabetically, alphabetically by English gloss, and also according to 99 semantic categories.

• The Rev. Noel Blyth's Wangka Base Dictionary.

  Published by the author at 86 Forrest St, Boulder WA 6432, ISBN 073161738X, 1988. Part (1) Wangka, 42 pages, Part (2) Grammar, Part (3) English, 30 pages.

  2125 entries. 88k bytes, from the author's dBaseII file.

• Jim Marsh has compiled a vocabulary of Martu Wangka (Jigalong) which is currently being checked and formatted for printing at SIL-AAIB, Berrimah. Punmu Community School Board produced a 1984 version in two volumes with English finder list.

• Amee Glass's Ngaanyatjarra word list, 1988.

  Available for $5 from Lorraine Howell, PO Box 3538, Alice Springs NT 0871.

  This contains 1746 head words in an alphabetical word list, 61k bytes; English finder list 82k bytes. Field-oriented standard format is used, and there are accompanying "change tables" for use with SIL's Consistent Changes program to print out the word list.

• Ken & Lesley Hansen's Pintupi/Luritja Dictionary (2nd edition, 1974) now has a revised and expanded 3rd edition. Over 8000 entries (no sub-entries), just over 1M byte, now in a Microsoft Word file with minimal formatting. The AIAS National Lexicography Project has produced a LaserWriter printout, 450 pages and a 80-page English finder list, hopefully to be published soon from Alice Springs.

• Patrick McConvell's "Manjiljarra wangka: Manjiljarra-English dictionary : draft" (Strelley Literacy Centre and SAL, 1980). 116 pages, approx. 1800 entries. AIAS Library Ms 5862b.

• Cliff Goddard's Pitjantjatjara and Yankuntjatjara vocabulary, published in 1988 by the Institute for Aboriginal Development (PO Box 2531, Alice Springs NT 0871), has now been further processed by Paul and Anne Eckert at Ernabella, with partial support from the AIAS National Lexicography Project. There are 1814 main entries, containing a further 1609 sub-entries (i.e. 3423 entries and sub-entries), and 2448 illustrative sentences.

  The master file, now in field-oriented standard format is 610k bytes. Semantic codes have been added (based on Roget's Thesaurus section numbers), and detailed labelling of the English glosses has been added with a view to IAD now producing a second edition of the English finder list.

• Nick Thieberger at the Pilbara Aboriginal Languages Centre has keyboarded some word lists in Microsoft File, including Warnman vocabulary, 887 entries, 28k bytes.

• No doubt there are a number of classroom-oriented vocabularies in use in the numerous schools where varieties of the Western Desert language is spoken, for instance at Balgo. At Walungurru Wangkakuru kamu Wakalpayi (Kintore) School, Peter Thorley (Teacher-Linguist) has recently begun to set up a curriculum database (based on semantic domains) using the School's Macintosh SE.

• Various ethnographic researchers who have worked extensively with Western Desert peoples have made vocabulary collections. This includes vocabularies recorded by J.M. Black, Daisy Bates, N.B. Tindale, C.G. von Brandenstein, R.M. Trudinger, and others, which are in the AIAS Library manuscript collection, and there are presumably others.