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William B. McGregor:
Frs. Hermann Nekes and Ernest Worms’s “Australian
Languages”
99
Abstract.
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This article describes the circumstances surrounding the recent publication in
book form and on CD-ROM of an edited version of Frs. Hermann Nekes and Ernest
Worms’s “Australian Languages,” which originally appeared in microfilm in 1953,
as Micro-Bibliotheca Anthropos 10. The authors’ magnum opus is described and
appraised, and is situated in the context of the times; the editorial decisions
are outlined, and the most significant differences between the original and
edited version remarked on. It is suggested that the main value of the work lies
in the documentation it provides of a number of moribund and extinct languages
of the northwest of the continent. [Australian Aboriginal linguistics,
missionary linguistics, linguistic historiography, documentary linguistics]
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