Trilingual language contact in an Indigenous community

在偏远的澳大利亚，许多土著儿童的语言摇篮是一个多语言环境，其中包括相当多的不同语言之间的混合。孩子们把这种语言背景带到了学习英语的任务中。该项目是对埃利奥特(北领地)三种语言土著社区的首次调查，那里的儿童听着金古鲁语、穆德布拉语和克里奥尔语长大。它旨在研究埃利奥特的员工是如何管理多种语言的，以及这些语言是如何通过克里奥里化和代码转换等混合过程发生变化的。探索这种动态的语言生态对于调整教育计划以适应土著儿童的需求至关重要。预计这将使澳大利亚处于复杂语言变化研究的前沿。

The linguistic cradle of many Aboriginal children in remote Australia is a multilingual setting involving considerable mixing between languages. Children bring this linguistic background to the task of learning English. This project is the first investigation of a trilingual Indigenous community, Elliott (Northern Territory), where children grow up hearing Jingulu, Mudburra and Kriol. It aims to examine how people at Elliott manage multiple languages and how these languages have changed through mixing processes such as creolisation and code-switching. Exploring this dynamic language ecology is crucial to tailoring educational programs to suit the needs of Aboriginal children. It is expected to place Australia at the forefront of studies of complex language change.