Chirila Project: Australian Aboriginal Language Locations

Claire Bowern's Chirila project provides geospatial files detailing the locations of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages as of European settlement. The dataset includes language and subgroup polygons, centroid coordinates, and a list of languages with codes from Glottolog, ISO-639, and AIATSIS. Funded by NSF grants, this work is intended for academic research, with boundaries noted as approximate and not suitable for legal claims.

Use Cases

• Mapping historical language distributions based on polygon and centroid data.
• Linguistic classification analysis using subgroup, family, and language code information.
• Cross-referencing language resources via integrated Glottolog, ISO-639, and AIATSIS codes.

Strengths

• Integrates multiple authoritative language coding systems: Glottocodes, ISO-639 codes, and AIATSIS codes.
• Provides multiple geospatial data types, including polygons for languages and subgroups, as well as centroid coordinates.
• Originates from a named academic project (Chirila) and principal investigator, with clear NSF grant funding (BCS-0844551, BCS-1423711).

Limitations

• Key metadata such as row count, file size, and specific last update date are unavailable across all sources.
• Spatial boundaries are explicitly described as approximate and not suitable for evidence in Native Title claims.
• The provided column names are unknown, limiting understanding of the data's precise tabular structure.

Provenance

Source

Claire Bowern, Yale University, as part of the Chirila project.

Collection Method

Research compilation to determine language locations as of European settlement.

Time Range

Historical period up to European settlement.

Geography

Australia, covering Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander language areas.