Kayardild language

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Kayardild
Region
Yanggal
Native speakers
8 (2016 census)[1]
?
Dialects
  • Kayardild
  • Yangkaal[2]
Language codes
Nyangga (two different languages)
Glottologkaya1318
AIATSIS[3]G35 Kayardild, G37 Yangkaal
ELPKayardild
 Yangkaal[4]
Kayardild Traditional area
Kayardild is classified as Critically Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger

Kayardild is a moribund Tangkic language spoken by the Kaiadilt on the South Wellesley Islands, north west Queensland, Australia, with fewer than ten fluent speakers remaining. Other members of the family include Yangkaal (spoken by the Yangkaal people), Lardil, and Yukulta (Ganggalidda). It is famous for its many unusual case phenomena, including case stacking of up to four levels, the use of clause-level case to signal interclausal relations and pragmatic factors, and another set of 'verbal case' endings which convert their hosts from nouns into verbs morphologically. It is also well-known for only allowing subordination one level deep. Kayardild is the only known spoken language were tense markers appear on both nouns and verbs.[5]

Phonology

Kayardild consonant phonemes[6]
Peripheral Laminal Apical
Bilabial Velar Palatal Dental Alveolar Retroflex
Plosive
p k c
t
ʈ
Nasal
m ŋ ɲ
n
ɳ
Trill
r
Lateral
l
Approximant
w j ɻ
Kayardild vowel phonemes[6]
Front Back
Close i u
Open a

References

  1. ^ "Census 2016, Language spoken at home by Sex (SA2+)". stat.data.abs.gov.au. Australian Bureau of Statistics. Archived from the original on 26 December 2018. Retrieved 29 October 2017.
  2. .
  3. ^ G35 Kayardild at the Australian Indigenous Languages Database, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies  (see the info box for additional links)
  4. ^ Endangered Languages Project data for Yangkaal.
  5. JSTOR 43104008
    .
  6. ^ a b Evans (1995b:51)

Bibliography

Further reading