Revitalising Gija: Developing Genre-based Documentation and Description for Community Language Programs

Abstract

Gija is a language spoken in the east Kimberley region of Western Australia. Based on a number of indicators of language vitality, it has been classified as Severely Endangered or Moribund. This research undertakes description of Gija, applying Systemic Functional Linguistic (SFL) typology and genre theory in the context of supporting the maintenance of this endangered Australian language. Many linguists now agree that if linguistic scholarship is to contribute directly to language revitalisation processes, it must consider language in use and in its cultural context. SFL, in its orientation towards meaning and its metafunctionally diversified, stratified model of language provides theoretically informed principles for making such a contribution. This study takes texts highly valued in the Gija community and used in language education as its data. It recognises three significant genres - the Ngarranggarni story, plant usage report and mantha. Applying a stratified model of text in context, the analyses investigate the patterns of language choice from a ‘top-down’ perspective. That is, chapters begin with genre, looking at how texts are staged to fulfill their social purpose and what configurations of register variables (known as field, mode and tenor) underpin each text. Within genre stages meanings are realised as unfolding phases, realised in turn as patterns of choice from discourse semantic systems. Finally, each genre becomes the way in to discussing how the verbal group in Gija contributes to ideational, textual and interpersonal meaning at clause, group and word rank. By taking these insights and recontextualising them in teacher training, Gija educators can be supported to bring their knowledge about Gija to consciousness, supporting their growing confidence as teachers of their own language. This study could also be utilised to develop linguistically informed resources for school and community-based Gija language teaching programs in the future.