history of the Diyari people, including a 4-volume dictionary. The Diyari people were taught to read and write at the mission school, and written records show that the language was used in letters from about 1900 until about 1960. Dieri is therefore a relatively "literate" language, with a consistent orthography. During this period Diyari became a lingua franca, widely used by the missionaries and helpers as well as by Aboriginal people. Loss and revival After the mission closed in 1914, most of the Diyari people relocated to towns and stations, outside traditional territory, leading to loss of the language as they lived amongst people speaking English and other Aboriginal languages, although it continued to be used as a written language. The first research by professional linguists started with American linguist Kenneth L. Hale's recording of a short text in 1960 from a native speaker called Johannes, who was living at the time in Alice Springs. Research on the language started in earnest in the 1970s, using tape recordings and notes, by Luise Hercus, phonetician David Trefry and in particular Peter K. Austin. Austin wrote his PhD thesis on Diyari in 1978, using tapes recorded by Hercus, of which a revised version was published as a grammar of the language in 1981. Reuther's manuscript was translated from German into English by Rev. P. Scherer in 1981. Austin continued his research on Diyari based on fieldwork he had done in the 1970s, publishing translated texts, notes on literacy, language classification and vocabulary. By 1980, the language was still in use among a small number of families, but most people under 50 had learnt English as their first language. By the 1990s, most of his consultants on the language had died, and Austin assumed that the language was close to extinction. However, social and political activities among Aboriginal people in the 1990s relating to claims under the Native Title Act 1993 had a big impact on the language. The incorporation of a group of Diyari people who lodged a land claim, the Dieri Aboriginal Corporation (DAC), in 2001 had 600 identified members, many in the Marree area. In 2012 the Federal Court of Australia officially awarded an area of land centred on the Cooper Creek region to the DAC, and another claim was recognised soon afterwards. In 2008 Greg Wilson began work with the Dieri Resources Development Group, based in Port Augusta, to