| Gaagudju | |
|---|---|
| Kakadu | |
| Native to | Australia |
| Region | Northern Territory |
| Ethnicity | Gaagudju, Watta |
| Extinct | May 2002, with the death of Big Bill Neidjie |
| Dialects |
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | gbu |
| Glottolog | gaga1251 |
| AIATSIS [1] | N50 |
| ELP | Gagudju |
 Gaagudju | |
Gaagudju (also spelt Gagadu, Gaguju, and Kakadu) is an extinct Australian Aboriginal language formerly spoken in the environs of Kakadu National Park, in Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, Australia.
Explorer Baldwin Spencer incorrectly ascribed the name "Kakadu tribe" to all of the people living in the Alligator Rivers area, [2] [3] but Gaagudju was confined to the plains South and East Alligator Rivers. [1]
The language is classed as extinct, since its last fluent speaker, Big Bill Neidjie, died on 23 May 2002; [4] [5] AUSTLANG's sources recorded no speakers between 1975 and 2016. [1]
Gaagudju has traditionally been classified with the Gunwinyguan languages. However, in 1997 Nicholas Evans proposed an Arnhem Land family that includes Gaagudju.
| Front | Back | |
|---|---|---|
| High | i iː | u uː |
| Mid | e eː | o oː |
| Low | a aː | |
| Peripheral | Laminal | Apical | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bilabial | Velar | Palatal | Alveolar | Retroflex | |
| Stop | p | k | c | t | ʈ |
| Nasal | m | ŋ | ɲ | n | ɳ |
| Lateral | ʎ | l | 𝼈 | ||
| Rhotic | r | ɻ | |||
| Semivowel | w | j | |||
Capell (1942) lists the following basic vocabulary items: [6]
| gloss | Gagadu |
|---|---|
| man | djereiŋi |
| woman | djireːwan |
| head | ŋaːṙi |
| eye | bɔːrɔ |
| nose | geːni |
| mouth | djaːbul |
| tongue | ŋaːndjil |
| stomach | mabulu |
| bone | benaːgăra |
| blood | maneŋul |
| kangaroo | baːgu |
| opossum | mɔɳɔ |
| emu | gabaṙɛːbi |
| crow | mawaːga |
| fly | ŋɔrmul |
| sun | gobolbara |
| moon | maɖba |
| fire | gudjäli |
| smoke | uŋari |
| water | gaṙu |
Kakadu National Park is a protected area in the Northern Territory of Australia, 171 km (106 mi) southeast of Darwin. It is a World Heritage Site. Kakadu is also gazetted as a locality, covering the same area as the national park, with 313 people recorded living there in the 2016 Australian census.
Alligator Rivers is the name of an area in an Arnhem Land region of the Northern Territory of Australia, containing three rivers, the East, West, and South Alligator Rivers. It is regarded as one of the richest biological regions in Australia, with part of the region in the Kakadu National Park. It is an Important Bird Area (IBA), lying to the east of the Adelaide and Mary River Floodplains IBA. It also contains mineral deposits, especially uranium, and the Ranger Uranium Mine is located there. The area is also rich in Australian Aboriginal art, with 1500 sites. The Kakadu National Park is one of the few World Heritage sites on the list because of both its natural and human heritage values. They were explored by Lieutenant Phillip Parker King in 1820, who named them in the mistaken belief that the crocodiles in the estuaries were alligators.
Big Bill Neidjie, nicknamed "Kakadu Man", was the last surviving speaker of the Gaagudju language, an Aboriginal Australian language from northern Kakadu, after which Kakadu National Park is named. He was an elder of the Gaagudju people and a custodian of the land, who cared deeply about preserving his culture and land.
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