Languages encroaching from the desert in northern Australia

Presented as part of the Language Change Seminar Series. I have drawn a distinction between two kinds of language spread, upstream and downstream. Because this metaphor has been misinterpreted, I now refer to these respectively as skirting and encroaching. Encroaching spread is where people located in a more demanding environment 'move in on' people with more easily obtained resources, using a combination of violence, marriage and new religious practices, to obtain and legitimize access to resources in the new territory.