WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.700 Welcome to today's Deep Dive. I am so thrilled 00:00:03.700 --> 00:00:05.360 you are joining us today. It's going to be a 00:00:05.360 --> 00:00:07.780 really good one. It is, because today we are 00:00:07.780 --> 00:00:10.339 embarking on a very specific kind of mission. 00:00:10.500 --> 00:00:13.500 We're going to uncover a linguistic ghost story. 00:00:13.880 --> 00:00:17.059 Oh, I love that phrasing. A ghost story. Right. 00:00:17.160 --> 00:00:20.420 And we're doing this by exploring a really fascinating 00:00:20.420 --> 00:00:22.780 compilation of research from a single source, 00:00:22.920 --> 00:00:26.179 all about a completely extinct language. It's 00:00:26.179 --> 00:00:29.500 a topic that raises some massive, I mean... Truly 00:00:29.500 --> 00:00:32.619 profound questions about history and memory and 00:00:32.619 --> 00:00:35.000 science. Yeah, how modern science actually pieces 00:00:35.000 --> 00:00:37.219 together the past. Exactly. It really forces 00:00:37.219 --> 00:00:39.719 us to confront how fragile human culture can 00:00:39.719 --> 00:00:42.200 be, but also, you know, how much information 00:00:42.200 --> 00:00:44.539 can be extracted from the tiniest of remnants. 00:00:44.840 --> 00:00:46.560 Provided researchers actually know how to look 00:00:46.560 --> 00:00:48.359 at them. Right. So I want you to imagine something. 00:00:48.500 --> 00:00:51.280 Imagine trying to reverse engineer an entire 00:00:51.280 --> 00:00:54.219 culture's worldview. Their daily habits, their 00:00:54.219 --> 00:00:56.899 environment. All of it. Their relationships, 00:00:57.039 --> 00:00:59.600 everything. from just a handful of isolated nouns 00:00:59.600 --> 00:01:01.719 and verbs. It sounds impossible. It really does. 00:01:01.920 --> 00:01:04.640 But that is the exact challenge linguists face 00:01:04.640 --> 00:01:07.280 with what is known as the Norman Tasmanian language. 00:01:07.560 --> 00:01:10.280 Because we have this vast historical tapestry 00:01:10.280 --> 00:01:12.920 of Australian, Aboriginal and Tasmanian languages. 00:01:13.099 --> 00:01:15.159 I mean, it's a staggering amount of linguistic 00:01:15.159 --> 00:01:18.260 diversity. Huge. But right in the middle of all 00:01:18.260 --> 00:01:21.299 this research, we find this one hyper specific, 00:01:21.500 --> 00:01:25.239 incredibly isolated puzzle piece. A single fragment 00:01:25.239 --> 00:01:28.420 from a massive lost jigsaw puzzle. puzzle. And 00:01:28.420 --> 00:01:30.840 to help us navigate this really delicate, complex 00:01:30.840 --> 00:01:34.040 material, I have our resident expert here. I'm 00:01:34.040 --> 00:01:36.180 ready when you are. There is a lot beneath the 00:01:36.180 --> 00:01:38.420 surface of this research. There really is. So 00:01:38.420 --> 00:01:40.900 here is our journey today. First, we are going 00:01:40.900 --> 00:01:43.180 to look at the mysterious origins of the Norman 00:01:43.180 --> 00:01:46.200 vocabulary. The manuscript itself. Exactly. Then 00:01:46.200 --> 00:01:48.280 we'll look at how modern science actually cracked 00:01:48.280 --> 00:01:50.900 its code before we zoom out to look at the massive 00:01:50.900 --> 00:01:53.260 landscape of Australian and Tasmanian languages 00:01:53.260 --> 00:01:55.420 it belongs to. And finally, we'll explore the 00:01:55.420 --> 00:01:57.459 history and the modern legacy of the people behind 00:01:57.459 --> 00:01:59.939 these words. Okay, let's unpack this. Let's start 00:01:59.939 --> 00:02:03.700 with the core mystery itself. Our entire knowledge 00:02:03.700 --> 00:02:06.719 of the Norman Tasmanian language comes down to 00:02:06.719 --> 00:02:09.699 a single manuscript. From the 19th century. Right. 00:02:09.740 --> 00:02:12.479 It's quite literally nicknamed the Norman vocabulary. 00:02:12.919 --> 00:02:15.159 But what does that actually look like in practice? 00:02:15.439 --> 00:02:18.219 Well. The historical records give us some very 00:02:18.219 --> 00:02:21.319 stark, almost jarring numbers to anchor this. 00:02:21.479 --> 00:02:25.159 This entire linguistic footprint, everything 00:02:25.159 --> 00:02:28.039 we know about how these specific people communicated, 00:02:28.280 --> 00:02:34.300 consists of exactly 386 words. 386 words. That's 00:02:34.300 --> 00:02:36.490 it. I mean, that is essentially just a couple 00:02:36.490 --> 00:02:38.969 of pages of notes. It's barely enough to fill 00:02:38.969 --> 00:02:41.569 a modern brochure. Barely. And who actually wrote 00:02:41.569 --> 00:02:43.689 it down? The records indicate it was recorded 00:02:43.689 --> 00:02:46.110 by a man named Charles Sterling. Okay. Charles 00:02:46.110 --> 00:02:48.169 Sterling. Yeah. And he compiled these words in 00:02:48.169 --> 00:02:51.569 a place called Sorrel in Tasmania during the 00:02:51.569 --> 00:02:53.909 19th century. So we have a name and a place. 00:02:54.110 --> 00:02:56.750 We do. But beyond his name and that location, 00:02:57.030 --> 00:02:59.949 the context is incredibly thin. Which brings 00:02:59.949 --> 00:03:02.370 up a massive question. Who was he talking to? 00:03:02.449 --> 00:03:05.340 Who were the actual speakers? providing these 00:03:05.340 --> 00:03:08.539 386 words to Sterling. What's fascinating here 00:03:08.539 --> 00:03:11.060 is the sheer volume of unknowns surrounding that 00:03:11.060 --> 00:03:14.199 one simple interaction. The research tells us 00:03:14.199 --> 00:03:16.159 the language was presumably spoken somewhere 00:03:16.159 --> 00:03:18.759 in the northeast of Tasmania. Presumably. Yes. 00:03:18.939 --> 00:03:23.180 But the specific tribe, completely unidentified. 00:03:23.479 --> 00:03:25.960 Wow. The exact original location of the speakers. 00:03:26.719 --> 00:03:29.120 Unrecorded. It is officially classified today 00:03:29.120 --> 00:03:31.840 as an extinct language from the 19th century. 00:03:32.099 --> 00:03:34.900 Sterling wrote down those 386 words in Sorel, 00:03:35.080 --> 00:03:38.020 and the rest is silence. Absolute silence. We 00:03:38.020 --> 00:03:40.000 don't have recorded sentences or conversational 00:03:40.000 --> 00:03:42.919 grammar rules. No cultural context. Just an isolated 00:03:42.919 --> 00:03:45.639 list of vocabulary. I really want you, the listener, 00:03:45.740 --> 00:03:48.840 to pause and think about the weight of that manuscript. 00:03:49.639 --> 00:03:52.500 Imagine your entire culture. Your family's history. 00:03:52.900 --> 00:03:55.340 The inside jokes you share. The specific way 00:03:55.340 --> 00:03:58.180 you describe the weather or your hometown. Imagine 00:03:58.180 --> 00:04:01.219 all that being boiled down to just 386 words. 00:04:01.439 --> 00:04:03.740 And written down by a complete outsider. Exactly. 00:04:03.979 --> 00:04:06.280 And that single piece of paper becoming the only 00:04:06.280 --> 00:04:08.530 proof your language ever existed at all. It is 00:04:08.530 --> 00:04:11.810 a profoundly sobering thought. And for a long 00:04:11.810 --> 00:04:14.990 time, that manuscript was just an anomaly sitting 00:04:14.990 --> 00:04:17.569 in an archive. A lingering question mark. Was 00:04:17.569 --> 00:04:20.689 it a complete language? Was it a dialect? Maybe 00:04:20.689 --> 00:04:23.209 just a list of regional slang? Without living 00:04:23.209 --> 00:04:26.149 speakers, nobody really knew. Nobody knew. So 00:04:26.149 --> 00:04:29.709 we had this isolated list of words from the 1800s. 00:04:30.060 --> 00:04:33.240 How did we get from a dusty archive to actually 00:04:33.240 --> 00:04:35.699 understanding what this language was? This is 00:04:35.699 --> 00:04:37.740 where modern science steps in. Here's where it 00:04:37.740 --> 00:04:39.959 gets really interesting. The research highlights 00:04:39.959 --> 00:04:42.720 a major scientific breakthrough published in 00:04:42.720 --> 00:04:45.720 2012. Yes, in the Proceedings of the Royal Society 00:04:45.720 --> 00:04:49.279 B Biological Sciences. Right. It's a highly prestigious 00:04:49.279 --> 00:04:52.279 peer -reviewed journal. The paper is titled The 00:04:52.279 --> 00:04:54.779 Riddle of Tasmanian Languages, authored by researcher 00:04:54.779 --> 00:04:57.199 Claire Bowern. I'm really curious about the methodology 00:04:57.199 --> 00:05:00.680 here. How do you take a static list of 386 words 00:05:00.680 --> 00:05:03.319 and prove anything new about it centuries later? 00:05:03.579 --> 00:05:05.899 It sounds like magic, doesn't it? It does. How 00:05:05.899 --> 00:05:07.819 does she know this wasn't just a slightly different 00:05:07.819 --> 00:05:10.379 accent of a neighboring language? That is exactly 00:05:10.379 --> 00:05:13.579 what Bowern set out to answer. She used modern 00:05:13.579 --> 00:05:17.759 linguistic reconstructions by meticulously examining 00:05:17.759 --> 00:05:21.060 this tiny data set against other known languages 00:05:21.060 --> 00:05:24.019 from the region. She compared them. Yes. She 00:05:24.019 --> 00:05:25.939 looked at the phonetics, the structure of the 00:05:25.939 --> 00:05:28.879 words, the root meanings. Linguists look for 00:05:28.879 --> 00:05:31.899 patterns of divergence. Like how sounds shift 00:05:31.899 --> 00:05:35.379 over time. Exactly. Or how core vocabulary differs 00:05:35.379 --> 00:05:37.939 from nearby groups. Through this deep analysis, 00:05:38.180 --> 00:05:40.560 she proved that this Norman vocabulary was not 00:05:40.560 --> 00:05:42.899 just a regional dialect. that had recently branched 00:05:42.899 --> 00:05:45.379 off. It was an entirely distinct language. Completely 00:05:45.379 --> 00:05:48.519 distinct. That is incredible. A few hundred words 00:05:48.519 --> 00:05:51.199 on a piece of paper and centuries later, a researcher 00:05:51.199 --> 00:05:53.920 can mathematically prove it was a unique, independent 00:05:53.920 --> 00:05:56.920 branch of human communication. It was an absolute 00:05:56.920 --> 00:05:59.480 breakthrough. Her 2012 reconstructions, particularly 00:05:59.480 --> 00:06:02.660 the supplement to her paper, elevated the Norman 00:06:02.660 --> 00:06:05.600 vocabulary from a mere historical curiosity to 00:06:05.600 --> 00:06:07.959 an independent branch on the tree of human language. 00:06:08.259 --> 00:06:10.959 It's such a brilliant example of how modern analytical 00:06:10.959 --> 00:06:13.980 techniques can breathe new understanding into 00:06:13.980 --> 00:06:16.759 centuries old data. Absolutely. But despite that 00:06:16.759 --> 00:06:19.660 massive scientific validation, this language 00:06:19.660 --> 00:06:22.939 remains incredibly marginalized in the official 00:06:22.939 --> 00:06:25.019 administrative records. Highly marginalized. 00:06:25.420 --> 00:06:27.220 Before we started recording, we were looking 00:06:27.220 --> 00:06:29.160 at how this language is formally classified today 00:06:29.160 --> 00:06:32.180 and it's almost paradoxical. It is. When you 00:06:32.180 --> 00:06:34.319 look at the standard administrative classification 00:06:34.319 --> 00:06:37.740 systems that global linguists and anthropologists 00:06:37.740 --> 00:06:41.180 use, you see something highly unusual. Yeah. 00:06:41.339 --> 00:06:44.879 There is no glottalogue code for the Norman Tasmanian 00:06:44.879 --> 00:06:46.860 language. Let's clarify that for the listener 00:06:46.860 --> 00:06:49.560 real quick. Yeah. What exactly is a glottalogue 00:06:49.560 --> 00:06:52.680 code and why does it matter if a language doesn't 00:06:52.680 --> 00:06:55.529 have one? Think of glottalogue codes, along with 00:06:55.529 --> 00:06:58.490 ISO codes, as essentially the Dewey Decimal System 00:06:58.490 --> 00:07:00.910 for human language. Okay. They are the international 00:07:00.910 --> 00:07:03.829 standards used to catalog, track, and manage 00:07:03.829 --> 00:07:06.389 every known language on Earth. If a language 00:07:06.389 --> 00:07:08.629 doesn't have one of these codes, it effectively 00:07:08.629 --> 00:07:11.149 doesn't exist in the modern administrative eyes 00:07:11.149 --> 00:07:13.970 of global linguistics. So it's how researchers 00:07:13.970 --> 00:07:17.329 track data, secure funding, maintain global databases. 00:07:17.810 --> 00:07:19.730 Precisely. And the normal language just doesn't 00:07:19.730 --> 00:07:23.220 have one. No glottalogue code at all. Furthermore, 00:07:23.439 --> 00:07:27.139 its ISO 639 -3 code, which is the gold standard 00:07:27.139 --> 00:07:29.600 for international language coding, is listed 00:07:29.600 --> 00:07:34.120 simply as MIS, which stands for none. None. It's 00:07:34.120 --> 00:07:36.300 literally off the grid. Administratively and 00:07:36.300 --> 00:07:40.579 scientifically, yes. To have no formal ISO or 00:07:40.579 --> 00:07:43.709 glottalogue code. emphasizes how incredibly rare, 00:07:43.889 --> 00:07:47.149 isolated, and fragmentary this linguistic artifact 00:07:47.149 --> 00:07:50.269 is. It exists in the sophisticated reconstructions 00:07:50.269 --> 00:07:53.050 of Claire Bowen. And in the fading ink of Charles 00:07:53.050 --> 00:07:55.750 Sterling. But it defies the neat, standardized 00:07:55.750 --> 00:07:59.009 categorization systems we rely on today. It slips 00:07:59.009 --> 00:08:00.990 right through the administrative cracks. It's 00:08:00.990 --> 00:08:03.250 a linguistic ghost. But obviously, it didn't 00:08:03.250 --> 00:08:05.170 exist in a vacuum. It was part of a larger continent 00:08:05.170 --> 00:08:07.310 of people and an entire network of communication. 00:08:07.689 --> 00:08:09.529 Right. If we connect this to the bigger picture, 00:08:09.589 --> 00:08:11.930 we have to look at the massive taxonomy of Australian, 00:08:12.149 --> 00:08:14.670 Aboriginal, and Tasmanian languages. It's a phenomenal 00:08:14.670 --> 00:08:17.230 map of human diversity. It really puts this one 00:08:17.230 --> 00:08:19.870 small vocabulary list into proper perspective. 00:08:20.129 --> 00:08:22.529 It does. Looking at the broader linguistic map, 00:08:22.670 --> 00:08:25.629 you see massive family groups like Pomanyungan, 00:08:25.709 --> 00:08:28.310 which covers huge swaths of the Australian mainland. 00:08:28.699 --> 00:08:31.079 Yes. You see the northern families, the central, 00:08:31.300 --> 00:08:34.519 the western, the tankic, the daily river groups. 00:08:34.679 --> 00:08:37.620 It is an absolute ocean of languages. And down 00:08:37.620 --> 00:08:40.100 at the very bottom of this massive geographical 00:08:40.100 --> 00:08:43.659 and linguistic map, we find the Tasmanian family 00:08:43.659 --> 00:08:46.299 level groups. And this is where we see exactly 00:08:46.299 --> 00:08:48.860 where Norman fits into the puzzle. It belongs 00:08:48.860 --> 00:08:51.039 to the northeastern Tasmanian language family. 00:08:51.220 --> 00:08:53.299 But it wasn't alone in that northeastern family, 00:08:53.419 --> 00:08:56.379 was it? Not at all. It sits alongside other completely 00:08:56.379 --> 00:08:59.960 distinct languages like Pimaire, Tire Note Panner, 00:09:00.100 --> 00:09:02.740 and the Latsky or Black House language. When 00:09:02.740 --> 00:09:05.059 you hear those names, it immediately challenges 00:09:05.059 --> 00:09:07.340 the assumption that an island community would 00:09:07.340 --> 00:09:09.360 be somewhat uniform. Right, you'd think an island 00:09:09.360 --> 00:09:12.179 might just have one language. Exactly. The geographic 00:09:12.179 --> 00:09:14.940 proximity of these groups is what makes the distinctiveness 00:09:14.940 --> 00:09:18.059 of the languages so compelling. To really understand 00:09:18.059 --> 00:09:20.960 the linguistic landscape of Tasmania before these 00:09:20.960 --> 00:09:23.480 languages faded, we have to walk through the 00:09:23.480 --> 00:09:25.580 other family -level groups across the island. 00:09:25.700 --> 00:09:28.259 Let's do it. There was the Western group, which 00:09:28.259 --> 00:09:30.779 included a northwestern Tasmanian language known 00:09:30.779 --> 00:09:33.679 as Pirupper, and potentially a southwestern language 00:09:33.679 --> 00:09:36.289 called Tugi. And moving across the compass points, 00:09:36.490 --> 00:09:39.090 you have the northern group encompassing the 00:09:39.090 --> 00:09:42.610 northern Tasmanian language, Tamagin, and the 00:09:42.610 --> 00:09:45.090 Port Sorrel language. Then finally, the eastern 00:09:45.090 --> 00:09:48.350 group. This cluster included Oyster Bay, which 00:09:48.350 --> 00:09:51.690 is also known as Paraderm, Little Swanport, the 00:09:51.690 --> 00:09:54.110 southeast Tasmanian language, New Anon, and the 00:09:54.110 --> 00:09:56.570 Bruny Island language. When you look at the eastern 00:09:56.570 --> 00:09:59.470 group alone, Oyster Bay, Little Swanport, Bruny 00:09:59.470 --> 00:10:02.370 Island, it tells you something profound. What's 00:10:02.370 --> 00:10:04.759 that? Even geographically closed communities 00:10:04.759 --> 00:10:07.320 had completely distinct linguistic identities, 00:10:07.659 --> 00:10:10.620 rather than just blending into one uniform dialect. 00:10:10.940 --> 00:10:13.100 Tasmania wasn't just some linguistically uniform 00:10:13.100 --> 00:10:15.899 island where everyone spoke the same way. It 00:10:15.899 --> 00:10:18.279 was incredibly diverse. It was a rich, vibrant 00:10:18.279 --> 00:10:20.980 tapestry of distinct voices and distinct ways 00:10:20.980 --> 00:10:23.830 of interpreting the environment. A deeply complex, 00:10:24.110 --> 00:10:26.629 multilingual society. People likely had to navigate 00:10:26.629 --> 00:10:28.789 multiple languages just to trade, negotiate, 00:10:29.029 --> 00:10:31.490 or interact with neighboring communities. And 00:10:31.490 --> 00:10:34.809 the Norman Tasmanian language, with its 386 surviving 00:10:34.809 --> 00:10:38.169 words, was just one single thread in that vast 00:10:38.169 --> 00:10:40.929 tapestry. Which makes the loss of all that diversity 00:10:40.929 --> 00:10:44.110 so profoundly staggering. So what does this all 00:10:44.110 --> 00:10:46.539 mean? We've talked about Charles Sterling's manuscript. 00:10:46.799 --> 00:10:49.559 We've talked about Claire Bowen's 2012 scientific 00:10:49.559 --> 00:10:52.159 reconstruction. We've mapped out this massive 00:10:52.159 --> 00:10:55.299 taxonomy. But we have to address the heavy context 00:10:55.299 --> 00:10:57.539 sitting right at the center of all this research. 00:10:58.740 --> 00:11:01.519 Why are we looking at a map of languages that 00:11:01.519 --> 00:11:04.620 all went extinct in the 19th century? What exactly 00:11:04.620 --> 00:11:07.360 caused an entire island's linguistic diversity 00:11:07.360 --> 00:11:10.529 to vanish? To understand the linguistic extinction, 00:11:10.870 --> 00:11:12.909 we must look directly at the historical events 00:11:12.909 --> 00:11:15.350 linked to the Aboriginal Tasmanians during this 00:11:15.350 --> 00:11:19.110 era. Okay. The records provide a clear, unflinching 00:11:19.110 --> 00:11:21.269 timeline of events under the heading of Aboriginal 00:11:21.269 --> 00:11:24.129 history. These are the devastating 19th century 00:11:24.129 --> 00:11:26.330 events that fundamentally altered the demographic 00:11:26.330 --> 00:11:29.110 and linguistic landscape of Tasmania. What are 00:11:29.110 --> 00:11:30.889 the specific turning points that the historical 00:11:30.889 --> 00:11:33.710 records point to? The historical framework centers 00:11:33.710 --> 00:11:36.990 on the Black War, the Cape Grim Massacre, the 00:11:36.990 --> 00:11:40.549 1828 Proclamation of Demarcation, and the establishment 00:11:40.549 --> 00:11:43.730 of the Waibelena Aboriginal establishment. These 00:11:43.730 --> 00:11:46.500 are intense historical markers. They aren't just 00:11:46.500 --> 00:11:49.320 shifts in policy. They represent profound physical 00:11:49.320 --> 00:11:52.159 displacement. Absolutely. They correspond chronologically 00:11:52.159 --> 00:11:55.039 with the exact period when languages like Norman 00:11:55.039 --> 00:11:57.580 began to vanish. I see. The Black War and the 00:11:57.580 --> 00:11:59.840 Cape Grim Massacre represent periods of intense, 00:11:59.960 --> 00:12:02.840 violent conflict between European settlers and 00:12:02.840 --> 00:12:04.960 Aboriginal populations. And then the Proclamation 00:12:04.960 --> 00:12:07.940 of Demarcation. Right. The 1828 Proclamation 00:12:07.940 --> 00:12:10.960 of Demarcation effectively sought to forcefully 00:12:10.960 --> 00:12:14.139 separate Aboriginal people from European settlers. 00:12:14.960 --> 00:12:17.559 them out of their ancestral lands. And the final 00:12:17.559 --> 00:12:20.500 event listed, the Waibelina Aboriginal Establishment. 00:12:20.500 --> 00:12:23.580 This wasn't just a relocation, it was an institutionalization. 00:12:23.840 --> 00:12:26.120 Exactly. People from various distinct linguistic 00:12:26.120 --> 00:12:28.539 groups, those eastern, western, northern, and 00:12:28.539 --> 00:12:30.799 northeastern families we just mapped out, were 00:12:30.799 --> 00:12:33.159 removed from their lands and placed together 00:12:33.159 --> 00:12:36.070 in this establishment on Flinders Island. Precisely. 00:12:36.070 --> 00:12:39.409 When you forcibly remove a community from the 00:12:39.409 --> 00:12:42.269 specific environment that shaped their vocabulary. 00:12:42.269 --> 00:12:43.809 The environment they've known for generations. 00:12:44.090 --> 00:12:47.409 Yes. And when you disrupt the intergenerational 00:12:47.409 --> 00:12:49.669 transmission of culture through conflict and 00:12:49.669 --> 00:12:52.309 institutionalization, the language inevitably 00:12:52.309 --> 00:12:55.399 suffers. It fades. Understanding these events 00:12:55.399 --> 00:12:58.759 provides the crucial why. It explains why this 00:12:58.759 --> 00:13:01.759 incredibly diverse map of languages faded. It 00:13:01.759 --> 00:13:04.200 is the direct reason why the Norman language 00:13:04.200 --> 00:13:08.019 was reduced to a single 386 -word manuscript 00:13:08.019 --> 00:13:10.980 recorded in Sorrel. The people who spoke these 00:13:10.980 --> 00:13:13.379 languages were navigating immense existential 00:13:13.379 --> 00:13:15.519 threats. They were. And we have to remember, 00:13:15.580 --> 00:13:17.960 these weren't just abstract linguistic anomalies 00:13:17.960 --> 00:13:20.240 or historical statistics. The research highlights 00:13:20.240 --> 00:13:22.639 specific Aboriginal figures tied to this era. 00:13:22.990 --> 00:13:25.250 Individuals whose lives directly intersected 00:13:25.250 --> 00:13:27.590 with this period of massive cultural upheaval. 00:13:27.669 --> 00:13:29.870 It is so essential to ground this history in 00:13:29.870 --> 00:13:32.190 the actual people who lived it. The records honor 00:13:32.190 --> 00:13:34.350 figures like Trigoni, who is often a central 00:13:34.350 --> 00:13:36.950 figure in histories of this era. And Fannie Cochran 00:13:36.950 --> 00:13:39.110 Smith, who actually recorded some of the only 00:13:39.110 --> 00:13:41.990 existing audio of traditional Tasmanian Aboriginal 00:13:41.990 --> 00:13:45.570 songs on wax cylinders. That audio exists. It 00:13:45.570 --> 00:13:48.429 does. Wow. The historical record also lists William 00:13:48.429 --> 00:13:51.590 Lamb, Dolly Dalrymple, and Mammal Argena, who 00:13:51.590 --> 00:13:54.389 was a prominent leader and seer, along with others 00:13:54.389 --> 00:13:57.470 like Waba Dabar, Daniel Geale, Le Guineminer, 00:13:57.669 --> 00:14:01.730 Michael Mansell, Ricky Maynard, Touter, and We're 00:14:01.730 --> 00:14:04.360 Ready. Reading those names out loud anchors the 00:14:04.360 --> 00:14:06.500 history and humanity. When we talk about the 00:14:06.500 --> 00:14:08.899 Norman language going extinct or the new and 00:14:08.899 --> 00:14:11.960 known or parapper languages fading, we are talking 00:14:11.960 --> 00:14:14.840 about the loss of the lived worlds of Trugani, 00:14:15.019 --> 00:14:18.019 Manalarjena, and their ancestors. A language 00:14:18.019 --> 00:14:19.960 isn't just a tool for getting a point across. 00:14:20.259 --> 00:14:23.039 It's a repository of a specific human perspective. 00:14:23.539 --> 00:14:26.659 When it is lost, a unique way of interpreting 00:14:26.659 --> 00:14:29.159 the universe is lost with it. It is. It can feel 00:14:29.159 --> 00:14:31.460 incredibly bleak staring at that word extinct. 00:14:31.600 --> 00:14:33.799 next to all these intricate, beautiful languages 00:14:33.799 --> 00:14:36.419 in the taxonomy. This raises an important question. 00:14:36.659 --> 00:14:39.460 What happens after a language is officially classified 00:14:39.460 --> 00:14:41.639 as extinct by the academic community? Is that 00:14:41.639 --> 00:14:43.320 just the end of the line? Is it? Because the 00:14:43.320 --> 00:14:45.419 research suggests that it actually isn't. It 00:14:45.419 --> 00:14:47.639 absolutely isn't. And this is the part of the 00:14:47.639 --> 00:14:49.759 deep dive that I find incredibly hopeful. Me 00:14:49.759 --> 00:14:52.679 too. If you look closely at the very end of the 00:14:52.679 --> 00:14:55.679 Tasmanian languages taxonomy, past the northern, 00:14:55.820 --> 00:14:58.340 the northeastern, and the eastern groups, there 00:14:58.340 --> 00:15:02.230 is a final distinct category. It is labeled constructed. 00:15:02.509 --> 00:15:04.870 Constructed. And underneath that, it lists one 00:15:04.870 --> 00:15:08.210 language. Kalawakani. Kalawakani. This is a crucial 00:15:08.210 --> 00:15:11.029 detail to synthesize for you, the listener. When 00:15:11.029 --> 00:15:13.389 we see the term constructed in this context, 00:15:13.730 --> 00:15:16.269 it isn't like a fictional language created for 00:15:16.269 --> 00:15:18.250 a sci -fi movie. Right. It's not made up from 00:15:18.250 --> 00:15:20.850 nothing. Not at all. It represents an ongoing, 00:15:21.029 --> 00:15:23.549 highly resilient effort by the modern aboriginal 00:15:23.549 --> 00:15:27.269 community in Tasmania to reconstruct and synthesize 00:15:27.269 --> 00:15:29.659 their indigenous languages today. So they're 00:15:29.659 --> 00:15:32.299 taking those isolated fragments, like the 386 00:15:32.299 --> 00:15:35.019 words of the Norman vocabulary and the remaining 00:15:35.019 --> 00:15:37.679 fragments from Pure Rapper and New Anon and all 00:15:37.679 --> 00:15:39.720 those other languages, and they are actively 00:15:39.720 --> 00:15:43.100 bringing them back into daily use. Exactly. Even 00:15:43.100 --> 00:15:45.860 when original, distinct languages like Norman 00:15:45.860 --> 00:15:48.659 lose their native speakers due to the devastating 00:15:48.659 --> 00:15:51.600 historical events we outlined, the desire to 00:15:51.600 --> 00:15:53.460 connect with that linguistic heritage remains 00:15:53.460 --> 00:15:57.490 deeply ingrained. And Palauakani is the physical, 00:15:57.570 --> 00:16:00.850 spoken evidence of that resilience. It shows 00:16:00.850 --> 00:16:03.210 that while the Norman language as it existed 00:16:03.210 --> 00:16:05.830 in the 19th century might be scientifically classified 00:16:05.830 --> 00:16:09.429 as extinct, the words themselves are still profoundly 00:16:09.429 --> 00:16:12.289 valued. They're being carefully woven into a 00:16:12.289 --> 00:16:15.929 new living framework. Yes. It is like finding 00:16:15.929 --> 00:16:18.470 those scattered puzzle pieces and finally putting 00:16:18.470 --> 00:16:20.889 them together to form a brand new picture. It 00:16:20.889 --> 00:16:22.769 won't look exactly like the linguistic landscape 00:16:22.769 --> 00:16:24.710 from a thousand years ago. But it is made of 00:16:24.710 --> 00:16:26.990 them. very same material. It is a modern rebirth. 00:16:27.269 --> 00:16:29.090 It's a testament to the fact that language is 00:16:29.090 --> 00:16:30.929 never truly gone as long as there are people 00:16:30.929 --> 00:16:33.830 who care enough to speak it, to study it, or 00:16:33.830 --> 00:16:36.250 even just to remember it. The work of researchers 00:16:36.250 --> 00:16:39.289 like Claire Bowen in 2012, proving the distinctness 00:16:39.289 --> 00:16:41.970 of the Norman vocabulary, feeds directly into 00:16:41.970 --> 00:16:44.509 this larger understanding of what was lost. And 00:16:44.509 --> 00:16:47.470 that scientific understanding, in turn, helps 00:16:47.470 --> 00:16:50.049 inform the modern efforts to reclaim it. What 00:16:50.049 --> 00:16:53.230 a journey this has been today. From a tiny, overlooked 00:16:53.230 --> 00:16:57.129 vocabulary list to a massive story about human 00:16:57.129 --> 00:17:00.090 resilience. Let's do a quick recap of what we've 00:17:00.090 --> 00:17:02.149 covered today. Sounds good. We started with the 00:17:02.149 --> 00:17:04.450 sheer isolation of Charles Sterling's manuscript. 00:17:04.809 --> 00:17:08.910 Just 386 words recorded in Sorrel, Tasmania in 00:17:08.910 --> 00:17:12.069 the 19th century, representing a completely unidentified 00:17:12.069 --> 00:17:14.839 tribe. We then looked at how modern science stepped 00:17:14.839 --> 00:17:18.619 in. Specifically, Claire Bowen's 2012 paper in 00:17:18.619 --> 00:17:21.420 the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, which 00:17:21.420 --> 00:17:23.680 reconstructed those words to prove they represented 00:17:23.680 --> 00:17:26.420 a completely distinct language. Even though it 00:17:26.420 --> 00:17:28.420 remains off the grid without an official glottalogue 00:17:28.420 --> 00:17:31.019 or ISO code today. Right. We zoomed out to see 00:17:31.019 --> 00:17:32.799 where Norman fit within the massive, diverse 00:17:32.799 --> 00:17:35.819 taxonomy of Australian, Aboriginal, and Tasmanian 00:17:35.819 --> 00:17:38.960 languages, nesting it alongside PMR and Ternopanner 00:17:38.960 --> 00:17:41.359 in the Northeastern family. Illustrating just 00:17:41.359 --> 00:17:44.279 how vibrantly diverse the island truly was. And 00:17:44.279 --> 00:17:46.779 we examined the devastating 19th century historical 00:17:46.779 --> 00:17:50.339 context. Events like the Black War, the Cape 00:17:50.339 --> 00:17:52.920 Grim Massacre, and the institutionalization at 00:17:52.920 --> 00:17:55.480 Weeblenna. The events that drove these languages 00:17:55.480 --> 00:17:58.099 to extinction. While honoring the names of the 00:17:58.099 --> 00:18:00.619 aboriginal people from that era who lived through 00:18:00.619 --> 00:18:03.420 that upheaval. Finally, we looked at the legacy 00:18:03.420 --> 00:18:05.839 of this history, finding hope in the constructed 00:18:05.839 --> 00:18:08.880 language Palawakani. Which proves that the desire 00:18:08.880 --> 00:18:11.839 to speak and remember these languages is still... 00:18:12.009 --> 00:18:14.630 very much alive today i want to leave you the 00:18:14.630 --> 00:18:17.490 listener with one final thought to mull over 00:18:18.079 --> 00:18:20.759 We spent a lot of time today talking about Charles 00:18:20.759 --> 00:18:24.940 Sterling's manuscript. 386 words. Such a small 00:18:24.940 --> 00:18:28.019 number. It is a staggeringly small number. If, 00:18:28.039 --> 00:18:30.339 centuries from now, a future linguist only had 00:18:30.339 --> 00:18:33.299 386 words to completely understand the nuances, 00:18:33.480 --> 00:18:36.380 the humor, the deep relationships, and the depth 00:18:36.380 --> 00:18:38.720 of your daily life and your community, which 00:18:38.720 --> 00:18:41.099 specific words would you desperately hope made 00:18:41.099 --> 00:18:43.599 it onto that list? What words define your world 00:18:43.599 --> 00:18:45.880 so completely that you couldn't bear for them 00:18:45.880 --> 00:18:48.910 to be lost to history? Oh, wow. That is a powerful 00:18:48.910 --> 00:18:52.549 question to end on. Which 386 words define you? 00:18:52.789 --> 00:18:55.250 I'll be thinking about that all day. Thank you 00:18:55.250 --> 00:18:57.390 so much for joining us on this deep dive. We 00:18:57.390 --> 00:18:59.490 loved exploring this linguistic ghost story with 00:18:59.490 --> 00:19:01.309 you, and we can't wait to see you next time as 00:19:01.309 --> 00:19:04.009 we unpack another fascinating topic. Until then, 00:19:04.049 --> 00:19:05.930 keep asking questions and keep exploring.