Oregon Public Broadcasting

Margit Bowler has been given the gift of time on Uncle Sam's nickel. Thanks to a Fulbright scholarship, this 22-year-old Astoria native is spending a full year in Australia free of any obligation except to develop an open-ended research project of her choosing.

But Bowler, daughter of Lloyd and Janet Bowler, will by no means take it easy in the land down under. A linguistics major and recent graduate of Reed College, Bowler is studying Warlpiri, the most widely-spoken Aboriginal language.

This is no simple mission. Warlpiri, like every other aboriginal languages still in use, is endangered and may, before too long, utterly disappear.

"Warlpiri is not yet in dire danger of going extinct, but there are quite a few aboriginal languages that only have eight speakers left, five speakers left, two speakers left," Bowler explained. "These languages are clearly not going to survive another generation, especially because most of these speakers are quite old, and when they die, their language will go with them."

The study of aboriginal languages by white linguists and anthropologists is a politically charged issue in Australia. By trying to preserve and revitalize a language, these researchers, many aborigines fear, become its keepers. And given the history of Western colonization in the country, what universities call "study" the natives often call "stealing."

"When you're working with endangered languages like Warlpiri, it's incredibly important to look at the whole cultural and political context in which it's being spoken," Bowler said. "It's a really sensitive topic because language is so central to the indigenous culture, to the preservation of their history and stories and rituals."

Bowler, now based at the Australian National University in the capital city of Canberra, is preparing for her fieldwork in the Northern Territory. She is busy formulating questions to ask the speakers of Warlpiri - there are only 3,000 speakers left - when she begins her six-week expedition February.

Yet she is mindful that many aborigines believe their culture is "chronically over-researched" by well-meaning scholars who enter these tribes, do their research, and then leave no tangible benefit for the subjects.

"It's difficult to come in as an outsider and work on these languages. You have to take into account that these people are extremely marginalized and have been for centuries," she said. "We're coming from such a position of privilege to be able to go and do this kind of work with them and have this be our livelihood, so we have to be sensitive to their perspective."

Of great interest to her is the way "quantifiers" (some, all, each, every, etc.) work in Warlpiri, and whether their order in a sentence influences how that sentence is interpreted. To her immense delight, she gets to work from, and elaborate on, the actual field notes of her favorite linguist and academic idol, Kenneth Hale.

"When I return to the states, I'd really like to be able to make my data public for other linguists to work with," she said.

In fall 2012, Bowler will begin a five-year Ph.D. program in linguistics at the University of California, Los Angeles, seizing her master's degree en route.

"I've always been interested in language. As a kid, I was obsessed with the names of things and kept notebooks full of interesting words I encountered," she reflected. "So it was really natural that I became a linguist, and this Fulbright is a dream come true."

- Erick Bengel

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