What is it about?
Aboriginal English is defined and distinguished from Aboriginal pidgins and creoles. Structural properties of Aboriginal English are illustrated in relation to four groups: urban/metropolitan, northern and desert areas, northern creole-speaking communities and interlanguage varieties in bilingual settings. Brief discussion is provided of roles and functions of the dialect and the implications of its use in educational and legal settings.
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Why is it important?
The paper brings together research findings on Aboriginal English up to the time of writing.
Perspectives
This paper draws together Australian research in the perspective provided by the Western Australian Aboriginal Children's English project conducted by the authors in the 1970s and 1980s. An updated survey is provided in Malcolm (2000) "Aboriginal English Research: An Overview" Asian Englishes 3 (2): 9-31.
Professor Ian G Malcolm
Edith Cowan University
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This page is a summary of: Aboriginal English – an overview, July 1991, Cambridge University Press,
DOI: 10.1017/cbo9780511620881.005.
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