R Bradshaw Roundtable Discussion 21 March 2022

Robert L. Bradshaw, a PhD candidate at JCU, discusses the development of orthographies in Papua New Guinea. This meeting will be held via Zoom.

Abstract: With such a large variety of languages in Papua New Guinea (PNG), great variation in orthographies is to be expected. In this presentation, I would like to elaborate on the general course of orthography development throughout PNG, particularly in the SIL International context of which I am most familiar. I will also focus on relevant issues in the two languages for which I have had the most influence on their orthographic development, as well as other languages for which I have had some additional involvement. It is important to consider which issues are common, in addition to those that are unique and what are the most salient motivating factors in how these orthographies are developed, especially as a language community seeks to maintain their identity in an ever-expanding globalised world.

Bibliography: Robert L. Bradshaw (PhD candidate at James Cook University - LCRC, robert.bradshaw@my.jcu.edu.au;member of SIL International, robert_bradshaw@sil.org;) graduated with an MA in linguistics from the University of Washington in 1984. He has been working in Papua New Guinea since 1987 as a translation advisor to the Fuyug, Doromu-Koki and Uare language communities of Central Province and as a linguistics consultant. He is particularly interested in Papuan language typology, language acquisition and historical-comparative linguistics.

He is author of ‘Fuyug Grammar Sketch’ in Data Papers on PNG Languages Volume 53, (SIL-PNG Academic Publications, 2007), ‘Doromu-Koki Grammar Sketch’ in Data Papers on PNG Languages Volume 58 (SIL-PNG Academic Publications, 2012), Doromu-Koki – English Dictionary (lincom GmbH, 2021), ‘Visual Perception in Doromu-Koki’ in Embodiment in Cross-Linguistic Studies: The ‘Eye’ (Brill, 2022), ‘Clause chaining strategies in Doromu-Koki and other Papuan languages of Central Province, Papua New Guinea’ in Clause Chaining in the World’s Languages (Oxford University Press, 2022, forthcoming) and ‘Contact-induced changes in clause-linking in Doromu-Koki: New genres, new strategies’ in Celebrating Indigenous Voice: Legends and Narratives in Languages of the Tropics, Anthropological linguistics (DeGruyter, forthcoming).

Robert recently submitted a PhD thesis at James Cook University: A grammar of the Doromu-Koki: A Papuan language of Papua New Guinea.