Jaminjung language

Jaminjung
Native to Australia
Region Victoria River, Australia
Native speakers
 27 (2005) to 130  (2006 census)[1]
Mirndi
Dialects
Ngaliwuru
Language codes
ISO 639-3 djd
Glottolog djam1255[2]
AIATSIS[1] N18 Jaminjung, N19 Ngaliwurru

Jaminjung is Australian language spoken around the Victoria River in the Northern Territory of Australia. There seems to be a steady increase in the number of speakers of the language with very few people speaking the language in 1967, about 30 speakers in 1991, and between 50 to 150 speakers in 2000.[3][4]

Phonology

Vowels

Jaminjung has 4 vowels:[5]

Front Central Back
Close i /i/ u /u/
Close-mid e /e/
Open a /a/

Vowel length is not distinctive. Also, it should be noted that the close-mid vowel /e/ only appears in a small number of words, and is probably a loan from surrounding languages.[5]

Consonants

Jaminjung has 18 consonants:[5]

Peripheral Laminal Apical
Bilabial Velar Palatal Dental Alveolar Retroflex
Plosive p /p/ k /k/ j /c/ th /t̪/ t /t/ rt /ʈ /
Nasal m /m/ ng /ŋ/ ny /ɲ/ n /n/ rn /ɳ /
Trill rr /r/
Approximant ly /ʎ/ l /l/ rl /ɭ /
w /w/ y /j/ r /ɻ /

References

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Jaminjung at the Australian Indigenous Languages Database, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies  (see the info box for additional links)
  2. ↑ Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Djamindjung". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
  3. ↑ Schultze-Berndt 2000, pp. 13–14
  4. ↑ Ethnologue
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Schultze-Berndt 2000, p. 41

General