Geographic distribution
Yugambeh is spoken within the Logan, Albert, Coomera, Nerang, and Tweed River basins. [7]
| Yugambeh | |
|---|---|
| Minjungbal | |
| Yugam | |
| Region | Queensland, Australia |
| Ethnicity | Yugambeh |
Native speakers | 208 (2021) [1] |
Pama–Nyungan
| |
| Dialects |
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | xjb |
| Glottolog | twee1234 |
| AIATSIS [2] | E17 |
| ELP | Minjungbal |
Yugambeh (or Mibanah, from Mibanah gulgun, lit. 'language of men' or 'sound of eagles'), [3] [4] also known as Tweed-Albert Bandjalang, is an Australian Aboriginal language spoken by the Yugambeh living in South-East Queensland between and within the Logan River basin and the Tweed River basin, bounded to the east by the Pacific Ocean (including South Stradbroke Island) and in the west by the Teviot Ranges and Teviot Brook basin. [5]
Yugambeh is dialect cluster of two mutually intelligible dialects, one of four such clusters of the Bandjalangic branch of the Pama–Nyungan language family. [6]
In the Yugambeh language, the word yugambeh means an emphatic 'no', 'never' i.e. 'very much no' and is a common exonym for the people and their language. Language speakers use the word miban which means 'man', 'human', 'wedge-tailed eagle' and is the preferred endonym for the people; they call their language Mibanah meaning 'of man', 'of human', 'of eagle' (the -Nah suffix forming the genitive of the word miban). [7] [8] [3] [4] [9] [10]
Yugambeh may also be referred to as:
Yugambeh is spoken within the Logan, Albert, Coomera, Nerang, and Tweed River basins. [7]
Linguists such as Margaret Sharpe, relying on the previous work of others like Terry Crowley, described the Yugambeh language as having potentially upwards of 7 dialects. Recent analysis has found errors in these original studies and when corrected for these errors, two mutually intelligible dialects can be found; a western (freshwater) variety and an eastern (saltwater) variety with minor vocabularic differences. [6]
Some differences noted by linguist Shaun Davies:
| English | Eastern | Western |
|---|---|---|
| She | Nyahn | Nyulegan |
| Girl | Yahgari | Jabuny |
Yugambeh has a vowel system of four vowels that also contrast in length, resulting in eight phonemic vowels in total. The letter "h" is used after the vowel to indicate a long vowel.
| Front | Back | |
|---|---|---|
| High | i iː | u uː |
| Mid | e eː | |
| Low | a aː | |
The low central vowel /a/ is fronted and raised between palatal consonants and a lateral/rhotic consonant.
Compared to other Pama-Nyungan languages, Yugambeh has a smaller inventory of consonants. There are four places of articulation, with the consonants consisting of four obstruents, four nasals, two liquids, and two semivowels.
| Peripheral | Laminal | Apical | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bilabial | Velar | Palatal | Alveolar | |
| Obstruent | p ⟨p⟩ | k ⟨k⟩ | c ⟨ť⟩ | t ⟨t⟩ |
| Nasal | m ⟨m⟩ | ŋ ⟨g⟩ | ɲ ⟨ň⟩ | n ⟨n⟩ |
| Lateral | l ⟨l⟩ | |||
| Rhotic | ɾ ⟨r⟩ | |||
| Semivowel | w ⟨w⟩ | j ⟨j⟩ | ||
Obstruents
Obstruents do not have a voicing contrast, and can appear as fricative allophones. Obstruents are phonetically voiceless, except when following a homorganic consonant. [15]
The grammar of the Yugambeh language is highly agglutinative, making use of over 50 suffixes on nouns, verbs, adjectives, and demonstratives.
Nouns take a number of suffixes to decline for grammatical case.
Noun suffixes are placed into ten orders. A noun may not take more than one suffix from any order, and if more than one suffix is attached they must always be in the set order of the suffix orders, e.g., an order 7 suffix must always come after an order 5 suffix.
| Orders | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7# | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| -gali Typified by | -gan Feminine | -bur Diminutive | -Nah Possessive | -jam Abessive | -bah Allative | -Xu Ergative, Instrumental, Comitative | -jahng Intensive | -ga Query | -ban 'also' |
| -Nahjil Past Possessive | -Ni Objective | -gur Respective | |||||||
| -gaia Benefactive | |||||||||
| -gu Purposive | |||||||||
| -gi Desiderative | |||||||||
| -Nu Ablative | |||||||||
| -Xah Locative | |||||||||
| -Xih Past Locative | |||||||||
| -nyi Aversive | |||||||||
'X' stands for a homorganic obstruent.
'N' stands for a homorganic nasal.
#The comitative, purposive, desiderative, ablative, and aversive suffixes are preceded by -bah on animate nouns. [16]
Verbs are conjugated with suffixes. Yugambeh is an aspect-dominant language, as opposed to being tense-dominant like most Western languages. Suffixes mostly indicate aspect and mood.
Verb suffixes are placed in six orders. A verb may not take more than one suffix from a given order, and similar to nouns, suffixes are attached in a set order. Combinations of these suffixes express all possible conjugations of Yugambeh verbs, with only a small number of combinations possible. Yugambeh verb stems are commonly two syllables in length and always end in a vowel. [17]
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| -ba 'Causative' | -ndi 'Carry whilst...' | -li 'reflexive/passive' | -ja 'Past tense' | -hn 'imperfective aspect' | -du 'habitual aspect' |
| -wa 'Repetitive' | -hny 'potential mood' | -i 'preconditional' | |||
| -ma 'Causative' | -h 'imperative' | -de 'preconditional' | |||
| -hla 'continuous aspect' | |||||
| -nah 'antechronous aspect' | |||||
| -nyun 'synchronous aspect' | |||||
| -luru 'historical past' | |||||
| -yan | |||||
| -yah 'purposive' | |||||
| -jin 'synchronous aspect' | |||||
| -n 'permissive' | |||||
| -ni 'perfective' |
Adjectives can be marked with a suffix to indicate the gender of the noun they qualify. [16]
| Gender | Suffix |
|---|---|
| Animate (male) | -bin |
| Animate (female) | -gan |
| Arboreal | -Nahn* |
| Neuter | -gay |
*N stands for a homorganic nasal.
Yugambeh possesses a complicated set of demonstratives which make a three-way distinction among proximal, medial, and distal sets. There is a further distinguishing of demonstrative adjectives and location demonstratives. The adjective set can be additionally suffixed to create demonstrative pronouns. The adjective set has three forms for "things in sight", "things hidden or not in sight", and "things not there anymore", while the location set has forms to indicate the general area and definite area, whether in sight or not in sight, and past and present forms. [18]
| Demonstratives | Proximal (this) | Medial (that) | Distal (that over there) |
|---|---|---|---|
| In sight (sg) | gali | mali | gili |
| In sight (plrl) | gahny | mahny | gahm |
| Not in sight (sg) | gunah | munah | gilah |
| Not in sight (plrl) | gunyeh | munyeh | gilyeh |
The above set can be suffixed with order 7 noun suffixes to form demonstrative pronouns that function like ordinary independent nouns. e.g. Yanindeh galini wungahbaia! 'Take this with you!'
The 'not in sight' and 'not here anymore' forms can take the order 2 noun suffix -gan to form time words. e.g. gunahgan 'recently'.
| Demonstratives | Proximal (here) | Medial (there) | Distal (over there) |
|---|---|---|---|
| In sight (definite area) | gaji | maji | guh |
| In sight (general area) | gunu | munu | gundeh |
| Not in sight (present) | gayu | mayu | guhyu |
| Not in sight (past) | gaye | maye | guhye |
Syntax in the Yugambeh language is fairly free, with a tendency towards SOV (subject–object–verb). Within noun phrases, adjectives and demonstratives (e.g., that man, a red car) stay adjacent to the noun they qualify. [19]
The Yugambeh Museum in Beenleigh currently maintains a free dictionary app for the Yugambeh language, available on Android, [20] iOS [21] and a desktop version. [22]
Modern place names with roots in the Yugambeh language include: [23]
Oromo, historically also called Galla, which is regarded by the Oromo as pejorative, is an Afroasiatic language that belongs to the Cushitic branch. It is native to the Ethiopian state of Oromia and northern Kenya and is spoken predominantly by the Oromo people and neighboring ethnic groups in the Horn of Africa. It is used as a lingua franca particularly in the Oromia Region and northeastern Kenya.
Warrongo is an Australian Aboriginal language, one of the dozen languages of the Maric branch of the Pama–Nyungan family. It was formerly spoken by the Warrongo people in the area around Townsville, Queensland, Australia. Its last native speaker was Alf Palmer, who died in 1981.
Kusaal is a Gur language spoken primarily in northern eastern Ghana, and Burkina Faso. It is spoken by about 121,000 people and takes its name from the Kusaal people, or Kusasi. There is a distinctive dialect division between Agole, to the East of the Volta River, and Toende, to the West. Agole has more speakers. The 6-district capital; Bawku West with Zebilla as capital and the rest; Binduri, Bawku, Tempane, Garu and Pusiga districts mostly Agole dialect speakers. The complete Bible translation is in the Agole dialect.
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.
Pohnpeian is a Micronesian language spoken as the indigenous language of the island of Pohnpei in the Caroline Islands. Pohnpeian has approximately 30,000 (estimated) native speakers living in Pohnpei and its outlying atolls and islands with another 10,000-15,000 (estimated) living off island in parts of the US mainland, Hawaii and Guam. It is the second-most widely spoken native language of the Federated States of Micronesia the first being Chuukese.
Classical Kʼicheʼ was an ancestral form of today's Kʼicheʼ language, which was spoken in the highland regions of Guatemala around the time of the 16th-century Spanish conquest of Guatemala. Classical Kʼicheʼ has been preserved in a number of historical Mesoamerican documents, lineage histories, missionary texts, and dictionaries. Most famously, it is the language in which the renowned highland Maya mythological and historical narrative Popol Vuh is written. Another historical text of partly similar content is the Título de Totonicapán.
Southern Oromo, or Borana, is a variety of Oromo spoken in southern Ethiopia and northern Kenya by the Borana people. Günther Schlee also notes that it is the native language of a number of related peoples, such as the Sakuye.
The Wuvulu-Aua language is an Austronesian language which is spoken on the Wuvulu and Aua Islands and in the Manus Province of Papua New Guinea.
Moro is a Kordofanian language spoken in the Nuba Mountains of South Kordofan, Sudan. It is part of the Western group of West Central Heiban Kordofonian languages and belongs to the Niger-Congo phylum. In 1982 there were an estimated 30,000 Moro-speakers. This was before the second Sudan civil war and therefore the recent number of speakers might differ. There can be noted an influence of Arabic and it is suspected that today approximately a fourth of all Moro vocabulary has a relation or an origin in the Arabic language.
Marra, sometimes formerly spelt Mara, is an Australian Aboriginal language, traditionally spoken on an area of the Gulf of Carpentaria coast in the Northern Territory around the Roper, Towns and Limmen Bight Rivers. Marra is now an endangered language. The most recent survey was in 1991; at that time, there were only 15 speakers, all elderly. Most Marra people now speak Kriol as their main language. The remaining elderly Marra speakers live in the Aboriginal communities of Ngukurr, Numbulwar, Borroloola and Minyerri.
Warndarrang (waɳʈaraŋ), also spelt Warndarang, Wanderang, Wandaran, and other variants is an extinct Aboriginal Australian language in the Arnhem family, formerly spoken by the Warndarrang people in southern Arnhem Land, along the Gulf of Carpentaria. The last speaker was Isaac Joshua, who died in 1974, while working with the linguist Jeffrey Heath.
Bukiyip (Bukiyúp), or Mountain Arapesh, is an Arapesh language (Torricelli) spoken by around 16,000 people between Yangoru and Maprik in the East Sepik Province of Papua New Guinea. Bukiyip follows the SVO typology. The Arapesh languages are known for their complex noun-phrase agreement system.
Northern Emberá, also known as West Embera and Cholo, is the largest Embera language. It is spoken largely in Colombia, but is also the principal language of the Darién Gap in Panama.The Emberá language is divided into two branches: Northern and Southern. Two prominent Northern groups are Emberá Darien and Catío. The Catío language is spoken by 10,000 - 20,000 people, whose literacy rate is at 1%. The Darien Emberá language is spoken by 9,000-10,000 people.
Grass Koiari (Koiali) is a Papuan language of Papua New Guinea spoken in the inland Port Moresby area. It is not very close to the other language which shares its name, Mountain Koiali. It is considered a threatened language.
Githabul, also known as Galibal, Dinggabal, and Condamine – Upper Clarence Bandjalang, is an Australian Aboriginal language spoken by the Githabul living in South Queensland and North-East New South Wales.
Nuaulu is a language indigenous to the island of Seram Island in Indonesia, and it is spoken by the Nuaulu people. The language is split into two dialects, a northern and a southern dialect, between which there a communication barrier. The dialect of Nuaulu referred to on this page is the southern dialect, as described in Bolton 1991.
The Yugambeh, also known as the Minyangbal, or Nganduwal, are an Aboriginal Australian people of South East Queensland and the Northern Rivers of New South Wales, their territory lies between the Logan and Tweed rivers. A term for an Aboriginal of the Yugambeh tribe is Mibunn, which is derived from the word for the Wedge-tailed Eagle. Historically, some anthropologists have erroneously referred to them as the Chepara, the term for a first-degree initiate. Archaeological evidence indicates Aboriginal people have occupied the area for tens of thousands of years. By the time European colonisation began, the Yugambeh had a complex network of groups, and kinship. The Yugambeh territory is subdivided among clan groups with each occupying a designated locality, each clan having certain rights and responsibilities in relation to their respective areas.
Waalubal (Wahlubal), also known as Western Bundjalung, Baryulgil, and Middle Clarence Bandjalang, is an Australian Aboriginal language spoken by the Western Bundjalung living in North-East New South Wales.
Margaret Clare Sharpe is a linguist of Australian Aboriginal languages, specializing in Yugambeh-Bundjalung languages, with particular regard to Yugambir, She has also done important salvage fieldwork on the Northern Territory Alawa language.
Turkmen grammar is the grammar of the Turkmen language, whose dialectal variants are spoken in Turkmenistan, Iran, Afghanistan, Russia, China, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and others. Turkmen grammar, as described in this article, is the grammar of standard Turkmen as spoken and written by Turkmen people in Turkmenistan.
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)