Nyawaygi language
| Nyawaygi | |
|---|---|
| Native to | Nyawaygi |
| Extinct | 2009, with the death of Willie Seaton[1] |
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | nyt |
| Glottolog | nyaw1247 |
| AIATSIS[2] | Y129 |
| ELP | Nyawaygi |
The Nyawaygi language, also spelt Nyawaygi, Nywaigi, Geugagi, Njawigi, Nyawigi or Nawagi, is an extinct Australian Aboriginal language that was spoken by the Nyawaygi people in North Queensland, on the east coast of Australia. The Nyawaygi language region includes the landscape within the Hinchinbrook Regional Council, Halifax Bay, and Rollingstone.[3][4]
Nyawaygi had the smallest number of consonants, 12, of any Australian language. It had 7 conjugations,[clarification needed] 3 open and 4 closed, the latter including monosyllabic roots, and, in this regard, conserved a feature of proto-Pama–Nyungan lost from contiguous languages.[5]
Phonology
Consonants
| Peripheral | Laminal | Apical | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labial | Velar | Palatal | Alveolar | Retroflex | |
| Plosive | b | ɡ | ɟ | ( d )
|
|
Nasal
|
m | ŋ | ɲ | n
|
|
| Rhotic | r
|
||||
| Lateral | l
|
||||
| Approximant | w | j | ɻ | ||
- Unlike most Australian languages, [r] in all other environments.
- Palatal sounds /ɟ, ɲ/ can occasionally be heard as dental sounds [d̪, n̪].
- /r/ can also occasionally be heard as a tap [ɾ].
- /ɻ/ can be heard as a flap [ɽ] in word-final positions.[5]
Vowels
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i iː | u uː | |
| Open | a aː |
Vocabulary
Some words from the Nyawaygi language, as spelt and written by Nyawaygi authors include:[3]
- Alu 'head'
- Angal 'boomerang'
- Balgan 'stone'
- Buramu 'butterfly'
- Gabagan 'aunt'
- Touca tula 'good day'
- Wadi 'laugh'
- Yunggul 'one'
Notes
- ISBN 978-9004192355.
- ^ Y129 Nyawaygi at the Australian Indigenous Languages Database, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
- ^ CC BY licence, accessed on 30 May 2022.
- ^ Crump, Des (30 November 2020). "Language of the Week: Week Twenty-Seven - Nywaigi". State Library Of Queensland. Retrieved 30 November 2023.
- ^ ISBN 978-9-027-27353-6.
External links
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