Nhanda language

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Nhanda
Spoken in: Australia 
Region: Kalbarri to Shark Bay area of Western Australia
Total speakers: none
Language family: Australian
 Pama-Nyungan
  Southwest
   Kartu
    Nhanda
Language codes
ISO 639-1: none
ISO 639-2: aus
ISO 639-3: nha – tentative[1]
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

Nhanda or Nhanta is an Australian Aboriginal language. It has been considered a member of the Kartu languages group of the large Southwest branch of the Pama-Nyungan family, but recent research has thrown this classification into question.[1]

Nhanda country is the area south of Shark Bay in Western Australia, extending south to Kalbarri and inland approximately 40 km. The Yamaji Language Centre has been carrying out work on the Nhanda language since 1992 and has produced an illustrated wordlist and a dictionary (the latter unpublished). Dr Juliette Blevins has carried out work on Nhanda since 1993 and has produced a sketch grammar as well as a number of published papers on aspects of the phonology and history of Nhanda.

Nhanda differs somewhat from its neighbouring languages in that it has a phonemic glottal stop, is initial-dropping (i.e. it has lost many initial consonants, leading to vowel-initial words) and the stop consonants show a phonemic length contrast. It has been suggested by Rupert Gerristen that Nhanda exhibits Dutch influence, due to contact with shipwrecked sailors,[2] but this is contested by Blevins.[3]

The Nhanda word for 'man, human being' is arnmanu. It appears that when Norman Tindale collected information on Nhanda (or on the closely related variety thought to have been spoken in Geraldton) he was given this word, which he recorded as 'Amangu' and believed to be the 'tribal name' for this group.

Contents

[edit] Phonology

[edit] Vowels

Front Back
High i iː u uː
Low a aː

[edit] Consonants

Peripheral Laminal Apical Glottal
Bilabial Velar Palatal Dental Alveolar Retroflex
Stop p k c t̪ t ʈ ʔ
Nasal m ŋ ɲ n̪ n ɳ
Lateral ʎ l̪ l ɭ
Rhotic r ɻ
Semivowel w j

[edit] References

[edit] Cited references

  1. ^ Belvins, Juliette (December 1999). "Nhanta and its position within Pama-Nyungan". Oceanic Linguistics 38 (2): 297–320. doi:10.2307/3623295. 
  2. ^ Gerristen, Rupert (1994). And their ghosts may be heard. Fremantle: Fremantle Arts Centre Press. 
  3. ^ Blevins, Juliette (1998). "A Dutch influence on Nhanda? Wanyjidaga innga!". Journal of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Sutdies: 43–46. 

[edit] Other references

  • Blevins, Juliette. "Nhanta", in R. M. W. Dixon & Barry Blake: The Handbook of Australian Languages, vol. 6, Melbourne: Oxford University Press. 
  • Blevins, Juliette; Marmion, Doug (1994). "Nhanta historical phonology". Australian Journal of Linguistics 14: 193–216. 
  • Blevins, Juliette; Marmion, Doug (1995). "Nhanta glottal stop". Oceanic Linguistics 34: 139–160. doi:10.2307/3623116.