22-476: The MacDonnell Ranges , or Tjoritja in Arrernte , is a mountain range located in southern Northern Territory . MacDonnell Ranges is also the name given to an interim Australian bioregion broadly encompassing the mountain range, with an area of 3,929,444 hectares (9,709,870 acres). The range is a 644 km (400 mi) long series of mountains in central Australia , consisting of parallel ridges running to
44-423: A consonant in fact select the bisyllabic variant. Stress falls on the first nucleus preceded by a consonant, which by this analysis can be stated more uniformly as the second underlying syllable. And the frequentative is formed by reduplicating the final VC syllable of the verb stem; it does not include the final [ə] . Central/Eastern Arrernte orthography does not write word-initial /ə/ , and adds an e to
66-477: A mountain building event created the MacDonnell Ranges. Since that time, folding, faulting and erosion have shaped the range and created numerous gaps and gorges. The ranges are composed of many rock types, but are most famous for their red quartzite peaks and gorges. Other rock types include granite , limestone , sandstone and siltstone . Some of the valleys of the range contain fossil evidence of
88-617: Is a dialect cluster in the Arandic language group spoken in parts of the Northern Territory , Australia, by the Arrernte people . Other spelling variations are Arunta or Arrarnta , and all of the dialects have multiple other names. There are about 1,800 speakers of Eastern / Central Arrernte , making this dialect one of the widest spoken of any Indigenous language in Australia, the one usually referred to as Arrernte and
110-499: Is argued to be VC(C), with obligatory codas and no onsets . Underlying phrase-initial /ə/ is realised as zero, except before a rounded consonant where, by a rounding process of general applicability, it is realised as [ʊ] . It is also common for phrases to carry a final [ə] corresponding to no underlying segment. Among the evidence for this analysis is that some suffixes have suppletive variants for monosyllabic and bisyllabic bases. Stems that appear monosyllabic and begin with
132-423: Is little allophonic variation in different consonantal contexts for the vowels. Instead, the phonemes can be realised by various different articulations in free variation . For example, the phoneme /ə/ can be pronounced [ɪ ~ e ~ ə ~ ʊ] in most contexts. However, it is required to be [ʊ] when phrase-initial before a labialized consonant (see below). The underlying syllable structure of Eastern/Central Arrernte
154-647: Is one of the gaps in the West MacDonnell Ranges in Australia 's Northern Territory . It is located 18 kilometres west from Alice Springs , on the Larapinta Trail . The gap is home to various plants and wildlife, including the black-footed rock-wallaby . It is the site of a permanent waterhole. Rungutjirpa is an important spiritual place for the Arrernte people , who have inhabited the Arrernte area since before European discovery. It
176-442: Is unusual in that there are only two contrastive vowel phonemes, /a/ and /ə/ . Two-vowel systems are very rare worldwide, but are also found in some Northwest Caucasian languages . It seems that the vowel system derives from an earlier one with more phonemes, but after the development of labialised consonants in the vicinity of round vowels, the vowels lost their roundedness/backness distinction, merging into just two phonemes. There
198-488: Is used when Anmatyerr people when hunting, when talking to the deaf, when somebody passes away and when talking to elders. The Northern Territory Department of Education has a program for teaching Indigenous culture and languages, underpinned by a plan entitled Keeping Indigenous Languages and Cultures Strong – A Plan for Teaching and Learning of Indigenous Languages and Cultures in the Northern Territory with
220-515: The Living Archive of Aboriginal Languages . Projects are being run to revive dying dialects of the language, such as Southern Arrernte/Pertame. This description relates to Central or Eastern Arrernte. /ɰ ~ ʁ̞/ is described as velar [ ɰ ] by Breen & Dobson (2005) , and as uvular [ ʁ̞ ] by Henderson (2003) . Stops are unaspirated. Prenasalized stops are voiced throughout; prestopped nasals are voiceless during
242-474: The inland sea that once covered central Australia. Part of the Central Ranges xeric scrub ecoregion of dry scrubby grassland, the ranges are home to a large number of endemic species that includes the centralian tree frog Litoria gilleni . This is mostly due to the micro climates that are found around the cold rock pools. The West MacDonnell National Park was established in 1984 to protect
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#1732765448657264-566: The east and west of Alice Springs . The mountain range contains many spectacular gaps and gorges as well as areas of Aboriginal significance. The ranges were named after Sir Richard MacDonnell (the Governor of South Australia at the time) by John McDouall Stuart , whose 1860 expedition reached them in April of that year. The Horn Expedition investigated the ranges as part of the scientific expedition into central Australia. Other explorers of
286-571: The end of every word. Eastern and Central Arrernte has fairly free word order but tends towards SOV . It is generally ergative , but is accusative in its pronouns. Pronouns may be marked for duality and skin group . Pronouns decline with a nominative rather than ergative alignment: Body parts normally require non-possessive pronouns ( inalienable possession ), though younger speakers may use possessives in this case too (e.g. akaperte ayenge or akaperte atyinhe 'my head'). Simpsons Gap Simpsons Gap ( Arrernte : Rungutjirpa )
308-795: The five highest mountains in the Northern Territory. The headwaters of the Todd , Finke and Sandover rivers form in the MacDonnell Ranges. The range is crossed by the Australian Overland Telegraph Line , the Stuart Highway and the Adelaide–Darwin rail corridor at the Heavitree Gap , a water gap created by the Todd River, at the southern entrance to Alice Springs. Some 300-350 million years ago
330-403: The numerous parks and reserves of the range, including internal residents inside the range. It also facilitated the development of the Larapinta Trail . To the east of Alice Springs, within an hour's drive, are sites important to the local Arrernte people , many of which contain examples of Aboriginal rock art . These include Emily Gap , Jessie Gap , Trephina Gorge and N’Dhala Gorge . To
352-483: The one described in detail below. It is spoken in the Alice Springs area and taught in schools and universities, heard in media and used in local government. The second biggest dialect in the group is Alyawarre. Some of the other dialects are spoken by very few people, leading to efforts to revive their usage ; others are now completely extinct . "Aranda" is a simplified, Australian English approximation of
374-414: The others: All of the other dialects are either threatened or extinct: The Arrernte also have a highly developed Arrernte sign language , also known as Iltyeme-iltyeme. There is also an Anmatyerr sign language called iltyem-iltyem which is used by many Anmatyerr speakers to communicate non-verbally; the word iltja means 'hand, finger' and the term translates as 'signaling with hands'. Sign language
396-431: The range included David Lindsay and John Ross . The MacDonnell Ranges were often depicted in the paintings of Albert Namatjira . The highest peaks are Mount Zeil with an elevation of 1,531 metres (5,023 ft) AHD , Mount Liebig at 1,524 metres (5,000 ft) AHD, Mount Edward at 1,423 metres (4,669 ft), Mount Giles at 1,389 metres (4,557 ft) and Mount Sonder at 1,380 metres (4,530 ft) AHD;
418-593: The second stage of the plan running from 2018 to 2020. The Alice Springs Language Centre delivers language teaching at primary, middle and senior schools, offering Arrernte, Indonesian , Japanese , Spanish and Chinese . There are two courses teaching Arrernte at tertiary level: at the Batchelor Institute and at Charles Darwin University . There are books available in Arandic languages in
440-403: The stop. These sounds arose as normal consonant clusters; Ladefoged states that they now occur initially, where consonant clusters are otherwise forbidden, due to historical loss of initial vowels; however, it has also been argued that such words start with a phonemic schwa, which may not be pronounced (see below). All dialects have at least /ə a/ . The vowel system of Eastern/Central Arrernte
462-446: The traditional pronunciation of the name of Arrernte [ˈarəɳ͡ɖa] . Glottolog defines the Arandic group of languages/dialects as comprising 5 Aranda (Arrernte) dialects, plus two distinct languages, Kaytetye (Koch, 2004) and Lower Southern (or just Lower) Aranda, an extinct language. Ethnologue defines 8 Arandic languages and classifies them slightly differently. Two dialects are more widely spoken than any of
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#1732765448657484-583: The west of Alice Springs is the Larapinta Trail —a world-class, long distance bush walking trail that runs 223 kilometres (139 mi) along the backbone of the range. Along the trail are Simpsons Gap , Standley Chasm , Ellery Creek Big Hole , Serpentine Gorge , Ochre Pits , Ormiston Pound , Redbank Gorge , Glen Helen Gorge , Mount Sonder and Mount Giles . Arrernte language Arrernte or Aranda ( / ˈ ʌr ə n d ə / ; Eastern Arrernte pronunciation: [aɾəⁿɖə] ), or sometimes referred to as Upper Arrernte ( Upper Aranda ),
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