How these new Alice Springs street signs are making sure the Arrernte language is ‘kept strong’

New street signs have popped up in the Red Centre, and they’re there to keep one important language ‘going strong’. Find out how.

A new sign on Larapinta Dr, Alice Springs. Collaboration between Indigenmoji, the Batchelor Institute Language Centre, and the Centre for Australian Languages and Linguistics on the project Angkentye-yerrtye ileme mpwarele (Bringing back the right names)has seen 35 Arrernte street signs with the correct spelling installed around Alice Springs. April 2025. Picture: Indigemoji

More than 30 new street signs in the Red Centre capital are “bringing back the right names” – in a language speakers want to make sure is “kept strong”.

Alice Springs residents may have noticed 35 extra street signs around town, which have been installed as part of a project between Indigemoji, the Batchelor Institute Language Centre, and the Centre for Australian Languages and Linguistics.

The street signs – positioned under council street signs – were the culmination of a project years in the making to bring the correct Arrernte spelling and pronunciation to existing Arrernte street names, Indigemoji language consultant Joel Liddle said.

Joel Perrurle Liddle, Camille Dobson, and Veronica Dobson Perrule. Picture: Indigemoji

“Our language has been written for nearly five decades, and our Elders and language speakers have been publishing materials and learning resources for many years,” he said.

“We wanted to bring the names on the signs to life. Some may not have even realised that their street had an Arrernte name.”

Called Angkentye-yerrtye ileme mpwarele – or “Bringing back the right names” – the project was privately funded and uses a standard Arrernte spelling system developed in the 1980s.

The standardised spelling – or orthography – was put into the Central and Eastern Arrernte to English Dictionary, authored by Veronica Dobson and John Henderson in 1994.

A new sign on Tmara Mara Cct, Alice Springs, with the correct Arrernte spelling a QR code. Picture: Indigemoji

Ms Dobson said the project was “making sure the language is written down properly and getting the proper names on the streets of Mparntwe (Alice Springs)”.

“The language is changing. Some of the signs are examples of the older language that needs to be kept strong,” she said.

The signs also feature a QR code allowing people to hear the correct pronunciation of the words.

Eastern Arrernte person Camille Dobson said “we are so proud that our beautiful language is being preserved in street signs”.

“It is important to the future of the Arrernte language that people have the opportunity to see and hear Arrernte around them in the town of Mparntwe, and to use consistent spelling to keep the language going strong,” she said.

Originally published as How these new Alice Springs street signs are making sure the Arrernte language is ‘kept strong’