The loss of traditional ecological knowledge in endangered language communities is a cause of concern worldwide. Given the state of current knowledge, it is difficult to say whether language and TEK transmission levels are correlated, i.e. whether the erosion of one is accompanied by erosion of the other. This case study, focusing on a small Indigenous language from northern Australia, represents a first step towards a systematic investigation of this question. Speakers of the language Kune (which is currently being transmitted to small children in the community) were asked to identify and name a number of common birds and plants known to occur on Kune traditional lands, through a series of audiovisual stimuli. There was a weak correlation between speaker age and performance for the plant naming task, but not for the birds. Analysis of the ethnotaxa that were or were not named by individual participants showed that only a small number of plants and birds (approx. 13% and 7% respectively) were known to all participants, while many (approx. 30% and 26% respectively) could only be named by one participant, i.e. the oldest. Edible ethnotaxa were common among the plants and birds that could be named by many people. There was a tendency among younger speakers to use a single umbrella term to label similar-looking species from large genera, such as Acacia, whereas older people would have had distinct labels for each species. Performance in the plant and bird naming tasks was lower than expected for a community where language transmission to younger generations is high. The loss of certain plant and bird names from the active lexicons of some younger Kune speakers may be due to lifestyle change, particularly in terms of food habits, or due to inter-individual differences in life histories. Differences between the transmission of plant and bird names may be due to more frequent interactions with edible plants, as compared to birds.

中文翻译：

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传统生态知识的传播方式：以澳大利亚阿纳姆州为例。

濒临灭绝的语言社区中传统生态知识的流失是全世界关注的一个问题。给定当前的知识状态，很难说语言和TEK的传播水平是否相关，即，一种语言的侵蚀是否伴随着另一种语言的侵蚀。本案例研究的重点是澳大利亚北部的一种小型土著语言，是朝着对该问题进行系统调查的第一步。库恩语的讲者（目前正在传播给社区中的小孩）被要求通过一系列视听刺激识别并命名在库恩传统土地上已知的一些常见鸟类和植物。对于植物命名任务，说话者年龄与表现之间的相关性较弱，但对鸟类而言则不然。对单个参与者命名或未命名的民族分类的分析表明，所有参与者仅了解少量植物和鸟类（分别约为13％和7％），而许多参与者（分别约为30％和26％） ）只能由一位参与者（即年龄最大的一位）命名。可食用的民族分类生物在许多人都可以命名的植物和鸟类中很常见。年轻的讲者倾向于使用单个保护性术语来标记相思等大类相似物种，而老年人则对每个物种都有不同的标记。在植物和鸟类命名任务中的表现低于向年轻人传播语言的社区的预期。一些年轻的Kune演讲者的活跃词典中某些植物和鸟类名称的丢失可能是由于生活方式的改变，尤其是饮食习惯方面的改变，或者是由于生活史的个体差异。与鸟类相比，植物名称与鸟类名称之间的传递差异可能是由于与食用植物的相互作用更为频繁。