Kala Lagaw Ya

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Kala Lagaw Ya
Spoken in:	Western Torres Strait Islands, Queensland
Total speakers:	3000–4000
Language family:	Pama-Nyungan Kala Lagaw Ya
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	none
ISO 639-2:	`—`
ISO 639-3:	`mwp`
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See IPA chart for English for an English-based pronunciation key.

Kala Lagaw Ya (several other names; see below) is a language spoken on several western Torres Strait Islands, Queensland, Australia. It has the highest speaker population of any indigenous language within Australian territory, with between 3000 and 4000 people speaking the language (Ethnologue).

1 Names
2 Geographic distribution
3 Classification
4 Phonology
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Names

The language is known by several names besides Kala Lagaw Ya, including:

Kala Kawaw, Kala Kawaw Ya, Kalaw Kawaw Ya.
Kala Lagaw, Kala Lagaw Langgus, Kala Lagau Langgus, and simply Langus.
Kala Yagaw Ya.
Mabuiag, the name of one of the islands where it is spoken.
West Torres or western Torres Strait, as opposed to East Torres which is the Meriam language.
Yagar Yagar.

[edit] Geographic distribution

Map of the Torres Strait Islands.

Kala Lagaw Ya is spoken on some of the western islands of Torres Strait, between Papua New Guinea and the Australian mainland.

Other languages spoken in the Torres Strait Islands include the Meriam language (also known as East Torres), and Torres Strait Creole.

[edit] Classification

Kala Lagaw Ya is usually considered to be an Australian language of the Pama-Nyungan family. However, some (Capell 1956, Dixon 2002) regard it as a Papuan language with an Australian substratum.

Below is a comparison of the pronouns of Kala Lagaw Ya with those reconstructed for Proto-Pama-Nyungan, as well with Meriam and Gizra (a language spoken in Papua New Guinea), from Evans (2005).

	Proto-Pama-Nyungan	Kala Lagaw Ya	Meriam	Gizra
I	ngay(u) (obl. ngathu)	ngay (erg. ngath)	ka	ka
you and I	ngali	ngoeba/ngaba
we (incl. you)	?	ngalpa	mi	mi
we two (not you)	ngana	ngalbe/ngalbay
we (not you)	?	ngoey	ki	ki
you (sing.)	nyina	ni (erg. nidh, acc. nin)	ma	ma
you two	NHumpalV	nipel
you (pl.)	NHurra	nitha	wa	e (?)
he	NHu-	nuy/nuydh	e	wa (?)
she	NHan-	na/nadh
they two	pula	palay
they	THana	thana	wi	i

[edit] Phonology

Kala Lagaw Ya is the only Australian language to have the alveolar fricatives /s/ and /z/.

[edit] References

Capell, Arthur (1956). A new approach to Australian linguistics. Sydney: Oceanic Linguistic Monographs, 108.
Evans, Nicholas (June 2005). "Australian Languages Reconsidered: A Review of Dixon (2002)". Oceanic Linguistics 44 (1): 242–286.
Dixon, R. M. W. (2002). Australian Languages: Their Nature and Development. Cambridge University Press. ISBN-10: 0521473780, ISBN-13: 9780521473781.
Ford, Kevin; Ober, Dana (1991). "A sketch of Kalaw Kawaw Ya", in S. Romaine: Language in Australia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 118–142.