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Article published In:
Teaching Creole-Speaking Children: Issues, concerns and resolutions for the classroom
Edited by Gillian Wigglesworth
[Australian Review of Applied Linguistics 36:3] 2013
► pp. 285–301

Writing Aboriginal English & Creoles

Five case studies in Australian education contexts

| University of Melbourne
| University of Melbourne

Texts in Aboriginal English (AE) and creole varieties have been created by Indigenous and non-Indigenous writers for a range of purposes. In this paper, we focus on materials created in and for five educational contexts, and investigate the orthographic or spelling systems developed in each setting. Choices about orthography are guided by linguistic and non-linguistic considerations. They are sensitive to matters of prestige and identity, and new orthographic conventions are subject to comparison with ‘correct’, ‘standard’ spellings. We explore the processes, motivations and rationale that drive choices for the orthographic conventions and the diverse outcomes in the five settings.

Keywords: Aboriginal English, creole, Orthography, non-standard spellings, education
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at [email protected].

Published online: 1 January 2013
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/aral.36.3.04dis
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