{"id":8216,"date":"2014-11-04T15:34:06","date_gmt":"2014-11-04T05:34:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.paradisec.org.au\/blog\/?p=8216"},"modified":"2014-12-13T16:24:07","modified_gmt":"2014-12-13T06:24:07","slug":"myfany-turpin-on-sand-goannas-in-central-australian-languages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.paradisec.org.au\/blog\/2014\/11\/myfany-turpin-on-sand-goannas-in-central-australian-languages\/","title":{"rendered":"Myfany Turpin on Sand goannas in central Australian languages –"},"content":{"rendered":"

From Myfany Turpin<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Aremay_alewatyerr\"<\/a>
\nPicture \u00a9 Myfany Turpin<\/p>\n

The names for \u2018sand goanna\u2019 (Varanus gouldii<\/em>) in the languages of areas where they are found often correspond to two ethnospecies. Photographed here are the small arlewatyerre<\/em> and the large aremaye<\/em>, both from near Barrow Creek, NT, as they are called in Arandic languages (Arrernte, Kaytetye, Anmatyerr and Alyawarr). On this day my companions successfully hunted both in close proximity, so I thought I\u2019d see if there were differences in the scientific taxonomy that could improve my translations of \u2018small sand goanna\u2019 and \u2018large sand goanna\u2019 respectively.
\n<\/p>\n

However it turns out that the nomenclature surrounding these lizards is as difficult to navigate as their burrow:<\/p>\n

\u201c… the animals referred to here as sand goannas or goanna x (V. flavirufus<\/em>) are usually called V. gouldii gouldii<\/em> in the literature. The desert sand goanna V. flavirufus flavirufus<\/em> is usually called V. gouldii flavirufus<\/em>. The animals known as V.panoptes<\/em> in the literature should be called V. gouldii<\/em>, and the animals known as V.gouldii<\/em> in the literature actually belong to V. flavirufus<\/em>. In older literature the name V.gouldii<\/em> could describe the nameless actuality, V. gouldii gouldii, V.g. rubidus, V.g. horni, V. flavirufus or V. rosenbergi<\/em>.\u201d Extract from A Little Book of Monitor Lizards<\/strong> \u00a9 Daniel Bennett 1995. Viper Press, UK<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Wikipedia<\/a> paints a much simpler picture:
\n\u2022 Gould’s goanna – V. g. gouldii<\/em>
\n\u2022 Desert sand monitor – V. g. flavirufus<\/em><\/p>\n

Both exist in the arid interior of Australia, but V. g. gouldii<\/em> also exists across most of Australia.<\/p>\n

For Kaytetye speakers, the main difference between their ethnospecies is size and frequency: arlewatyerre<\/em> is smaller and common while aremaye<\/em> is big and less common (five of the former and one of the latter were obtained on this day). Such highly localized knowledge is absent in the descriptions of the two subspecies, which say that size, pattern and colour vary depending on the region.<\/p>\n

One comment by Bennett suggests that the smaller one could be V. g. flavirufus<\/em>:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe habit of standing bipedally is well documented for Gould’s goanna, but my impression is that V. flavirufus flavirufus<\/em> is less inclined to adopt a bipedal stance than Gould’s goanna or goanna x, probably on account of its smaller body size.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Where was my inner herpetologist when I was in the field to tell me to ask if they were both bipedal? But then another comment by Bennett, coupled with my scant first-hand experience of the holes of these lizards, suggests that the larger one could in fact be V. g. flavirufus<\/em>:<\/p>\n

\u201cV. flavirufus flavirufus<\/em> (and probably other closely related races) often shelter in shallow burrows that terminate just below the surface\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Again, where was my inner herpetologist to measure burrow depth? The odds stack up even more for the larger one as being V. g. flavirufus<\/em> when we consider another observation by Bennett:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe sand goanna [V. g. flavirufus<\/em>] is restricted to sandy soils whilst Gould’s goanna [V. g. gouldii<\/em>] prefers harder substrates.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Kaytetye speakers say that the larger lizard tends to be found in coarser sand. There is also a totemic site for the larger lizard that is on a creek bed. However, the one we got yesterday was not in what I considered to be particularly sandy soil. But then again, what exactly is \u2018harder substrates\u2019? Time to consult the inner geologist…<\/p>\n

In summary, a brief comparison of their scientific descriptions on the web did not enable me to decide if the two ethnospecies correspond to the two subspecies of Varanus gouldii<\/em>, and if so, which ones. All in all, Bennett paints a bleak picture of the knowledge of these two subspecies:<\/p>\n

\u201csome people believe that the desert populations (V. flavirufus<\/em>) form a separate species from the animals in more mesic areas, and that the latter animals (which now have no valid scientific name) may be a complex of more than one species. This makes any description of the group ridiculously complicated. Biochemical comparisons of the group throughout Australia are needed to properly resolve these very serious taxonomic problems.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Stay tuned for updates from the herpetologists on this one. The difficulty in navigating the Linnaean nomenclature, coupled with the fact that most linguists do not have the necessary local biological expertise, point to the need for us to foster relationships with our cousins in biology if we are to seriously document the vocabulary of Indigenous languages.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From Myfany Turpin Picture \u00a9 Myfany Turpin The names for \u2018sand goanna\u2019 (Varanus gouldii) in the languages of areas where they are found often correspond to two ethnospecies. Photographed here are the small arlewatyerre and the large aremaye, both from near Barrow Creek, NT, as they are called in Arandic languages (Arrernte, Kaytetye, Anmatyerr and … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[66,33,4,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-documentation","category-endangered-languages","category-fieldwork","category-indigenous-australia-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.paradisec.org.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.paradisec.org.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.paradisec.org.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.paradisec.org.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.paradisec.org.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8216"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.paradisec.org.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8216\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8270,"href":"https:\/\/www.paradisec.org.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8216\/revisions\/8270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.paradisec.org.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.paradisec.org.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.paradisec.org.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}