1 And still they speak Diyari: the life history of an endangered language Peter K. Austin Department of Linguistics SOAS University of London pa2@soas.ac.uk 7 January 2015 To appear in Ethnorema Abstract The Diyari language was traditionally spoken in the far north of South Australia and has an interesting and complex recorded history since it was first encountered by non-Aboriginal people in the 1860s. The language was the vehicle of Lutheran missionary activities from 1867 to 1914, resulting in the establishment of literacy and writings by native speakers. However its vitality was severely affected by the closure of the mission in 1914. Linguistic research beginning in 1960 means that the language is relatively well documented in text and audio recordings, and since 1990 community social and cultural developments have resulted in an increasing interest in the language and a series of revitalisation activities have been undertaken from 2008. Contrary to published reports of its extinction, Diyari today has a number of speakers of various levels of fluency and keen interest in its maintenance and revival by an active group of community members. Keywords: endangered language, language revitalisation, Australian Aboriginal languages, Diyari, South Australia. ISO 639-3 code: DIF