The dynamics of diversification of Australian Aboriginal languages (ABL) are far from being completely understood. For some scholars, such as Bowern and Atkinson (2012), most ABL can be indisputably lumped together into a large family, commonly dubbed Pama-Nyungan, while the rest of ABL's spoken in the north constitute independent families. Harvey and Mailhammer (2017) go further and, based on a study of noun-class prefix paradigms across the continent, claim that it is still possible to reconstruct a Proto-Australian. Conversely, Dixon (q.v. 1997) questions the validity of any classification of ABL's, and argues that, given a 40,000 period of mutual influence (i.e. waves of horizontal transmission), it is no longer feasible to tease apart the difference between traditional deep genealogical relationships and typological areal features in the continent. Although the tension between traditional comparative linguistics and contact linguistics predates these regional debates, other approaches to language variation and change, which prefer to embrace both possibilities, within an all-encompassing dynamic system (Bailey 1973, Seuren 1982), seem to be promising for solving this puzzle in a near future.
Research by the author conducted between 2018-2021 in Balgo Hills, Western Australia, revealed the recursive emergence of a contact variety. The local language, which is known by the name of Kukatja, had likely been formed out of fluxes of diverse origin (Rojas-Berscia in press). A preliminary survey suggested an important Western Desert layer (which explains why Kukatja is considered a Wati language), a Ngumpin-Yapa layer (evinced in parts of the lexicon and the use of co-verb constructions), and Halls Creek Krool layer (evinced in the use of transitivity markers typical of Australian Kriol varieties). The idiolect used by the younger generations of Kukatja speakers is sometimes referred to by the name of Yingkutja, due to its heavy deployment of Krool and English forms. The first fieldtrips revealed a high estigmatisation toward Yingkutja, but this remained understudied due to the unexpected arrival of the pandemic.
This project aims at understanding the social meaning and communicative place of Yingkutja in the contemporary linguistic ecology of Balgo, drawing from previous fieldtrips conducted between 2018-2021, and techniques from modern sociolinguistics and communication studies.