How did mother-in-law speech registers differ from ordinary speech in some Aboriginal languages?

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Distinctive features of Australia's Indigenous languages — Australian Aboriginal languages A discussion of the languages of Indigenous Australians.

In some Australian Aboriginal languages, the mother-in-law speech register—used in the presence of a mother-in-law or other affines—differed significantly from ordinary speech to reflect the high level of deference required in these social interactions.

This specialized register was characterized by:

Distinctive Delivery: Speakers utilized a high pitch and a slow rate of speech.1
Modified Vocabulary: The register employed special honorifics rather than standard terms.1
Grammatical Constraints: The use of questions and imperatives was strictly avoided.1

These registers served to maintain the social protocols surrounding kinship, where certain relatives were treated with extreme respect, similar to the deference accorded to royalty in other cultures. While these registers were once a notable feature of Aboriginal linguistic life, cultural assimilation has made them increasingly difficult to study in contemporary contexts.1