On the way back from the interesting Australian Linguistics Institute in Brisbane, we stopped in Newcastle to talk with Christine Bruderlin and Mark MacLean, who produce very well laid-out dictionaries and learners’ grammars of Australian languages. The latest is Amanda Lissarrague’s 2006 A salvage grammar and wordlist of the language from the Hunter River and Lake Macquarie. Nambucca Heads: Muurrbay Aboriginal Language and Culture Cooperative. I think this is the first grammar of a mid-southern coastal NSW language to be produced for nearly 30 years. Amanda has gone through Threlkeld’s nineteenth century material and made sense of it, while retaining the original spellings so that her reconstructions can be checked. It isn’t a learner’s grammar, but rather a reference grammar with the original Threlkeld sentences included. See the flyer to buy this book – contact Muurrbay at 14 Bellwood Road, Nambucca Heads NSW 2448. Oh, for an Amazon of hard-to-get Australian language material!
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