The Proto-Australian Aboriginal Language, Dr. Chris Illert

| Origins: Australian Aborigines | Chris Illert CV | Proto-Australian Language | Traditional Aboriginal Languages 2021 |

Dr. Chris Illert, UWS, 2013 (3rd from left)

1. Introduction

Dr. Chris Illert (PhD University of Western Sydney 2013) (c.1950 - 23 August 2024) was an independent researcher and scholar who, between 1996-2024, published on what he termed the "Proto-Australian" Aboriginal language, with specific reference to south-eastern Australia. These papers are of both a scientific and ethno-historic nature, with the most significant appearing in the international, peer-reviewed Journal of Applied Statistics between 2003-2006, and within his 2013 University of Western Sydney Ph.D. thesis (refer citations and links below). 

Dr. Illert was primarily a mathematician and quantum physicist who published his non-Indigenous research outcomes beginning in 1976. Twenty years later, during the late 1990s, his Indigenous research resulted in an unlocking of the primary structure of the original Australian Aboriginal language as spoken at the time of the arrival of the First Fleet at Sydney in January 1788, and during the immediate period thereafter when European records were first kept as a result of interviews with numerous First Nations Peoples. Illert's discoveries in regards to the structure and development of Proto-Australian are, in the present writer's opinion, ground breaking and immensely significant. They allow, for the first time, modern researchers and cultural historians to better understand many of the archival records of early Australian Aboriginal language from the time the first transcriptions were made by individuals such as Lt. Dawes at Sydney in 1788, through to the demographers and ethno-historians of the 1890s and beyond.

Dr. Illert obtained his B.Sc.(Hons) in Applied Mathematics from Flinders University, South Australia, and in 2013 his Ph.D. from the University of Western Sydney. In 2004 he had commenced his Ph.D. studies in linguistics at that university, attempting to reconstruct and salvage 'extinct' south-east Australian Aboriginal languages. Dr. Illert's publications at the time were an element of that work, whilst also including strong links to local Aboriginal communities through the inclusion of songs and stories. From the 1980s Dr. Illert was active in those communities, serving for a time as Secretary of the Northern Illawarra Aboriginal Co-op (NIAC) and working with several Aboriginal corporations on Native Title claims in the Illawarra and Blue Mountains region. Dr. Illert has several published books and scholarly papers on the topic of the Australian Aboriginal language, including one produced in collaboration with Andrew Allison of the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the University of Adelaide. Danielle Reverberi also assisted Dr. Illert in the compilation and presentation of works for publication. In addition, many include black ink line drawings by Dr. Illert. This webpage exists to disseminate the linguistic findings specifically relating to Proto-Australian, or including elements of his research in this area within the body of the work. Links to related sites are provided above.

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2. Indigenous publications

The following is a chronological listing of Indigenous-related publications by Dr. Chris Illert. During this period Illert was also publishing material of a scientific nature relation to non-Indigenous studies. These are listed in a separate section below.

1996

1) Chris Illert, Djilimban the echidna: Aboriginal language stories from south-eastern Australia, Chris Illert, Corrimal, 1996. [Booklet]

1998

2) Chris Illert, The Mayran Clan on Gungungara, Northern Illawarra Aboriginal Co-operative, 1998. [Booklet]

1999

3) Chris Illert, 'Maria's Lullaby', in K. Kituai (ed.), There is no mystery: an artistic response to Lake George, Ginninderra Press, Canberra, 1999, 47-48, 172. [Booklet]

4) Don Bell and Chris Illert, Mununja the Butterfly - the first storybook in traditional Aboriginal language from south-eastern Australia, Nurgunwal A.C.T and District Aboriginal Council of Elders, 1999. [Booklet]

2000

5) Chris Illert, 'The Last Shoalhaven Lore Master?', Shoalhaven Chronograph, Shoalhaven Historical Society, 22(10), 2000, 1-5. [Journal article]

2001

6) Chris Illert, The Centenary of Mary Everitt’s Gundungurra Grammar, Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, 134(1/2), 2001, 19-44. [Journal article] *

7) Chris Illert, Lexigenesis in ancestral south-east-Australian Aboriginal language, Preprint Series, School of Languages and Linguistics, University of Western Sydney , 2001, 42p. [Booklet]

2003

8) Chris Illert, Lexigenesis in ancestral south-east-Australian Aboriginal language, Journal of Applied Statistics, 30(2), 2003, 113-143. [Refereed journal article] *

Abstract: The 1/x frequency distribution is known to researchers ranging from economists and biologists to electronic engineers. It is known to linguists as Zipf's Law (Zipf, 1949) and has recently been shown not to be a consequence of the Central Limit Theorem (Troll & Graben, 1998), leaving an "unsolved problem' in information theory (Jones, 1999). This 1/x distribution, associated with scale-invariant physical systems (Machlup & Hoshiko, 1980), is a special case of the general power law xλ arising from the Lagrangian L(x, (x)) = x1-λ2 and, as λ need not be an integer, some related research understandably involves fractals (Allison et al., 2001). The present paper generalizes this Lagrangian to include a van der Waals effect. It is argued that ancestral Aboriginal language consisted of root-morphemes that were built up into, and often condensed within, subsequent words or lexemes. Using discrete-optimization techniques pioneered elsewhere (Illert, 1987; Reverberi, 1985), and the new morpho-statistics, this paper models lexeme-condensation in ancestral south-east Australian Aboriginal language.

9) Chris Illert, Three Sisters Dreaming, or, did Katoomba get its legend from Kangaroo Valley, Shoalhaven Chronograph, Shoalhaven Historical Society, 2003, (Special Supplement), 40p. [Booklet] *

10) Chris Illert, Early Ancestors of Illawarra’s Wadi-WadiPeople - Part 1, Illawarra Historical Society Bulletin, November 2003 (Special Supplement), 50p. [Booklet] *

2004

11) Chris Illert and Andrew Allison, Phono-genesis and the Origin of Accusative Syntax in Proto-Australian Language, Journal of Applied Statistics, 31(1), 2004, 73–104. [Refereed journal article] *

Abstract: It is claimed that a set of 62 known (Illert, 2003) ancient Aboriginal words constitute a representative sample of the original proto-Australian lexicon whose maximum likelihood (Fisher, 1912) 'power law signature' is determined and shown to precisely fit genetically related 'modern' lexicons from south-eastern-Australia. This measure of 'sameness' builds the confidence required to justify inter-lexicon diachronic word-frequency comparisons which provide a powerful new statistical tool capable of revealing important features of ancestral grammar. This paper supplies the first ever published modern translations of authentic traditional language documented in obscure literary and archival sources which have, until recently, been lost (Dawes, 1790b; Wood, 1924; Troy, 1992) or overlooked (Everitt et al., 1900; Illert, 2001) for centuries. These newly found examples of accusative syntax supported by word- frequency data may come as quite a surprise to some linguists (Dixon, 1980; Osmond, 1989; Troy, 1992; Nichols, 1993) who, in the absence of adequate evidence, seem to have long-imagined that language from this region—if not the entire continent— simply had to be inherently and at the core ergative. On the contrary we find that changing word-frequencies, from proto-Australian to modern times, supply overwhelming evidence of the emergence of ancient accusative prefixes which have even survived into recent centuries in the Sydney region. Additionally it is found that, over millennia, words die-off in a lexicon, replaced by others, according to the famous "mortality law' of Gompertz (1825) which also describes the likelihood of death of biological organisms within populations and is the basis for modern actuarial science (Bowers et al., 1997). Just as disease and epidemics can wipe out entire cohorts of creatures from a population, so too can syntactic change annihilate word-classes in an evolving lexicon.

12) Chris Illert, The use of entropy-maximising power law signatures in studying Aboriginal language, research seminar, University of Adelaide, Special Joint Electrical & Electronic Engineering, Applied Mathematics & Linguistics seminar, 8 March 2004. [Presentation]

Abstract: A set of 62 newly discovered proto-Australian words obey a maximum-likelihood "power law" suggesting a "representative lexicon" from truly ancient ancestral language with a simpler sound-system. The changing frequencies of word-initial consonants, from proto-Australian to modern times, enables entropy maximising signatures to be calculated from historic word-lists and census forms gathered in recent centuries over large geographical areas. In turn these signatures enable the poorly recorded boundaries of extinct traditional languages to be determined, to previously unimaginable degrees of geographical precision, throughout entire regions of the continent. Although this initial study is limited to south-eastern-Australia, its methodology provides the first real hope of obtaining a detailed understanding of language dispersal throughout the entire continent over the past 60,000 years. Signatures also provide a basis for constructing tree diagrams linking the different language superfamilies.

13) Chris Illert and Danielle Reverberi, Wundjigaribay and the White Waratah, Northern Illawarra Aboriginal Collective Incorporated, 2004, CD + CD-ROM. [Audio file]

2005

14) Chris Illert, Origins of linguistic zonation in theAustralian Alps. Part 1 – Huygens' principle, Journal of Applied Statistics, 32(6), 2005, 625–659. [Refereed journal article] *

Abstract: The hitherto poorly recorded boundaries of extinct traditional south-east-Australian Aboriginal languages can now be redetermined with greatly improved precision using an entropy-maximizing phonetic-signature calculated from existing data sources, including old word-lists and census forms, that have, until now, largely been considered informationally worthless. Having thus determined traditional Aboriginal language zones to a previously unimaginable degree of geographical precision, it is argued that these boundaries should not be viewed merely as a static 'snapshot' but, instead, as the end-product of a knowable dynamic process (Gillieron wave propagation) governed by well-known physical rules (such as Huygens' principle and Snell's Law) and operating over 'deep' time-scales more familiar to the archaeologist than the linguist. Although this initial study is limited to south-eastern Australia, the new methodology provides the first real hope of obtaining a detailed understanding of language dispersal throughout the entire continent over the past 60,000 years.

15) Chris Illert, The Traditional Story of the Great Walk down George's River to La Perouse in about 1890, Northern Illawarra Aboriginal Collective Incorporated, 2005, 75p. [Booklet]

2006

16) Chris Illert, Origins of Linguistic Zonation in theAustralian Alps. Part 2 – Snell's Law, Journal of Applied Statistics, 33(9), 2006, 989–1030. [Refereed journal article] *

Abstract: In this second paper, analysing archival SE-Australian Aboriginal word/name lists, Snell's Law is used to deduce the likely minimal sound-systems of pre Ice-Age language superfamilies - some probably dating back beyond the first occupation of Australia by humans. The deduced 'Turuwal-like' ancestral sound-system is then used as a basis for reconstructing deictic forms apparently so ancient that they seem to even unify 'PamaNyungan' and 'non-PamaNyungan' language within a single system of formal logic which, having apparently provided the semantic basis for at least 60,000 years of speech throughout the entire Australian continent, deserves to be called proto-Australian regardless of whether or not it arose in SE-Asia tens of millennia before. Whatever the exact age of this reconstructed proto-Australian, presented here for the first time, it is an order of magnitude older than any known human language and, as such, a 'Rosetta Stone' for human languages worldwide. It also provides an unprecedented window into human consciousness and perception of the world up to 75,000 years ago, which is especially significant given that humans can only have engaged in finely controlled speech and fully modern language since chance mutation of our FOXP2 gene about 120,000 years ago. These truly ancient deictic forms dating halfway back to the beginning of modern human speech, retrieved only through modern statistical analysis, provide insight into our very origins and as such are perhaps amongst the most precious cultural treasures that humanity currently possesses.

17) Chris Illert, Emergency Listing of Westcliff Colliery Area 5, Longwall Blocks 31-33, under the EPBC Act, Northern Illawarra Aboriginal Collective Incorporated, Submission to the Department of Environment and Heritage, Canberra, 12 January 2006. Includes copy of Great Walk 1890 (2005) as Appendix 1. [Report] *

18) Chris Illert and Danielle Reverberi, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star in the Gundungara Aboriginal language of the NSW Southern Highlands, Northern Illawarra Aboriginal Collective Incorporated, 2006, CD + CD-ROM. [Audio file]

**) Report on "Diddycoolum" site visit with BIOSIS, Lyrebird Creek, Menangle, Northern Illawarra Aboriginal Collective Incorporated, 26 June 2006, 5p.

**) Comment by NIAC on Sandy Creek (AHIMS site number 52-2-2043 and surrounds) for Alistair Grinbergs Heritage Solutions and NSW Department of Commerce, Northern Illawarra Aboriginal Collective Incorporated, 24 July 2006, 6p.

**) NIAC comment on "Metropolitan Colliery longwall 14-17, draft Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Assessment", Northern Illawarra Aboriginal Collective Incorporated, August 2006, 9p.

2007

19) Chris Illert, Report on Wongonbra proposed 400 ha Subdivision Application, Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Assessment, Northern Illawarra Aboriginal Collective Incorporated, January 2007, 13p. [Report] *

20) Chris Illert, Report to the Growth Centres Commission in relation to proposed urban development in the uppermost catchment of South Creek, Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Assessment, Northern Illawarra Aboriginal Collective Incorporated, March 2007, 29p. [Report] *

21) Chris Illert, The Sydney Catchment Authority's Borehole Project in and about Kangaloon's EPBC Act listed Endangered Ecological Community Swamplands, Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Assessment, Northern Illawarra Aboriginal Collective Incorporated, April 2007, 54p. Includes a discussion on the significance of the white waratah and other local plants. [Report] *

**) Response to Navin Officer Draft Report "Locality LB, Edmondson Park - Archaeological Subsurface Testing Program", Northern Illawarra Aboriginal Collective Incorporated, January 2007, 7p. *

2008

22) Chris Illert, On the threat to AHIMS-list midden and burial sites in the Bellambi sand dunes, posed by Wollongong City Council's (WCC) environmental mismanagement and compounded by the Illawarra District(Noxious) Weed Authority's (IDWA) Bitou Bush aerial spraying program, Report toDECC, IDWA and Wollongong City Council, 19 May 2008, 22p. Part 1. [Report]

23) Chris Illert, On the threat to AHIMS-list midden and burial sites in the Bellambi sand dunes, posed by Wollongong City Council's (WCC) environmental mismanagement and compounded by the Illawarra District(Noxious) Weed Authority's (IDWA) Bitou Bush aerial spraying program, Report to DECC, IDWA and Wollongong City Council, 19 May 2008, 38p. Part 2. [Report]

2013

24) Chris Illert, A mathematical approach to recovering the original Australian Aboriginal language, Ph.D., School of Languages and Linguistics, University of Western Sydney, 2013, 277p. [Thesis]

2018

25) Chris Illert and John Murphy, The Tharumba Language of Southern New South Wales: Part 1 of Who was right - P.G. King or C. Darwin?, 2018, 24p. [Booklet]

2019

26) Chris Illert, John Murphy and Michael Organ, The Three Traditional Aboriginal Languages of Victoria: Part 2 of Who was right - P.G. King or C.Darwin?, 2019, 41p [Booklet].

2021

27) Chris Illert, John Murphy and Michael Organ, The Traditional Aboriginal Languages of Original-A and Original-B in western New South Wales: Part 3 of Who was right - P.G. King or C.Darwin?, 2021, 48p [Booklet].

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3. Non-Indigenous publications

Dr. Illert has published a number of works in areas of mathematics, statistics and quantum physics, including the following:

1976

Sea-Shell Mathematics, South Australia, 1976, 64p.

1981

Commemorative Biography Of Maximilian Ferdinand Weidenbach, outstanding 19th century Egyptologist, artist, explorer and humanitarian, Adelaide, 1981, 84p.

1982

The mathematics of gnomonic sea shells, South Australia, 1982, 68p.

1983

Introduction to the exact science of theoretical embryogenesis, South Australia, 1983, 44p.

1987

Formulation and solution of the classical seashell problem - I.-Seashell geometry, Il Nuovo Cimento D., I - Seashell Geometry, 9, July 1987, 791-814. DOI: 10.1007/BF02453750.

Summary: Despite an extensive scholarly literature dating back to classical times, seashell geometries have hitherto resisted rigorous theoretical analysis, leaving applied scientists to adopt a directionless empirical approach toward classification. The voluminousness of recent palaeontological literature demonstrates the importance of this problem to applied scientists, but in no way reflects corresponding conceptual or theoretical advances beyond the XIX century thinking which was so ably summarized by Sir D’Arcy Wentworh Thompson in 1917. However, in this foundation paper for the newly emerging science of theoretical conchology, unifying theoretical considerations for the first time, permits a rigorous formulation and a complete solution of the problem of biological shell geometries. Shell coilingabout the axis of symmetry can be deduced from first principles using energy considerations associated with incremental growth. The present paper shows that those shell apertures which are incurved («cowrielike»), outflared («stromblike») or even backturned («Opisthostomoidal») are merely special cases of a much broader spectrum of «allowable» energy-efficient growth trajectories (tensile elastic clockspring spirals), many of which were widely used by Cretaceous ammonites. Energy considerations also dictate shell growthalong the axis of symmetry, thus seashell spires can be understood in terms of certain special figures of revolution (Möbius elastic conoids), the better-known coeloconoidal and cyrtoconoidal shell spires being only two special cases arising from a whole class of topologically possible, energy efficient and biologically observed geometries. The «wires» and «conoids» of the present paper are instructive conceptual simplifications sufficient for present purposes. A second paper will later deal with generalized tubular surfaces in three dimensions.

1989

Formulation and solution of the classical seashell problem - II.-Tubular three-dimensional seashell surfaces, Il Nuovo Cimento D., 11, 1989, 761-780. DOI: 10.1007/BF02451562.

Summary: Unlike its predecessor this second paper formulates the problem of seashell geometry entirely in real spaceE 3, presenting those equations of most use for practical digital computer similations. The mathematics dilates previously mentioned clockspring “wires” (growth trajectoriesY(ϕ)) into tubular spiral surfacesr(σ, ϕ) complete with orthoclinal growth lines and simple periodic corrugations or flaresQ(σ, ϕ). It is seen that second-order theory requires a new boundary condition, the famous HLOR growth vectorr(σ, 0), which is absent from classical analyses. Thus it is demonstrated that simple periodic surface features, of a kind occurring widely in nature, obey precise Cauchy boundary conditions which may be related to the quantized cyclicities of metabolic, and geophysical, rhythms associated with biological shell growth.

1990

The new physics of ultrathin elastic conoids, Il Nuovo Cimento D., 12, October 1990, 1611-1632. DOI: 10.1007/BF02451262.

Nipponites Mirabilis - A challenge to seashell theory?, Il Nuovo Cimento D., 12, October 1990, 405-1421. DOI: 10.1007/BF02452108.

1992

Chris Illert & Clifford Pickover, Generating Irregularly Oscillating Fossil Seashells, Computer Graphics and Applications, IEEE, 12, 3, May 1992, 18-22. DOI: 10.1109/38.135910.

Abstract: The generation and representation of unusual growth patterns characteristic of certain extinct mollusks are discussed. The mathematical methods for biological pattern generation to render seashells on the computer and the software tools and hardware for the visualization of mathematical models of nature are described.

Chris Illert and R.M. Santilli, The Foundations of Theoretical Conchology, Hadronic Press, Florida, 1992.

Platonic Geometries in Nuclear Physics, Science Art Library, Wollongong, volume 1, 1992.

Computer growth simulation of fossil seashells. Animation by Cliff Pickover, IBM T.J. Watson Research Centre. Duration: 2.02 minutes.

1993

A beginner's guide to Hadronic circuit diagrams, and the secrets of cold nuclear fusion, Science Art Library, Wollongong, volume 2, 1993.

1995

Chris Illert and R.M. Santilli, The Foundations of Theoretical Conchology, Hadronic Press, Florida, 2nd edition, 1995, 204p.

1999

South Coast's little known wonders: the Bass Point, Shellharbour, reef, Australian Geographic, 1999.

2001

The Physics of Stargate, Corrimal, 2001, 34p. Presented at The Best of Both Worlds 2000 - Second Australian Stargate Convention.

The Celestial Code: An interpretation of Starcode symbols based on Renaissance cosmology, Corrimal, 2001, 38p.

2003

Essays on the Structure of Atomic Nuclei, from a Newtonian perspective, Wollongong, 2003.

2008

Forms of Nuclear Fusion Energy, Paper presented to the conference on Physical Interpretations of Relativity Theory, Imperial College, London, 12-15 September 2008.

Nuclear structure from Naive Meson Theory, University of Western Sydney, 2008.

Nuclear structure from Naive Meson Theory, Part 2, University of Western Sydney, 2008.

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[Dr. Illert passed away on 23 August 2023 from pneumonia. At the time he was resident in Bundanoon, New South Wales, Australia.]

| Origins: Australian Aborigines | Chris Illert CV | Proto-Australian Language | Traditional Aboriginal Languages 2021 |

Last updated: 17 October 2023.

Michael Organ, Australia