Gourt Home::Gourt :: Torres Strait Islanders
Torres Strait Islanders are the indigenous people of the Torres Strait Islands, part of Queensland, Australia. They are Melanesians culturally akin to the coastal peoples of Papua New Guinea. They are regarded as being distinct from other Aboriginal peoples of the rest of Australia, and are generally referred to separately. There are also two Torres Strait Islander communities on the nearby coast of the mainland at Bamaga and Seisia.
Famous Torres Strait Islanders include
Population
There are 6,800 Torres Strait Islanders who live in the area of the Torres Strait, and 42,000 others who live outside of this area, mostly in the north of Queensland, such as in Townsville and Cairns. *
Languages
There are two languages indigenous to Torres Strait Islanders. The language of the western and central islands of Torres Strait is related to languages of the Australian mainland and is a member of the Pama-Nyungan family of languages, which covers most of Australia. This language, like many others in the world, does not have its own name. Its four major dialects are: Kalaw Lagaw Ya, Kalau Kawau Ya, Kulkalgau Ya and Kawalgau Ya (this latter also called Kowrareg). Kalaw Lagaw Ya is often called Kala Lagaw Ya in the literature due to a misunderstanding. The language of eastern Torres Strait is Meriam Mìr. This is a Papuan language and is related to the languages of the nearby coast of Papua New Guinea. Meriam Mir is the only Papuan language indigenous to Australia, and used to have two dialects, Erubim Mìr and Meriam Mir.
The four dialects of the Western-Central Language are very close to each other, somewhat like Standard American and Standard British English are to each other. Its vocabulary is potentially 80% non-Australian; the non-Australian content is mainly Papuan (Trans-Fly) and Austronesian (South-East Papuan). It is an interesting language in having feminine and masculine gender, though no neuter gender is typical among Australian gender languages - and the difference is semantically significant in that many words can be masculine or feminine according to basic reference or culturally significant reference. For example, 'za' as masculine means 'an important topic/subject', and as feminine is 'thing, object'. Gœiga when masculine means 'sun', and when feminine means 'day'.
A third language of the Torres Straits is a creole that has developed over the last hundred or so years. This Torres Strait Creole is also known as Blaikman Tok, Broken/Brokan and Yumplatok. It has around five dialects, Papuan, Western-Central, Eastern, TI and Cape York.
The western-central language is an agglutinative language which however appears to be undergoing a transition into a declensional language. Meriam Mìr is also agglutinative; in its nominal declensional it shows similarity to Japanese in having postpositions rather than affixes. Brokan is a typical English Creole.
Examples
The table below shows how some example phrases differ in the western dialects Kalau Kawau Ya, Kawalgau Ya, Kalaw Lagaw Ya and Kulkalgau Ya, the eastern language Meriam Mìr, and the creole Brokan.
| English | I am an Islander | I go home/to the house |
|---|---|---|
| Kalau Kawau Ya | Ngai kawau mœbaig | Ngai lagapa |
| Kawalgau Ya | Ngai mudhapa/lagapa | |
| Kalaw Lagaw Ya | Ngay kaywaw mœbayg | Ngay mudhaka |
| Kulkalgau Ya | ||
| Meriam Mìr | Kaka kaur le | Ka meta ìm bakeamuda |
| Brokan | Ai ailan man | Ai go aus |
See also
Indigenous peoples of Australia | Languages of Australia
Illencs de l'Estret de Torres | Torres-Strait-Insulaner | Straat Torres-eilanders | Aboridžini Toresovog moreuza
"Torres Strait Islanders"