7. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION
1. THE ‘LANGUAGE INFORMATION’ FIELDS
In a band horizontally across the centre of the OVERVIEW screen ('Overview centre') is a collection of information and analysis fields.
Fig. 7.1 ‘Overview centre’ from the analysis of the OVERVIEW layout in the databases (Fig. 2.2)
The ‘Language information’ section is illustrated below in ‘layout view’, showing the functions of the fields and other components.
Fig. 7.2 The left-hand end of the ‘Supplementary Information’ zone: ALLSYD database
The Language information fields consist of the following, treated below briefly in turn:
1. Category [from Categories related database]
4. Map area language(s) portal
5. Comment language [from Dixon language list related database]
6. Name language [from Dixon language list related database]
7. Language area [from Dixon language list related database]
8. Language
9. LangShort [from Dixon language list related database] – includes LANGUAGE ABBREVIATIONS table
10. Place county [on ALLSYD and ANTSOC databases]
11. Language [from NSW counties related database]
1. CATEGORY
The category fields show the category a word belongs to, whether weapons, kin terms, weather and so on. These are drawn from the Categories related database.
It is important at times to have a clear idea of where a language record was made. The following description shows how this is done in the Bayala databases.
Geoscience Australia has presented Australia in a multitude of ways by maps. The following URL
takes the searcher to the current (in 2023) Geoscience Australia Map Portal: https://geoscience-au.maps.arcgis.com.
In one of its many map presentations, Geoscience has Australia divided into rectangles. This URL takes the searcher to it:
https://geoscience-au.maps.arcgis.com/apps/dashboards/7e8e72ea0cc042f588d1883d0e57d855
2. GEOSCIENCE MAP AREA
Fig. 7.3 The country-wide grid of squares
Zooming in brings up more and more detail, first, rectangles with number identifiers, then with names:
Fig. 7.4 Geoscience area rectangles with names
It is useful for the Bayala databases to be able to identify any area in the country, and for the purposes of the databases the current Geoscience presentation is more detailed than the previous form.
Fig. 7.5 Former Geoscience map location by larger named rectangles
The Developer opted to retain the former rectangle identifiers for the whole of the country, summarised in the following illustration.
Fig. 7.6 Named rectangles identify all areas in the country
Fig. 7.7 Named rectangles for New South Wales
In the ALLSYD database, the word ‘Sydney’, relating to the rectangle in which ‘Warragamba’ occurs in Fig. 7.5, appears as ‘Sydney’ in the ‘map area Geoscience’ field for records relating to the Sydney region. Many languages, such as Wiradhuri in Fig. 7.8 below, extend over several of the Geoscience rectangles:
Fig. 7.8 The olive green Wiradhuri language extends over multiple rectangles
In such cases different rectangle names are inserted into the ‘map area Geoscience’ field. The benefit of this is that words that were recorded, say, in the Narromine area in the north might differ to some extent from those recorded in the Jerilderie region to the south. To have the source area identified in this way assists the User in evaluating the data in the original word lists.
3. DIXON CODE FOR LANGUAGES
R.M.W. Dixon is a prolific writer on Australian indigenous languages and has produced two books covering languages Australia wide. In these he has given code numbers to the languages. These codes in slightly modified form, called ‘Dixon code 02 JS’, are used in the Bayala databases to link to related subsidiary databases. See further 12.3 Related Databases and Fig. 12.8.
R.M.W. Dixon’s major work on Australian languages (Dixon, R.M.W. 2002. Australian Languages, Cambridge Language Surveys. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press.) contains a language list, and he gave permission for this list to be used in these databases.
4. MAP AREA LANGUAGE(S) PORTAL
The map area language(s) portal features three fields.
Fig. 7.9 Map area languages portal
The first field in this portal (yellow, red text, featuring ‘Gason' in Fig. 7.9) is a Geoscience map area. Results appear in the portal depending on what is placed in the pale yellow ‘Geosci' tag field at the top. In the second brown field the portal automatically displays the languages (as named on the Horton-AlATSIS map) contained within that map area (Gason) while the third green field displays the ‘Dixon code 02 JS’ relating to that language and Geoscience area, automatically drawn from the Dixon language list related database.
Fig. 7.10 Languages in the region of the Geoscience ‘Gason’ rectangle
Aboriginal Languages Map
The language map extracts in the Bayala databases seen on this website are drawn from a ‘colour blob' map. This map is deliberately highly approximate only, using round-cornered shapes to indicate very roughly where the language groups are to be found. The information in the map is drawn from maps by Horton-AIATSIS, Norman B. Tindale and R.M.W. Dixon, but the many errors in it, due in part to its deliberate approximate character, are the present Developer’s responsibility.
Language names appearing on the map are spelt in accordance with the standardised Respelling Principles adopted throughout the Bayala databases: thus for the three languages displayed in the map area language(s) portal in Fig. 7.9, Dieri becomes Diyari in Fig. 7.10, while Ngamini remains the same and Yawarawarka becomes Yawarawarga.
How a language name has been spelt in the Bayala databases appears in the JS Name column in the table of language abbreviations in Fig. 7.14.
5. COMMENT LANGUAGE
If any comment has been noted about a language on the Dixon language list related database, it will appear in the blue ‘Comment language’ (cmt lang) field.
Fig. 7.11 Language comment in the top blue field on the right. Clicking on it reveals the full text.
6. NAME LANGUAGE
The language name, or possibly dialect name, used on the Dixon language list related database will show up in the ‘Name language’ field, the second blue field in Fig. 7.11: Gabi-Gabi is illustrated.
7. LANGUAGE AREA
Any language area noted in the database being looked at will appear in the ‘Language area’ field. This is drawn from the Dixon language list related database.
Fig. 7.12 Language area, shown in the third blue field: Cairns is illustrated.
8. LANGUAGE
If a language name has been recorded in the database being looked at it will appear in the ‘Language’ field. This is the fourth blue field as shown in Fig. 7.13: Language: Yawarawarga.
Fig. 7.13 Language, shown in the bottom blue field: Yawarawarga is illustrated.
This field has effectively been superseded by the ‘name language’ field featured in Fig. 7.11.
9. LANGSHORT
An abbreviated name for the language or dialect concerned may be shown in the LangShort field in the red-bordered box at the bottom right in Fig. 7.13: ‘Ywrka’. This appears from the Dixon language list related database, determined from the code number near the top, to the left of the heading ‘D 02’. Any fields drawing information from related databases are commonly bordered in red.
The table below lists the abbreviations used for languages included in the Bayala databases. The information in the Language, Dialect and Subdialect columns is largely taken from the following work:
Dixon, R. M. W. (2002). Australian Languages. Cambridge Language Surveys. Cambridge, U.K., Cambridge University Press.
Fig. 7.14 Language abbreviations used in the Bayala databases
10. PLACE COUNTY
Previously counties were a significant administrative entity in New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria, and some word lists made reference to these areas. County names appear in the ALLSYD and ANTSOC databases, in the field ‘place county’.
Fig. 7.15 The county ‘Cumberland’ appears on the mustard-coloured field
11. LANGUAGE [from NSW counties related DB]
Occasionally a language name will appear in the language field below ‘place county’, this being the language understood to be spoken in the county concerned.
Fig. 7.16 The language spoken in County Jamison: Kamilaroi
Fig. 7.16 comes from the ANTSOC database, and also shows the postcode, from the Australian postcodes related database.
2. THE ‘EXTRAS’ FIELDS
The ‘Extras’ section in the centre of the OVERVIEW layout (Overview centre: see Fig. 7.1) provides additional information and is illustrated below in ‘Layout' and 'Browse' modes:
Fig. 7.17 Additional data fields in the ‘Extras’ portion of the OVERVIEW layout, in Layout and Browse modes
The Extras cluster of fields consists of the following, treated below briefly in turn:
SCIENTIFIC NAME (light blue)
Where a scientific name is known it is entered in the ‘scientific name’ field.
SCIENTIFIC NAME ALTERNATIVE (mid blue)
Sometimes another version of the scientific name has been provided. This may occur when a source has used an old scientific name that differs from an accepted current form. It was because this occurred a sufficient number of times that a ‘scientific name alternative’ field was introduced.
INFORMANT (pink)
When an informant’s name is known, or guessed at, it is entered into the ‘informant’ field.
FUNCTION (lilac)
Any kind of note about the functional nature of a particular entry might be entered here – such as REDUP (reduplication) when a word is a double (e.g. wara wara), or RECIP (reciprocal), or even PN Fr 2sgNOM (free pronoun second singular nominative) in the case of an entry representing ‘thou’, and so on.
PART OF SPEECH (pastel purple)
Noun, verb adjective and so on appear from the ‘part of speech’ field in the Categories related database.
3. ABOVE THE INFORMATION BARS
There is a narrow space above the Information bars in the centre of the OVERVIEW screen (Overview centre: see Fig. 7.1). This is used in different databases for different purposes, but commonly accommodates the red-bordered light brown ‘Searcher ReS’ tag and ‘Mac Cht’ fields.
Fig. 7.18 The ‘Searcher ReS’ tag and ‘Mac cht’ fields above the Information bars in the SOUTH database (together with various ‘key’ fields)
Illustrated in Fig. 7.18 are:
SEARCHER ReS
The purpose of the red-bordered light brown (standard colour for Respelt) 'Searcher ReS' tag on the left was described in 6.4 Search Portals.
MAC CHT
The dark blue 'Mac Cht' field presents a collection of unicode characters (drawn from the Mac Cht sets related database). Any one character can be copied and used to replace a character found in the original record. For example a (underlined) was often originally used in the database instead of ā (overline). Some instances may remain. When one is found it can be replaced by copying and pasting from the Mac Cht set.
Below is the Mac Cht group of characters for the TASMANIAN database:
Fig. 7.19 Includes Unicode characters not available on a standard keyboard
Any characters found to be useful can be put into this bar. See further 12.3 Related Databases). On a Macintosh these characters are obtained from the Character Viewer, a basic Macintosh resource.
Fig. 7.20 Where to find special characters
The Character Viewer is accessed by means of an icon (‘AU’) in the menu bar at the top right of the desktop; clicking on ‘Show Emoji and Symbols’ produces an extensive list, from which the few characters in the ‘Mac Cht’ field have been selected.
Below is an extract from the Character Viewer set of characters:
Fig. 7.21 Characters for i, j, k, l and o in the Character Viewer
4. TRANSCRIPTION BARS
The small space below the search portals and above the records and analysis rows on the OVERVIEW layout (see Fig 2.2) is used for various occasional purposes. A principal one is the transcription bars, used almost every time to explain why words were respelt by the Developer in the way that they were.
The original language records were compiled by different people with different backgrounds and different British regional accents, all using various conventions of the English language when attempting to record the words they heard:
—‘g’ as in ‘ginger’ (-j-) or as in ‘giggle’ (-g-)?
—‘i’ at the end of a word as in ‘taxi’, ‘khaki’ or ‘Bondi’ or ‘hi’?
—‘u’ as in ‘but’ or ‘put’?
Fig. 7.22 Transcription rules in the black and grey bars above the records, and the corresponding ‘indicators’, Tr 1 and Tr 2, calling up these rules
In a database such as the Bayala series, in which respelling words in a consistent modern way is a key feature, how should such written records such as ‘Murraga’ or ‘Era-bad-djang’ in Fig. 7.22 be handled? Inevitably often the answer adopted is just a guess. As an aid to the User, a reason for the selected transcription is provided in the long black and dark grey ‘transcription rule’ bars at the top. The explanations given in the bars above are triggered by the Transcription indicators in the correspondingly black and dark grey Tr1 and Tr2 fields. (For further information on Transcription bars see 12.3 Related Databases. See also Respelling Principles.)