The Obituary
The Tasmanian languages were spoken by the Aboriginal peoples of Tasmania, isolated from the Australian mainland for thousands of years. British colonisation from 1803 brought violence, dispossession, and disease that destroyed the population with terrible speed. The languages were poorly recorded before they fell silent, leaving scholars unsure whether there were one or many. Fanny Cochrane Smith, who died in 1905, is generally regarded as the last fluent speaker; her wax-cylinder recordings from 1899 and 1903 are the only surviving sound of any of these tongues.
Worth remembering
- Wax-cylinder recordings made by Fanny Cochrane Smith in 1899 and 1903 are the only audio of any Tasmanian language.
- So little was recorded that scholars still cannot agree whether there were one, several, or many distinct languages.
Sources
A graveyard tradition: leave a stone to show you came, and remembered.