Kunjen language

Last updated

Kunjen
Uw
Native to Australia
Region Cape York Peninsula, Queensland
Ethnicity Ngundjan (Ogh-Undjan), Uw Oykangand, Olkola
Native speakers
2 (2005) [1]
Dialects
  • Uw Oykangand
  • Uw Olkola
  • Ogh-Undjan
  • Kawarrang
  • Athina
Language codes
ISO 639-3 Either:
kjn   Oykangand
olk   Olkol
Glottolog kunj1248
AIATSIS [1] Y83  Kunjen (cover term), Y188  Kokiny, Y237  Athina
ELP
Lang Status 20-CR.svg
Kunjen is classified as Critically Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

Kunjen, or Uw, is a Paman language spoken on the Cape York Peninsula of Queensland, Australia, by the Uw Oykangand, Olkola, and related Aboriginal Australian peoples. [2] It is closely related to Kuuk Thaayorre, and perhaps Kuuk Yak.

Contents

Dialects

Two of its dialects, Uw Olkola (Olgolo) and Uw Oykangand (Koko Wanggara), are very close, being mutually intelligible and sharing 97% of their core vocabulary. [3] Another two, Ogh-Undjan and Kawarrangg, are also close, but somewhat more distant from the first pair. Kokinj (Kokiny) is a subdialect of Ogh-Undjan. A fifth variety, Athima, is poorly attested.

Below is a table showing the mutual intelligibility in vocabulary between the Kunjen dialects, based on a list of 100 basic words. [4]

Uw Oykangand97%44%38%
Uw Olkola43%38%
Ogh-Undjan82%
Kawarrangg

A small dictionary of Kunjen has been compiled by Philip Hamilton. [5] A great majority of words begin with a vowel (>96%), similar to the situation in distantly-related Arrernte. Exceptions include kinship terms and loanwords. Syllable onsets are thought to be present in all languages, so their absence in native lexicon is highly notable.

Respect register

As in many other Australian languages, such as Dyirbal, Kunjen also has a respect register, which is a polite way of speaking with a potential mother-in-law and is called Olkel-Ilmbanhthi. Most of the vocabulary is replaced, while affixes and function words are kept. [6]

Normal Uw Oykangand:

Alka-nhdh

spear-INSTR

idu-rr

spear-PST

ay

I

Alka-nhdh idu-rr ay

spear-INSTR spear-PST I

"I speared it with a spear."

Equivalent in Olkel-Ilmbanhthi:

Udnga-nhdh

spear-INSTR

yanganyunyja-rr

spear-PST

ay

I

Udnga-nhdh yanganyunyja-rr ay

spear-INSTR spear-PST I

"I speared it with a spear."

Phonology

Vowels

Kunjen has 5 vowels:

Vowels [7]
Front Back
UnroundedRounded
Close iu
Mid eo
Open a

There is a lexical vowel harmony constraint in Kunjen: Close and mid vowels do not co-occur in a word.

Consonants

Kunjen has 27 consonants:

Consonants [8]
Peripheral Laminal Apical
Bilabial Velar Palatal Dental Alveolar Retroflex
Plosive voiceless p p k k c ch th t t
voiced b b g g ɟ j dh d d
Nasal plain m m ŋ ng ɲ ny nh n n
prestopped ᵇm bm ᶢŋ gng ᶡɲ jny ᵈ̪n̪ dnh ᵈn dn
Fricative f f ɣ ɣ ð ð
Trill r rr
Approximant Central w w j y ɻ r
Lateral ʎ ly lh l l

The Uw Olkola word for the freshwater crocodile, ogakor, was used as the name of a tribe on the second season of the American reality television series, Survivor in 2001. [9]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Makassarese language</span> Austronesian language of South Sulawesi, Indonesia

Makassarese, sometimes called Makasar, Makassar, or Macassar, is a language of the Makassarese people, spoken in South Sulawesi province of Indonesia. It is a member of the South Sulawesi group of the Austronesian language family, and thus closely related to, among others, Buginese, also known as Bugis. The areas where Makassarese is spoken include the Gowa, Sinjai, Maros, Takalar, Jeneponto, Bantaeng, Pangkajene and Islands, Bulukumba, and Selayar Islands Regencies, and Makassar. Within the Austronesian language family, Makassarese is part of the South Sulawesi language group, although its vocabulary is considered divergent compared to its closest relatives. In 2000, Makassarese had approximately 2.1 million native speakers.

Comorian is the name given to a group of four Bantu languages spoken in the Comoro Islands, an archipelago in the southwestern Indian Ocean between Mozambique and Madagascar. It is named as one of the official languages of the Union of the Comoros in the Comorian constitution. Shimaore, one of the languages, is spoken on the disputed island of Mayotte, a French department claimed by Comoros.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kalaw Lagaw Ya</span> Language native to Australia

Kalau Lagau Ya, Kalaw Lagaw Ya, Kala Lagaw Ya, or the Western Torres Strait language is the language indigenous to the central and western Torres Strait Islands, Queensland, Australia. On some islands, it has now largely been replaced by Torres Strait Creole.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Masbateño language</span> Bisayan language spoken in the Philippines

Masbateño or Minasbate is a member of Central Philippine languages and of the Bisayan subgroup of the Austronesian language family spoken by more than 724,000 people in the province of Masbate and some parts of Sorsogon in the Philippines. Masbatenyo is the name used by the speakers of the language and for themselves, although the term Minásbate is sometimes also used to distinguish the language from the people. It has 350,000 speakers as of 2002, with 50,000 who speak it as their first language. About 250,000 speakers use it as their second language.

The Achumawi language is the indigenous language spoken by the Pit River people in the northeast corner of present-day California. The term Achumawi is an anglicization of the name of the Fall River band, ajúmmááwí, from ajúmmá "river". Originally there were nine bands, with dialect differences primarily between upriver and downriver, demarcated by the Big Valley mountains east of the Fall River valley.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yugambeh–Bundjalung languages</span> Language branch spoken in Australia

Yugambeh–Bundjalung, also known as Bandjalangic, is a branch of the Pama–Nyungan language family, that is spoken in north-eastern New South Wales and South-East Queensland.

Initial dropping is a sound change whereby the first consonants of words are dropped. Additionally, stress may shift from the first to the second syllable, and the first vowel may be shortened, reduced, or dropped, which can mean the loss of the entire first syllable of a word. These changes have occurred independently in several Australian Aboriginal language groups.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saaroa language</span> Austronesian language spoken in Taiwan

Saaroa or Lhaʼalua is a Southern Tsouic language spoken by the Saaroa (Hla'alua) people, an indigenous people of Taiwan. It is a Formosan language of the Austronesian family.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wagiman language</span> Indigenous Australian language

Wagiman, also spelt Wageman, Wakiman, Wogeman, and other variants, is a near-extinct Aboriginal Australian language spoken by a small number of Wagiman people in and around Pine Creek, in the Katherine Region of the Northern Territory.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lardil language</span> Australian Aboriginal language

Lardil, also spelled Leerdil or Leertil, is a moribund language spoken by the Lardil people on Mornington Island (Kunhanha), in the Wellesley Islands of Queensland in northern Australia. Lardil is unusual among Aboriginal Australian languages in that it features a ceremonial register, called Damin. Damin is regarded by Lardil-speakers as a separate language and has the only phonological system outside Africa to use click consonants.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Naʼvi language</span> Constructed science-fiction language

The Naʼvi language is a fictional constructed language originally made for the 2009 film Avatar. In the film franchise, the language is spoken by the Naʼvi, a race of sapient humanoids indigenous to the extraterrestrial moon Pandora. The language was created by Paul Frommer, a professor at the USC Marshall School of Business with a doctorate in linguistics. Naʼvi was designed to fit moviemaker James Cameron's conception of what the language should sound like in the film. It had to be realistically learnable by the fictional human characters of the film and pronounceable by the actors, but also not closely resemble any single human language.

Kuuk Thaayorre (Thayore) is a Paman language spoken in the settlement Pormpuraaw on the western part of the Cape York Peninsula, Queensland in Australia by the Thaayorre people. As of 2006, 250 of the 350 ethnic Thaayorre spoke the language. It is in a robust position compared to many indigenous Australian languages, as it is still being acquired by children and used in daily interaction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Southwestern Paman languages</span> Pama–Nyungan language family of Australia

The Southwestern Paman languages are a family of the Paman languages spoken on the western part of the Cape York Peninsula of Queensland, Australia.

The Thaayorre, or Kuuk Thaayore, are an Australian people living on the southwestern part of the Cape York Peninsula, Queensland in Australia, primarily in the settlement Pormpuraaw, having its foundation in the Edward River Mission.

The Uw Oykangand, otherwise known as the Kwantari, are an Aboriginal Australian people living on the southwestern part of the Cape York Peninsula, in the state of Queensland in Australia. Their neighbours to the northwest are the Yir-Yoront people. Their traditional lands are around the Alice River and the Crosbie River, and further west around the Mitchell River and into Gulf Country.

Jingulu, also spelt Djingili, is an Australian language spoken by the Jingili people in the Northern Territory of Australia, historically around the township of Elliot. The language is an isolate branch of the Mirndi languages.

Djinang is an Australian Aboriginal language, one of the family of Yolŋu languages which are spoken in the north-east Arnhem Land region of the Northern Territory.

Bilingara, also known as the Bilinarra, is an Australian Aboriginal language spoken by the Bilinarra people of the Northern Territory.

The Ajabakan were an indigenous Australian people of the Cape York Peninsula of Queensland.

The Ngundjan (Ogh-Undjan) were an indigenous Australian people of the state of Queensland.

References

  1. 1 2 Y83 Kunjen (cover term) at the Australian Indigenous Languages Database, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies   (see the info box for additional links)
  2. Crump, Des (10 August 2020). "Language of the Week: Week Eleven - Oykangand". State Library Of Queensland. Retrieved 15 December 2023.
  3. "Description of the languages Uw Olkola and Uw Oykangand". Archived from the original on 25 July 2011. Retrieved 29 December 2009.
  4. Sommer, Bruce A. (January 1970). "An Australian Language Without CV Syllables". International Journal of American Linguistics. 36: 57–58. doi:10.1086/465090. S2CID   143977924.
  5. "Uw Oykangand and Uw Olkola wordlist". Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 29 December 2009.
  6. Evans, Nicholas (2006). "Warramurrungunji Undone: Australian Languages in the 51st Millennium". In Brenzinger, Matthias (ed.). Language Diversity Endangered. pp. 354–355.
  7. Sommer 1969, pp. 37, 41.
  8. Sommer 1969, pp. 37–40.
  9. "Freshwater crocodile". oocities.org. Archived from the original on 17 October 2012.[ self-published source? ]

Further reading