Hermann Klaatsch and his linguistic research in Northwestern Australia

Corinna Erckenbrecht and William B. McGregor
Reiss-Engelhorn-Museums | Aarhus University

This paper explores the little-known documentation of the Nyulnyul language of Dampier Land, Western Australia, by the German physician, anatomist, physical anthropologist and evolutionist Hermann Klaatsch (1863–1916). During his two stays at the Beagle Bay Mission in 1905 and 1906, Klaatsch compiled wordlists amounting to almost 900 words in Nyulnyul, some arranged alphabetically on the Nyulnyul term and some according to semantic domains. Most entries are identifiably Nyulnyul. We discuss Klaatsch’s motivations in compiling the wordlists, compare them with other early wordlists of Nyulnyul, and evaluate their quality and contribution to our knowledge of this now moribund language.

Publication history

Date received: 7 October 2025

Date accepted: 5 June 2026

Published online: 2 July 2026

Table of contents

Hermann Klaatsch (1863–1916) was a Berlin-born medical doctor, comparative anatomist and physical anthropologist. From 1881 to 1885 he studied medicine at Heidelberg University. He was subsequently appointed assistant professor at the Anatomical Institute of Berlin University, where he completed his PhD in 1885. In 1888 he returned to Heidelberg University where he received his habilitation in 1890, after which, in 1895, he became extraordinary professor of human anatomy at that university. However, in 1896 he left the university and worked as an independent scholar until 1904. From 1904 to 1907 he undertook a three-year journey around Australia, which included a six-month visit to Java. Upon his return to Germany, Klaatsch was appointed professor of anatomy at Breslau University, now Wrocław University, in Poland. He died suddenly in 1916 while on a trip around Germany giving talks as a guest lecturer.

Full-text access is restricted to subscribers. Log in to obtain additional credentials. For subscription information see Subscription & Price. Direct PDF access to this article can be purchased through our e-platform.

References

Bischofs, Joseph
1905–1914 Premiers elements de la langue Niol niol [Basic elements of Nyulnyul grammar]. Unpublished typescript. AIATSIS pMs 1418.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bischofs, P. Joseph
nd. Vocabulary of the Niol Niol language. Unpublished typescript. AIATSIS Ms 99.
Bowern, Claire
2008 “History of research on Bardi and Jawi.” Encountering Aboriginal languages: Studies in the history of Australian linguistics ed. by William B. McGregor, 59–84. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Douglas, Rob
2019 He speaks our language: The story of an Irish missionary in the Australian outback. Mona Vale: Ark House Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Elkin, Adolphus P.
1933 “Totemism in north-western Australia (the Kimberley division)”. Oceania 3. 257–296, 435–481. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Erckenbrecht, Corinna
2010 Auf der Suche nach den Ursprüngen. Die Australienreise des Anthropologen und Sammlers Hermann Klaatsch 1904–1907. [In search of origins: the Australian journey of anthropologist and collector Hermann Klaatsch, 1904–1907.] (Ethnologica N.F., 27.) Köln: Wienand Verlag GmbH.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2018 “Hermann Klaatschs Australienreise 1904–1907 und seine Zeit in Nordwestaustralien [Hermann Klaatsch’s Australian journey 1904–1907 and his time in Northwest Australia]”. Der Ruf des Schneckenhorns: Hermann Klaatsch (1863–1916), Ein Heidelberger Wissenschaftler in Nordwestaustralien [The Call of the Snail Horn: Hermann Klaatsch (1863–1916), a Heidelberg scientist in Northwest Australia] ed. by Carsten Wergin & Corinna Erckenbrecht, 23–53. Heidelberg: Universitätsbibliothek Heidelberg.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Erckenbrecht, Corinna & Carsten Wergin
2018 “Hermann Klaatsch and his collection of human remains from (North) West Australia.” Der Ruf des Schneckenhorns: Hermann Klaatsch (1863–1916), Ein Heidelberger Wissenschaftler in Nordwestaustralien [The Call of the Snail Horn: Hermann Klaatsch (1863–1916), a Heidelberg scientist in Northwest Australia] ed. by Carsten Wergin & Corinna Erckenbrecht, 101–115. Heidelberg: Universitätsbibliothek Heidelberg.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Greenberg, Joseph H.
1988 “The first person inclusive dual as an ambiguous category”. Studies in Language 12:1. 1–18. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Klaatsch, Hermann
1906 “Reisebericht des Hrn. Prof. Klaatsch aus Soerabaya vom. 1, Mai, 1906. ii. Australien”. [Travel report of Prof. Klaatsch from Soerabaya dated May 1, 1906. ii. Australia.] Zeitschrift für Ethnologie 38. 776–800.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1907a “Schlussbericht über meine Reise nach Australien in den Jahren, 1904–1907”. [Final report on my journey to Australia in the years 1904–1907.] Zeitschrift für Ethnologie 39. 636–644.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1907b “Some notes on scientific travel amongst the black population of tropical Australia 1904, 1905, 1906”. Adelaide Meeting of the Australasian Association of the Advancement of Science. January 1907. Published in: Report of the Eleventh Adelaide Meeting of the Australasian Association or the Advancement of Science, Adelaide, January 1907, 577–592.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1908 “The skull of the Australian Aboriginal New South Wales.” Pathological Laboratory Reports 1:3. 44–167.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kolig, Erich
2017 “Doing research in the Kimberley and carrying ideological baggage: a personal journey.” German ethnography in Australia ed. by Nicolas Peterson & Anna Kenny, 383–411. Canberra: ANU Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
McGregor, William B.
1996 “Introduction”. Studies in Kimberley languages in honour of Howard Coate ed. by William B. McGregor, 1–12. München & Newcastle: Lincom Europa.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2000 “An early Trappist grammar of Nyulnyul (Dampier Land, Western Australia).” The history of linguistic and grammatical praxis: proceedings of the XIth International Colloquium of the Studienkreis “Geschichte der Sprachwissenschaft” (Leuven, 2nd-4th July, 1998) ed. by Piet Desmet, Lieve Jooken, Peter Schmitter & Pierre Swiggers, 445–464. Leuven and Paris: Peeters.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2003 “Language shift among the Nyulnyul of Dampier Land.” Acta Linguistica Hafniensia 35. 115–159. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2004 The languages of the Kimberley, Western Australia. London: RoutledgeCurzon.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2008a “Introduction”. Encountering Aboriginal languages: studies in the history of Australian linguistics ed. by William B. McGregor, 1–34. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2008b “Missionary linguistics in the Kimberley, Western Australia: a history of the first seventy years”. Historiographia Linguistica 35:1/2. 121–162. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2012a “Daisy Bates’ documentations of Kimberley languages”. Language & History 55:2. 79–101. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2012b The Nyulnyul language of Dampier Land, Western Australia. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2020 “Grammaticalisation patterns in Nyulnyulan languages.” Areal patterns of grammaticalization and cross-linguistic variation in grammaticalization scenarios ed. by Walter Bisang & Andrej L. Malchukov, 1077–1108. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Merlan, Francesca
2017 “The Australianist work of Erhard Eylmann in comparative perspective.” German ethnography in Australia ed. by Nicolas Peterson & Anna Kenny, 275–299. Canberra: ANU Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Metcalfe, Christopher D.
1979 “Some aspects of the Bardi language: a non-technical description”. Aborigines of the West: their past and their present ed. by Ronald M. Berndt & Catherine H. Berndt, 197–213. Perth: University of Western Australia Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nekes, Hermann & Ernest A. Worms
1953 Australian languages. Fribourg: Anthropos Institut.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2006 Australian languages ed. by William B. McGregor. Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Peterson, Nicolas & Anna Kenny
2017 “The German-language tradition of ethnography in Australia”. German ethnography in Australia ed. by Nicolas Peterson & Anna Kenny, 3–27. Canberra: ANU Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Spencer, W. Baldwin & Francis J. Gillen
1899 The native tribes of Central Australia. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stokes, Bronwyn & William B. McGregor
2003 “Classification and subclassification of the Nyulnyulan languages”. The non-Pama-Nyungan languages of northern Australia: comparative studies of the continent’s most linguistically complex region ed. by Nicholas Evans, 29–74. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tachon, Alphonse
1895 Premiers elements de la langue Niol/Niol [First elements of the Nyulnyul language]. Unpublished manuscript.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
nd. [Nyulnyul vocabulary]. Unpublished manuscript.
Nick Thieberger
2017 “Digital Daisy Bates.” Web resource. 〈http://​bates​.org​.au〉
Wergin, Carsten
2018 “Orte radikaler Hoffnung Zum Umgang mit dem Nachlass evolutionstheoretisch motivierter Forschungspraxis [Places of radical hope: on dealing with the legacy of evolutionarily motivated research practice]” Der Ruf des Schneckenhorns: Hermann Klaatsch (1863–1916), Ein Heidelberger Wissenschaftler in Nordwestaustralien [The Call of the Snail Horn: Hermann Klaatsch (1863–1916), a Heidelberg scientist in Northwest Australia] ed. by Carsten Wergin & Corinna Erckenbrecht, 9–21. Heidelberg: Universitätsbibliothek Heidelberg.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Williams, Magdalene
1999 Ngay janijirr ngank: this is my word. Broome: Magabala Books.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar

Unpublished material by Hermann Klaatsch (all © Reiss-Engelhorn-Museums Mannheim, Germany)

Klaatsch’s notebook/diary Nr. 79, Niol-Niol I
Private archive of the Klaatsch family, held in Reiss-Engelhorn-Museums Mannheim, Germany.
Klaatsch’s notebook/diary Nr. 81, Niol-Niol II
Private archive of the Klaatsch family, held in Reiss-Engelhorn-Museums Mannheim, Germany.
Letter Nr. 25 from Klaatsch to Schoetensack from 22nd — 31st December 1905 from East Java, Tengger mountains, Tosari, at the Bromo, 1750 m high
Private archive of the Klaatsch family, held in Reiss-Engelhorn-Museums Mannheim, Germany.
Letter Nr. 31 from Klaatsch to Schoetensack from 12th July 1906 on board SS. Bullara, north coast of Western Australia on the way to Wyndham
Private archive of the Klaatsch family, held in Reiss-Engelhorn-Museums Mannheim, Germany.
 
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue