Classification
Nukunu is a Pama–Nyungan language, closely related to neighboring languages in the Miru cluster [4] like Narungga, Kaurna, and Ngadjuri.
| Nukunu | |
|---|---|
| Region | South Australia |
| Ethnicity | Nukunu |
| Extinct | ca. 2000 |
Pama–Nyungan
| |
| Latin | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | nnv |
| Glottolog | nugu1241 [1] |
| AIATSIS [2] | L4 |
Nukunu (or Nugunu or many other names: see below) is a moribund Australian Aboriginal language spoken by Nukunu people on Yorke Peninsula, South Australia. As of 2017, there is a revival and maintenance programme under way for the language. [3]
This language has been known by many names by neighboring tribes and Australianists, including:
Nukunu is a Pama–Nyungan language, closely related to neighboring languages in the Miru cluster [4] like Narungga, Kaurna, and Ngadjuri.
Nukunu has three different vowels with contrastive long and short lengths (a, i, u, a:, i:, u:).
| Front | Back | |
|---|---|---|
| High | i iː | u uː |
| Low | a aː | |
The Nukunu consonantal inventory is typical for a Pama–Nyungan language, with six places of articulation for stops and nasals. There are three rhotics in the language.
| Peripheral | Laminal | Apical | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labial | Velar | Dental | Palatal | Alveolar | Retroflex | ||
| Stop | Voiceless | p | k | t̪ | c | t | ʈ |
| Voiced | (ɖ) | ||||||
| Nasal | m | ŋ | n̪ | ɲ | n | ɳ | |
| Lateral | l̪ | ʎ | l | ɭ | |||
| Tap | ɾ | ||||||
| Trill | r | ||||||
| Approximant | w | j | ɻ | ||||
A phonemic voicing contrast exists in Nukunu, but it has only been observed in the retroflex stop series. An example demonstrating such a contrast intervocalically is kurdi (phlegm, IPA ['kuɖi]) and kurti (quandong, IPA ['kuʈi]).
In contrast with other Thura–Yura languages, Nukunu did not partake in either the initial th- lenition before vowels or the lenition of initial k- before vowels.
The Australian Aboriginal languages consist of around 290–363 languages belonging to an estimated 28 language families and isolates, spoken by Aboriginal Australians of mainland Australia and a few nearby islands. The relationships between these languages are not clear at present. Despite this uncertainty, the Indigenous Australian languages are collectively covered by the technical term "Australian languages", or the "Australian family".
The Pama–Nyungan languages are the most widespread family of Australian Aboriginal languages, containing perhaps 300 languages. The name "Pama–Nyungan" is derived from the names of the two most widely separated groups, the Pama languages of the northeast and the Nyungan languages of the southwest. The words pama and nyunga mean "man" in their respective languages.
The Warlpiri language is spoken by about 3,000 of the Warlpiri people in Australia's Northern Territory. It is one of the Ngarrkic languages of the large Pama–Nyungan family and is one of the largest Aboriginal languages in Australia in terms of number of speakers. One of the most well-known terms for The Dreaming, Jukurrpa, derives from Warlpiri.
The Adnyamathanha are a contemporary Indigenous Australian people from the Flinders Ranges, South Australia, formed as an aggregate of several distinct peoples. Strictly speaking the ethnonym Adnyamathanha was an alternative name for the Wailpi. Adnyamathanha is also often used as the name of their traditional language, although the language is more commonly called "yura ngarwala" by Adnyamathanha people themselves.
Kaurna is a Pama-Nyungan language historically spoken by the Kaurna peoples of the Adelaide Plains of South Australia. The people of the Adelaide plains are known as the Kaurna people in contemporary times, but the Kaurna nation is made up of various tribal clan groups, each with their own parnkarra district of land, each having had their own dialectal form of language. These dialects were historically spoken in the area of the Adelaide Plains bounded by Crystal Brook and Clare in the north, Cape Jervis in the south, and just over the Mount Lofty ranges. It ceased to be spoken on an everyday basis in the 19th century, but, in a process that began in the 1990s, is being reclaimed and re-introduced.
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Nhanda, also rendered Nhanta and Nhandi, is an Australian Aboriginal language from the Midwest region of Western Australia, between Geraldton and the Murchison River, from the coast to about 20 kilometres (12 mi) inland. The language is now spoken, or semi-spoken, by only a few people.
The Wirangu language, also written Wirrongu, Wirrung, Wirrunga, and Wirangga, and also known by other exonyms, is a moribund Australian Aboriginal language traditionally spoken by the Wirangu people, living on the west coast of South Australia across a region encompassing modern Ceduna and Streaky Bay, stretching west approximately to the head of the Great Australian Bight and east to Lake Gairdner. It is a language of the Thura-Yura group, and some older sources placed it in a subgroup called Nangga.
Ngaanyatjarra is an Australian Aboriginal language. It is one of the Wati languages of the large Pama–Nyungan family. It is one of the dialects of the Western Desert Language and is very similar to its close neighbour Ngaatjatjarra, with which it is highly mutually intelligible.
Yugambeh–Bundjalung, also known as Bandjalangic is a branch of the Pama–Nyungan language family, that is spoken in northeastern New South Wales and South-East Queensland.
Yarli (Yardli) was a dialect cluster of Australian Aboriginal languages spoken in northwestern New South Wales and into Northeastern South Australia individually Malyangapa (Maljangapa), Yardliyawara, and Wadikali. Bowern (2002) notes Karenggapa as part of the area, but there is little data.
The Yura or Thura-Yura languages are a group of Australian Aboriginal languages surrounding Spencer Gulf and Gulf St Vincent in South Australia, that comprise a genetic language family of the Pama–Nyungan family.
Nukunu are an Aboriginal Australian people of South Australia, living around the Spencer Gulf area. In the years after British colonisation of South Australia, the area was developed to contain the cities of Port Pirie and Port Augusta.
Arabana or Arabuna is an Australian Aboriginal language of the Pama–Nyungan family, spoken by the Wongkanguru and Arabana people.
Narungga is an Australian Aboriginal language formerly spoken by the Narungga people in Yorke Peninsula, South Australia. As a result of the colonisation of Australia, the Narungga language fell into disuse within several generations. Nevertheless, Narungga continued to be documented into the 20th century, and the 1980s saw a community reclamation. As a result of revival efforts, the language along with Narungga culture is now being taught around the Yorke Peninsula, from Moonta and Maitland Area Schools to Point Pearce.
Umpila is an Aboriginal Australian language, or dialect cluster, of the Cape York Peninsula. It is spoken by about 100 Aboriginals, many of them elderly.
Bunuba is an Australian Aboriginal language spoken by some 160 older Bunuba adults, most of whom live in Junjuwa, an Aboriginal community in Fitzroy Crossing in Western Australia. Bunuba is not related to the Pama-Nyungan language family that spans the majority of Australia, though it is a relative of Guniyandi.
Yawuru is a Western Nyulnyulan language spoken on the coast south of Broome in Western Australia.
Barranbinja or Barrabinya is an extinct Australian Aboriginal language of New South Wales. The last speaker was probably Mrs Emily Margaret Horneville, who was recorded by Lynette Oates who then published a short description of it. It had also been recorded by R.H. Mathews along with Muruwari, though not all items in his wordlist were recognised by Mrs Horneville. Both Mathews and Oates conclude that Barranbinya and Muruwari were in a dialect relation.
Luise Anna Hercus, née Schwarzschild, was a German-born linguist who lived in Australia from 1954. After significant early work on Middle Indo-Aryan dialects (Prakrits) she had specialised in Australian Aboriginal languages since 1963, when she took it up as a hobby. Works authored or co-authored by her are influential, and often among the primary resource materials on many languages of Australia.
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