Talkin' bout a revolution: Cultural Effects on the Transition from Oral to Written Literature

Using language and writing to distinguish cultures from each other is commonplace. They are defining characteristics of culture that enable members to identify themselves within their group - by having communication they are tied together. Oral communication is the key identifier for Nyikina people of northern-Western Australia. However, Nyikina language is severely endangered, and risks being lost altogether. If the language were to die, Nyikina people would lose a huge part of their cultural identity. Working with the Nyikina community as part of a language revitalisation project sparked my interest in the transition from oral to written literature within the Mediterranean. Why did Nyikina not develop their own script, but Minoans and Etruscans did? It would be beneficial to have Etruscan literature or sound recordings describing how the Etruscan language was influenced by Phoenician and Greek cultures, and to know why they created their own alphabet using elements from both colonising influences. Hence, the experience and situation regarding the Nyikina language may provide a general paradigm for understanding and extrapolating the contextual situations of Minoans and Etruscans with respect to their languages, and vice-versa. This was the spring-board to a Masters thesis exploring such changes.