| Yolŋu Matha | |
|---|---|
| Spoken in | Northern Territory, Australia |
| Language family |
Pama–Nyungan
|
| Writing system | Latin script |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | variously: dji – Djinang dhg – Dhangu duj – Dhuwal djb – Djinba rit – Ritharngu jay – Yan-nhangu dax – Dayi djr – Djambarrpuyngu gnn – Gumatj guf – Gupapuyngu |
Yolŋu Matha is a cover term for the languages of the Yolngu (Yolŋu), the Indigenous people of northeast Arnhem Land in northern Australia. (Yolŋu = people, Matha = tongue, language).
Yolngu languages have a fortis–lenis contrast in plosive consonants. Lenis/short plosives have weak contact and intermittent voicing, while fortis/long plosives have full closure, a more powerful release burst, and no voicing.
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Yolŋu Matha consists of about six mutually intelligible languages divided into about thirty clan varieties and perhaps twelve different dialects, each with its own Yolŋu name. While there is extensive variation between these dialects, there is generally common mutual intelligibility, hence the umbrella group of Yolngu Matha. The linguistic situation is very complicated, since each of the 30 or so clans also has a named language variety. The dialects or separate language as used by the Ethnologue are:
Dictionaries have been produced by Beulah Lowe, David Zorc and Michael Christie. A public-domain version of Beulah Lowe's dictionary is available as a pdf file.
There are also several grammars of Yolngu languages by Jeffrey Heath, Frances Morphy, Melanie Wilkinson and others.[1]
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