Carl Strehlow’s 1909 Comparative Heritage Dictionary: An Aranda, German, Loritja and Dieri to English Dictionary with Introductory Essays

Strehlow’s comparative dictionary manuscript is a unique item of Australian

cultural heritage, it is a large collection of circa 7,600 Aranda, 6,800

Loritja (Luritja) and 1,200 Dieri to German entries compiled at the beginning

of the twentieth century at the Hermannsburg Mission in central Australia. It

is an integral part of Strehlow’s ethnographic work on Aboriginal cultures

that his German editor Baron Moritz von Leonhardi published as Die Aranda- und Loritja-Stamme in Zentral-Australien (Strehlow 1907-20) in Frankfurt. Strehlow and his editor

had planned to publish a language study that included this comparative

dictionary, but it remained unpublished until now due to a number of

complicated historical and personal circumstances of the main characters

involved with the dictionary.

Strehlow’s linguistic work is historically and anthropologically

significant because it probably represents the largest and most comprehensive

wordlist of Indigenous languages compiled in Australia during the early

stages of contact. It is an important primary source for Luritja and Aranda

speakers. Both languages are spoken in homes and taught in schools in central

Australia.

The reasons for presenting this work as a heritage dictionary-that is, as

an exact transcription of the original form of the handwritten manuscript-are

to follow the Western Aranda people’s wishes and to maintain its historical

authenticity, which will prove to be of great use to both Indigenous

people and scholars interested in language.