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  • Writer's pictureCaitlin May

Case study: Adelaide footballer Cam Ellis-Yolmen and 'uncle'


In this tweet from August 2021, Adelaide footballer Cam Ellis-Yolmen congratulates fellow Indigenous player Eddie Betts on his 350th game by calling him 'uncle'.


This lexeme is often used in Aboriginal Australian English to refer to somebody with whom the speaker has a close relationship, not just a family member. It has therefore undergone semantic broadening, and is a great linguistic marker of identity and solidarity within the Indigenous community.

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