Guniyandi language

Gooniyandi is an Australian Aboriginal language now spoken by about 100 people, most of whom live in or near Fitzroy Crossing in Western Australia.[4] Gooniyandi is an endangered language as it is not being passed on to children,[4] who instead grow up speaking Kriol.

Gooniyandi
RegionWestern Australia
EthnicityGooniyandi
Native speakers
134 (2016 census)[1]
Bunuban
  • Gooniyandi
Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3gni
Glottologgoon1238[2]
AIATSIS[3]K6

Classification

Gooniyandi is closely related to Bunuba, to about the same degree as English is related to Dutch. The two are the only members of the Bunuban language family. Unlike the majority of Australian Aboriginal languages, Gooniyandi and Bunuba are non-Pama–Nyungan.

Phonology

Gooniyandi's phonology are identical to Bunuba, since they are closely related.

Gooniyandi has three vowel sounds: /a, i, u/. /a/ has contrastive vowel length.[5]

Consonants
Peripheral Laminal Apical
Labial Velar Palatal Dental Alveolar Retroflex
Stop p k th /t̪/ t rd /ʈ/
Nasal m ng /ŋ/ nh /n̪/ n rn /ɳ/
Trill r
Lateral l rl /ɭ/
Approximant y /j/ r /ɻ/

Orthography

A Gooniyandi alphabet based on the Latin script was adopted by the community in 1984, and subsequently revised in 1990 and again in 1999.[4] It is not phonemic, as it omits some distinctions made in speech.[4]

Grammar

Gooniyandi has no genders, but a large number of cases; it uses an ergative-absolutive case system. It is a verb-final language, but without a dominant order between the subject and the object.

Notes
  1. ABS. "Census 2016, Language spoken at home by Sex (SA2+)". stat.data.abs.gov.au. Australian Bureau of Statistics. Retrieved 29 October 2017.
  2. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Gooniyandi". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  3. K6 Gooniyandi at the Australian Indigenous Languages Database, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
  4. "Gooniyandi language, alphabet and pronunciation". Omniglot. Retrieved 22 July 2018.
  5. Dixon, R.M.W.; Blake, Barry J., eds. (31 December 1983). Handbook of Australian Languages. PHOBILE 2.0. 1. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company. doi:10.1075/z.hal3. hdl:1885/114846. ISBN 9789027220059.
gollark: If you multiply the `(x-1)` by `(ax^3+bx^2+cx+d)` it should expand out into having an x^4 term.
gollark: I'm probably explaining this badly, hmmm.
gollark: Then set the x^4/x^3/x^2/x^1 coefficients and constant terms on each side to be equal and work out a/b/c/d.
gollark: Set it equal to `(x-1)(ax^3+bx^2+cx+d)` (the thing you know it's divisible by times the generalized cubic thingy), and expand that out/simplify.
gollark: It would be annoying and inconsistent if it was 0. It's 1.

References
  • McGregor, William (1984). A grammar of Kuniyanti: an Australian Aboriginal language of the southern Kimberley, Western Australia (Ph.D. thesis). hdl:2123/15383.
  • McGregor, William (1990). A Functional Grammar of Gooniyandi. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
  • McGregor, William (1994). "Gooniyandi". In Nick Thieberger & William McGregor (ed.). Macquarie Aboriginal Words. The Macquarie Library. pp. 193–213.
  • McGregor, William (2004). The Languages of the Kimberley, Western Australia. London, New York: Taylor & Francis.
  • M Haspelmath; M S Dryer; D Gil; B Comrie (2005). The World Atlas of Language Structures. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
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