Gubbi Gubbi language

Last updated

Gubbi Gubbi
Kabi Kabi, Kabi
Region Queensland
Ethnicity Kabi Kabi (Kabi), Butchulla (incl. Ngulungbara)
Native speakers
24 (2016 census, Batjala dialect) [1]
Pama–Nyungan
Dialects
  • Kabi Kabi (Dippil)
  • Butchulla (Batjala, Batyala, Badjala)
Official status
Official language in
Aboriginal Shire of Cherbourg
Language codes
ISO 639-3 Either:
gbw   Kabi-Kabi
xby   Batyala
Glottolog kabi1260
AIATSIS [2] E29  Gubbi Gubbi, E30  Butchulla
ELP Gubbi Gubbi
  Batyala [3]
Map of Traditional Lands of Australian Aboriginal peoples in SE Qld.png
Map of traditional lands of Aboriginal Australians around Brisbane; Gubbi Gubbi in   yellow and Butchulla in   light grey.
Lang Status 20-CR.svg
Badjala is classified as Critically Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger

Gubbi Gubbi, also spelt Kabi Kabi, is a language of Queensland in Australia, formerly spoken by the Kabi Kabi people of South-east Queensland. The main dialect, Gubbi Gubbi, is extinct, but there are still 24 people with knowledge of the Butchulla dialect (also spelt Batjala, Batyala, Badjala, and variants), a language spoken by the Butchulla people of K'gari (Fraser Island).

Contents

Language status

The main dialect is extinct, but there were still 24 people with knowledge of the Batjala dialect (a language spoken by the Butchulla people of K'gari formerly known as Fraser Island) as of the 2016 Australian census. [1]

Phonology

The following is in the Badjala/Butchulla dialect:

Consonants

Labial Dental Alveolar Retroflex/
Palatal
Velar
Stop plain b d ( ɟ ) ɡ
tense d̪ː
Nasal m n ( ɲ ) ŋ
Lateral l
Rhotic r ɻ
Approximant w j

Vowels

Front Back
High i u
Mid ɛ ɛː
Low a

Lexicon

According to Norman Tindale (1974), the word Kabi ( ['kabi] ), means "no". [2]

Wunya ngulum means "Welcome, everyone" in Kabi Kabi/Gubbi Gubbi. [5]

References

  1. 1 2 "Census 2016, Language spoken at home by Sex (SA2+)". stat.data.abs.gov.au. ABS. Archived from the original on 26 December 2018. Retrieved 30 October 2017.
  2. 1 2 E29 Gubbi Gubbi at the Australian Indigenous Languages Database, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies   (see the info box for additional links)
  3. Endangered Languages Project data for Batyala.
  4. Bell, Jeanie P. (2003). A sketch grammar of the Badjala language of Gari (Fraser Island). The University of Melbourne.
  5. "Say G'day in an Indigenous Language" (PDF). slq.qld.gov.au/. State Library of Queensland. 2016. Retrieved 28 December 2019.