Adnyamathanha language
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Adnyamathana | ||
|---|---|---|
| Spoken in: | South Australia | |
| Total speakers: | 20 (1990) | |
| Language family: | Pama-Nyungan South-West Yura Adnyamathana |
|
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639-1: | none | |
| ISO 639-2: | aus | |
| ISO 639-3: | adt | |
| Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. | ||
Adnyamathanha (many other names; see below) is a moribund Australian Aboriginal language. It is the traditional language of the Adnyamathanha people.
The name of the witchetty grub comes from Adnyamathanha.
Contents |
[edit] Names
This language has been known by many names and variants of names, including:
- Adnyamathanha, Adynyamathanha, Adjnjamathanha, Atʸnʸamat̪an̪a, Adnjamathanha, Adnyamathana, Anyamathana, Ad'n'amadana, Anjimatana, Anjiwatana, Unyamootha
- Wailpi, Wailbi, Waljbi, Wipie, the name of a dialect
- Archualda
- Benbakanjamata
- Binbarnja
- Gadjnjamada, Kanjimata, Keydnjmarda
- Jandali
- Mardala
- Nimalda
- Nuralda
- Umbertana
[edit] Classification
R. M. W. Dixon classifies Adnyamathanha and Guyani as a single language, Adjnjamathanha/Guyani. Ethnologue treats them as separate, and so they each have their own ISO 639-3 codes.
[edit] Phonology
[edit] Vowels
| Front | Back | |
|---|---|---|
| High | i iː | u uː |
| Low | a aː | |
[edit] Consonants
| Peripheral | Laminal | Apical | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labial | Velar | Palatal | Dental | Alveolar | Retroflex | Glottal | ||
| Stop | Voiceless | p | k | c | t̪ | t | ʈ | (ʔ) |
| Voiced | (ɖ) | |||||||
| Fricative | Voiced | (v) | ||||||
| Nasal | m | ŋ | ɲ | n̪ | n | ɳ | ||
| Lateral | ʎ | l̪ | l | ɭ | ||||
| Flap | ɾ | ɽ | ||||||
| Trill | r | |||||||
| Approximant | w | j | ɻ | |||||
[v] may be an allophone of /p/.
[edit] History
While the closely related Guyani retains word-initial stops, Adnyamathanha has undergone systematic lenition of stops in this position. Former *p has become [v], former *t̪ and probably also *c have become /j/, and former *k has disappeared entirely.
[edit] Grammar
Adnyamathanha has a complex system of personal pronouns. There are 10 different ways of saying ‘you and me’ (first person dual), depending on the relationship between the speaker and the person addressed.
[edit] References
- Dixon, R. M. W. (2002). Australian Languages: Their Nature and Development. Cambridge University Press. ISBN-10: 0521473780, ISBN-13: 9780521473781.
- Schebeck, B. (1974). Texts on the social system of the Atʸnʸamat̪an̪a people, with grammatical notes. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.
