Nyulnyul language

Nyulnyul is an extinct Australian Aboriginal language, formerly spoken by the Nyulnyul people of Western Australia.

Nyulnyul
Region	Western Australia
Ethnicity	Nyulnyul people
Extinct	1999, with the death of Carmel Charles
Language family	Nyulnyulan Western Nyulnyul
Writing system	Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3	nyv
Glottolog	nyul1247[1]
AIATSIS[2]	K13

Mary Carmel Charles is documented as the last fluent speaker of the Nyulnyul language of Western Australia.[3]

Classification

Nyulnyul is very closely related to and was possibly mutually intelligible with Bardi, Jawi, Jabirrjabirr and Nimanburru. These are all members of the Western Nyulnyulan subgroup of Nyulnyulan, a non-Pama-Nyungan family of northern Australia. It is possible that Ngumbarl also belongs to this group, although Bowern makes arguments from the Daisy Bates/Billingee records that Ngumbarl is an Eastern Nyulnyulan language.[4] Speakers consider these all to be distinct.

Notes

1. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Nyulnyul". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
2. K13 Nyulnyul at the Australian Indigenous Languages Database, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
3. Charles, Mary (2000) [1993]. Winin – Why the Emu Cannot Fly. Translated by W. B. McGregor. Broome, WA: Magabala Books. ISBN 1-875641-07-6.
4. Bowern, C. 2010. Two Missing Pieces in a Nyulnyulan Jigsaw Puzzle. "Linguistic Society of America Extended Abstracts".

References

• Dixon, R. M. W. (2002). Australian Languages: Their Nature and Development. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 666–667. ISBN 0-521-47378-0.
• McGregor, W. B. (1994). "Complex Sentence Constructions in Nyulnyul, Western Australia". Functions of Language. 1: 25–66. doi:10.1075/fol.1.1.04mcg.
• McGregor, W. B. (1996). Nyulnyul. Munich and Newcastle: Lincom Europa.
• McGregor, W. B. (1999). "The Medio-active Construction in Nyulnyulan languages". Studies in Language. 23 (3): 531–567. doi:10.1075/sl.23.3.04mcg.
• McGregor, W. B. (1999). "External Possession Constructions in Nyulnyulan languages". In D.L. Payne; I. Barshi (eds.). External Possession. Amsterdam and Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamins. pp. 429–448.
• McGregor, W. B. (2000). "Reflexive and Reciprocal Constructions in Nyulnyulan languages". In Z. Frajzyngier; T.S. Curl (eds.). Reciprocals: Form and Function. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. pp. 85–122.
• McGregor, W. B. (2003). "Language Shift among the Nyulnyul of Dampier Land". Acta Linguistica Hafniensia. 35: 115–159. doi:10.1080/03740463.2003.10416076.
• Nekes, H. (1938). "The Pronoun in Nyol-Nyol (Nyul-Nyul) and Related Dialects". In A.P. Elkin (ed.). Studies in Australian Linguistics. Sydney: University of Sydney. pp. 139–163.