Enindhilyagwa language

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Enindhilyagwa
Spoken in: Groote Eylandt in the Gulf of Carpentaria, Northern Territory, Australia
Total speakers: >1,000
Language family: Language isolate
Language codes
ISO 639-1: none
ISO 639-2: aus
ISO 639-3: aoi
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

Enindhilyagwa (several other names; see below) is an Australian language isolate spoken by the Warnindhilyagwa people on Groote Eylandt in the Gulf of Carpentaria in northern Australia. A 2001 Australian government study identified more than one thousand speakers of the language, although there are reports of as many as three thousand.

Contents

[edit] Names

Spellings of the name include:

  • Andiljangwa
  • Andilyaugwa
  • Anindilyakwa (used by Ethnologue)
  • Aninhdhilyagwa (used by R. M. W. Dixon's Australian Languages)
  • Enindiljaugwa
  • Enindhilyagwa
  • Wanindilyaugwa

It also known as Groote Eylandt, after its location. Another name is Ingura or Yingguru.

[edit] Classification

Although sometimes grouped with the Gunwinyguan languages, Enindhilyagwa has not been shown to be related to other Australian languages, and recent attempts by Nicholas Evans at reducing the number of language families in Australia have left it as an isolate.

[edit] Phonology

[edit] Vowels

The analysis of Enindhilyagwa's vowels is open to interpretation. Stokes (1981) analyses it as having four phonemic vowels, /i e a u/. Leeding (1989) analyses it as having just two, /ɨ a/.

[edit] Consonants

Peripheral Laminal Apical
Bilabial Velar Palatal Dental Alveolar Retroflex
Unrounded Rounded
Stop p k kʷ c t̪ t ʈ
Nasal m ŋ ŋʷ ɲ n̪ n ɳ
Lateral ʎ l̪ (ɭ)
Rhotic r ɻ
Semivowel w j

[edit] Phonotactics

All Enindhilyagwa words end in a vowel. Clusters of up to three consonants can occur within words.

[edit] Grammar

[edit] Noun classes

Enindhilyagwa has five noun classes, or genders, each marked by a prefix:

  • Human male
  • Non-human male
  • Female (human or non-human)
  • Inanimate "lustrous", with the prefix a-.
  • Inanimate "non-lustrous", with the prefix mwa-.

For bound pronouns, instead of "human male" and "non-human male" classes there is a single "male" class.

All native nouns carry a class prefix, but some loanwords may lack them.

[edit] References

  • Leeding, V. J. (1989). Anindilyakwa phonology and morphology, PhD dissertation, University of Sydney. 
  • Leeding, V. J. (1996). "Body parts and possession in Anindilyakwa", in Chappell, H. and McGregor, W.: The grammar of inalienability: a typological perspective on body part terms and the part-whole relation. Berlin: Mounton de Gruyter, 193-249. 
  • Stokes, J. (1981). "Anindilyakwa phonology from phoneme to syllable", in Waters, B.: Australian phonologies: collected papers. Darwin: Summer Institute of Linguistics, Australian Aborigines Branch, 138–81. 

[edit] External links

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