Yanyuwa language

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Yanyuwa
Spoken in: Northern Territory
Total speakers: 5-15
Language family: Australian
 Pama-Nyungan
  Yanyuwa
Language codes
ISO 639-1: none
ISO 639-2: aus
ISO 639-3: jao
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

The Yanyuwa (also Yanyula, Anyula) language is spoken by the Yanyuwa people around the settlement of Borroloola (Yanyuwa burrulula) in the Northern Territory, Australia.

Yanyuwa, like many Australian Aboriginal languages, is a complex agglutinative language whose grammar is pervaded by a set of sixteen noun classes, whose agreements are complicated and numerous. Yanyuwa is ergative.

Yanyuwa is critically endangered, with just seven native speakers remaining. Despite this, the anthropologist John Bradley, who has worked with the Yanyuwa for three decades (and who also fluently speaks the language), has produced an enormous dictionary and grammar of the language along with a cultural atlas in collaboration with a core group of senior men and women, so Yanyuwa's impending extinction may not be permanent.

Yanyuwa speakers have also actively engaged in making a number of films and more recently have begun a project to animate important stories and songlines. Three important films that they have made are:

Kanymarda Yuwa -Two Laws, Buwarrala Akarriya - Journey East, Ka-wayawayama - Aeroplane Dance.

All three films have extensive narratives in Yanyuwa, with subtitles.

Contents

[edit] Phonology

Yanyuwa is extremely unusual in having 7 places of articulation for stops, compared to 3 for English and 4–6 for most other Australian languages.

[edit] Consonants

Bilabial Lamino-
dental		 Apico-
alveolar		 Apico-
retroflex		 Palato
alveolar		 Front
velar		 Back
velar
Stop b (b) d̪ (th) d (d) ɖ (rd) ḏ (j) ɡ̟ (yk) ɡ̱ (k)
Prenasalised stop ⁿb (mb) ⁿd̪ (nth) ⁿd (nd) ⁿɖ (rnd) ⁿḏ (nj) ⁿɡ̟ (nyk) ⁿɡ̱ (ngk)
Nasal m (m) n̪ (nh) n (n) ɳ (rn) ṉ (ny) ŋ̟ (nyng) ŋ̱ (ng)
Lateral l̪ (lh) l (l) ɭ (rl) ḻ (ly)
Rhotic r (rr) ɻ (r)
Semivowel w (w) j (y)

[edit] Vowels

Front Back
High i (i) u (u)
Low a (a)

[edit] Grammar

 Please help improve this section by expanding it.
Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion.


[edit] Noun classes

Yanyuwa has 16 noun classes, distinguished by prefixes. In some cases, different prefixes are used depending on whether the speaker is a male or a female.


Yanyuwa Noun Classes
# prefix class example
1 rra-/a- female (human centred) rra-bardibardi "old lady"
2 nya- (women's speech) 0- (men's speech) male (human centred) (w)nya-malbu (m)malbu "old man"
3 rra-/a- feminine a-karnkarnka "white bellied sea eagle"
4 0- masculine nangurrbuwala "hill kangaroo"
5 ma- food (non-meat) ma-ngakuya "cycad fruit"
6 na- arboreal na-wabija "digging stick"
7 narnu- abstract narnu-wardi "badness"
8 possessive pronominal prefixes body parts nanda-wulaya "her head", (w)niwa-wulaya (m)na-wulaya "his head"
9 0- familiar kinship kajaja "father, dad"
10 various pronominal prefixes formal kinship for close kin angatharra-wangu "my wife"
11 various pronominal prefixes formal kinship-grandparent level karna-marrini "my daughter's child"
12 various pronominal prefixes/suffixes formal kinship-avoidance rra-kayibanthayindalu "your daughter in law"
13 rri- dual and li- plural human group li-maramaranja "dugong hunters of excellence"
14 rra-/a-, nya-. 0- personal names rra-Marrngawi, (w)nya-Lajumba (m)Lajumba
15 rra-/a- / 0- ceremony names rra-Kunabibi, Yilayi, rra-Milkathatha
16 0- place names Kandanbarrawujbi, Burrulula, Wathangka

Notes:

(w) women's speech, (m) men's speech, 0- no prefix used.

rra- is a more formal female/feminine prefix often used in elicitations, a- is the informal everyday form. There is only one word in Yanyuwa, rra-ardu "girl", where the rra- prefix is always used. This to distinguish it from the men's speech form ardu "boy", for which women say nya-ardu.

[edit] Male and female dialects

Yanyuwa is unusual among languages of the world in that it has separate dialects for men and for women at the morphological level. The only time men use the women's dialect is when they are quoting someone of the opposite sex, and vice versa. An example of this speech is provided below:

(w) nya-buyi nya-ardu kiwa-wingka waykaliya wulangindu kanyilu-kala nyikunya-baba.

(m) buyi ardu ka-wingka waykaliya wulangindu kila-kala nyiku-baba.

The little boy went down to the river and saw his brother

[edit] Speech styles

In Yanyuwa, certain words have synonyms which are used to replace the everyday term in certain cultural situations.

[edit] Avoidance speech

Avoidance speech is speech style used when talking to or near certain relatives: one's siblings and cousins of the opposite sex, one's brother-, sister-, father- and mother-in-law, and one's nieces and nephews if their father (for male speakers) or mother (for female speakers) has died. Occasionally avoidance speech takes the form of different affixes to usual speech, but generally it is simply a change in vocabulary.

Example: In usual speech a digging stick is referred to as na-wabija, but when talking to one of the above relatives, the word used is na-wulungkayangu.

An example of avoidance speech is given below:

Avoidance: Ja-wuynykurninji ki-bujibujilu runungkawu ma-wulyarri.

Normal: Ja-wingkayi ki-buyukalu wubanthawu ma-ngarra.

He is going to the fire to cook food.

[edit] Ritual speech

Another set of vocabulary is used during ceremonies and other ritual occasions. Many of the words used in ritual speech are sacred and kept secret.

Example: In usual speech a dingo is referred to as wardali, but during ritual occasions, the word used is yarrarriwira. This is one ritual term which is known to the general public, as are some other terms for flora and fauna.

[edit] Island speech

When on the Sir Edward Pellew Group of Islands, which is part of Yanyuwa territory, another set of vocabulary may be used to replace the terms used when on the mainland. There is more variance about the usage of island speech than the other speech styles.

Example: When on the mainland, fishing is referred to as wardjangkayarra, but when on the islands, the word used is akarimantharra.

[edit] External links