A changing language situation: The decline of Dyirbal 1963–1989

Dyirbal was probably originally spoken by about 5,000 people across its 10 dialects. In 1963, the northern dialects had just a few speakers (now all dead save one), but two southern dialects had formed a language community with several score speakers, including a number of children. Over the past quarter-century, younger people have switched to English, while among the older ones a new “merged dialect” has developed. The social situations and attitudes of speakers are described, in addition to changing language identifications. The writer has seen Dyirbal contract in lexical and grammatical complexity as it has moved toward an inevitable extinction. (Sociolinguistics, language death, Australian Aboriginal languages, field methods)