Australian creoles and Aboriginal English: phonetics and phonology

English speakers began to occupy Australia on a permanent basis in 1788. The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander encounter with English led to the development of “restructured English” varieties which Holm (1988−1989: 538) sums up as “ranging from contact jargon, pidgin, and creole to post-creole Aboriginal English.” Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander influence has not been the only factor leading to the development of contact varieties in Australia. As Mühlhäusler (1991: 160) has pointed out, there have been three major pidgin traditions in Australia: Aboriginal, Chinese and Melanesian. However, the most widespread and enduring contact varieties have been those associated with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander speakers.

There are two major creole varieties currently spoken in Australia: Kriol, spoken mainly in the Northern Territory and extending into North West Queensland and the Kimberley region of Western Australia, and Cape York Creole, or Broken, spoken in the Torres Strait Islands and neighboring parts of the Cape York Peninsula. There is one major variety of Aboriginal English, which embraces a number of regional varieties. It is spoken within the context of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in all parts of Australia. It is arguable that the creole varieties, although English-derived, are not, like Aboriginal English, varieties of English. The treatment of the creoles and Aboriginal English here will therefore be separate, with the creoles being discussed first.