Wilfrid Douglas

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Wilfrid H. Douglas (1918 - March 22, 2004) was a missionary, linguist and translator, and carried out important early work on many indigenous Australian languages.

Born in Ireland in 1918, Douglas came to Australia while very young. At the age of 21, while working at the Western Australian wheatbelt siding of Badjaling, he befriended Noongar people living there and started learning their language.

Some years later Douglas, with his family, were working in the Kimberley region of Western Australia with the United Aborigines Mission (UAM) with Bardi people on Sunday Island. Here he started work on translating the Bible into the local language despite opposition from some of those in authority. As a result of this he became interested in linguistics and undertook courses with the Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL) and Sydney University.

In 1951 the UAM asked him to undertake work at their mission station at Ooldea on the Trans-Australian Railway in South Australia. Here he worked for the first time with speakers of the Western Desert Language and produced a phonology and grammar. Later he moved to Warburton Ranges in the Central Desert where he worked with speakers of another dialect of the Western Desert Language. It was here that he produced his works Introduction to the Western Desert Language (pub. Sydney Uni 1957) and his Illustrated Topical Dictionary of the Western Desert Language (1959).

Douglas continued his work with Noongar and in 1968 he published his The Aboriginal Languages of the South-West of Australia (AIAS press).

He also carried out work in the Geraldton region on Wajarri (which he spelled 'Watjarri').

Douglas continued his work throughout his life, continuing work on a new edition of his Illustrated Dictionary of the South West Language until just before his death.

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Douglas Wilfrid H. 1988. An Introductory Dictionary of the Western Desert Language. Institute of Applied Language Studies, Perth.
Douglas Wilfrid H. 1980. 'The Desert Experience: language'. In R.M. Berndt & C.H. Berndt (eds), Aborigines of the West : Their Past and Their Present. Nedlands, Perth: University of Western Australia Press, p. 108-118.
Douglas Wilfrid H. 1977. Illustrated Topical Dictionnary of the Western Desert Language. Warburton Ranges Dialect, Western Australia. Canberra: AIAS,
Douglas, Wilfrid H. 1976. The Aboriginal Languages of the South-West of Australia Australian Institute of Aboriginal Affairs, Canberra.
Douglas Wilfrid H. 1955. 'Phonology of the Australian Aboriginal Language spoken at Ooldea, South Australia'. Oceania, 25(3), p. 216-29.