In this case study Professor O'Shannessy shows that a community’s response to global pressure can be one of dynamic creativity. One small Warlpiri community in the Northern Territory has reacted creatively to global pressure from English by incorporating elements of Warlpiri and varieties of English and Kriol systematically in a new way of speaking.
Carmel O’Shannessy is Associate Professor of Linguistics at the University of Michigan. She completed her PhD in Linguistics at the University of Sydney (Australia) and the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics (The Netherlands) in 2007. Within the areas of language contact, endangered languages and language acquisition, her research focuses on the genesis and development of Light Warlpiri, a newly emerged mixed language in north Australia, and documentation of children’s bilingualacquisition of Light Warlpiri and Warlpiri. She has been involved with languages in remote Indigenous communities in Australia since 1996, in the areas of bilingual education and her current research.