The fieldwork was done between 1973 and 1977 and lasted three years, excluding one year in the middle when I was back in Chicago. My fieldwork was supported by the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies (A.I.A.S.). I thank the then Principal, Peter Ucko, along with Bob Dixon and Michael Silverstein, for helping to arrange that opportunity. In addition, I have many obligations to staff members of the Institute, too numerous to name, who provided expert assistance in such areas as servicing and air-freighting Uher tape recorders, maintaining a fine library in Canberra, processing my tapes and manuscripts, and publications. To mention only the linguists connected with the Institute at that time, I thank Barry Blake, Barry Alpher, Peter Sutton, Paul Black, Bruce Rigsby, and Michael Walsh for various forms of services and support.
The job of writing and typing the three Nunggubuyu volumes has required considerable post-fieldwork time. Fortunately, my position at Harvard has permitted a reasonable degree of term-time research activity. In addition, a long leave of absence in 1980-81 enabled me to finish the dictionary and continue work on the grammar. I acknowledge primary support in 1981 from the National Endowment for the Humanities (research fellowship), and local support during parts of that year from the Universität Hamburg (Prof. Jurgen Meisel), the Freie Universität Berlin (Prof. Norbert Dittmar), and again from A.I.A.S. (courtesy of then Acting Principal Warwick Dix).
It would be impossible to list all of the Australianists, linguists and (other?) anthropologists, to whom I have debts of one kind or another, and from whom I have learned something useful about the Aboriginals and their languages.
At Numbulwar, I thank the town council for my initial research permit and subsequent renewals. I particularly thank Lindsay and Dirrjuna, and for hospitality at Roper River (Ngukurr) also the Rev. Michael Gumbili (another Nunggubuyu).
The Rev. Earl Hughes, the former chaplain at Numbulwar and the author of the first publications on the language (see References), left before I arrived, but of course his work, principally his texts and dictionary, were of great value to me. I have debts, in addition, to linguists who were there while I was--Miss Kathie Warren (teacher turned literacy specialist), and later on Mr. Michael Hore (Bible translator). I thank Mr. Hore in particular for replying to my recent inquiries about paradigmatic gaps.
I think that anyone who reads this grammar will appreciate how hard it must have been for a young graduate student to tackle this language, but also how rewarding the experience eventually proved to be in the long run--making him come to grips with phenomena which are scarcely dealt with in a conventional linguistic curriculum. Whether they know it or not, the Nunggubuyu who served as my hosts for three years provided me with an enriching personal and professional experience of a sort which few colleagues have enjoyed. My debts are thus mainly to Nunggubuyu. I thank my earliest teachers (Mujiji, Jibulunguy, Milton, Dick), and my later one Yurrumurra, who engaged in elicitation sessions but mostly helped me understand and transcribe recordings. My (other) narrators, mostly now dead, were acknowledged more fully in the texts volume but deserve another mention--Maadi, Larrangana, Gaagadug, Johnnie, Reuben. May their descendants prosper.