Alawa language
Not to be confused with Alagwa language.
| Alawa | |
|---|---|
| Native to | Australia |
| Region | Northern Territory; Arnhem Land, Roper River. |
| Ethnicity | Alawa |
Native speakers | 12 (2006 census)[1] |
|
Arnhem?
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 |
alh |
| Glottolog |
alaw1244[2] |
| AIATSIS[1] |
N92 |
Alawa (Galawa) is a moribund Indigenous Australian language spoken by the Alawa people of the Northern Territory. In 1991, it had 18 remaining speakers and 4 semi-speakers.[3]
Phonology
Consonants
Alawa has a typical consonant inventory for an Indigenous Australian language, with five contrastive places of articulation, multiple lateral consonants, and no voicing contrast among the stops.[4]
| Alveolar | Palatal | Peripheral | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alveolar | Retroflex | Alveo-palatal | Velar | Bilabial | |
| Prenasalised Stop | ⁿd | ⁿɖ | ⁿɟ | ⁿɡ | ⁿb |
| Devoiced Stop | t | ʈ | c | k | p |
| Nasals | n | ɳ | ɲ | ŋ | m |
| Laterals | l | ɭ | l | ||
| Vibrants | r | ||||
| Glide | ɹ | j | w | ||
Note: there are no standardised IPA symbols for alveopalatal stops.
Vowels
The vowel system of Alawa is made up of four vowel phonemes: the high front vowel /i/, the high back vowel /u/, the mid front vowel /e/, and the low central vowel /a/.[5]
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| High | i | u | |
| Mid | e | ||
| Low | a |
There are no rounding contrasts or length contrasts in this language.[6]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Alawa at the Australian Indigenous Languages Database, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
- ↑ Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Alawa". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
- ↑ "Ethnologue: Alawa". Ethnologue.
- ↑ Sharpe, Margaret C. 1972
- ↑ Sharpe, Margaret C (1972). Alawa Phonology and Grammar. Canberra: Australian Institute for Aboriginal Studies.
- ↑ Sharpe, Margaret C. 1972