Anindilyakwa language

Anindilyakwa is an Australian Aboriginal language spoken by the Warnindhilyagwa people on Groote Eylandt in the Gulf of Carpentaria in the Northern Territory of Australia. A 2001 Australian government study identified more than 1000 speakers of the language,[4] although there are reports of as many as three thousand. In the 2016 census, around 1500 people said they spoke Anindilyakwa.[5]

Anindilyakwa
Enindhilyakwa, Enindhilyagwa
Native toAustralia
Northern Territory
RegionGroote Eylandt, Northern Territory, Australia
EthnicityWarnindhilyagwa
Native speakers
1,486 (2016 census)[1]
Macro-Pama–Nyungan?
Language codes
ISO 639-3aoi
Glottologanin1240[2]
AIATSIS[3]N151

Anindilyakwa may be most closely related to Nunggubuyu, on the adjacent mainland, but that is yet to be confirmed.[3]

Names

Spellings of the name include:

  • Andiljangwa
  • Andilyaugwa
  • Anindilyakwa (used by Ethnologue)
  • Aninhdhilyagwa (used by R. M. W. Dixon's Australian Languages)
  • Enindiljaugwa
  • Enindhilyagwa
  • Wanindilyaugwa

It also known as Groote Eylandt, after its location. Another name is Ingura or Yingguru.

Classification

Once considered a family level isolate, Van Egmond (2012) has demonstrated Anindilyakwa to be part of the Eastern branch of the Gunwinyguan family, relating it to Nunggubuyu and (more distantly) Ngandi, using correspondences between core vocabulary, verbal morphological forms, phonemes, and verbal inflectional paradigms.[6][7]

Phonology

Vowels

The analysis of Anindilyakwa's vowels is open to interpretation. Stokes[8] analyses it as having four phonemic vowels, /i e a u/. Leeding[9] analyses it as having just two, /ɨ a/.

Consonants
Peripheral Coronal
Bilabial Velar Laminal Apical
rounded unrounded Palatal Dental Alveolar Retroflex
Stop p kʷ k c t̪ t ʈ
Nasal m ŋʷ ŋ ɲ n̪ n ɳ
Lateral ʎ l̪ (ɭ)
Rhotic r ɻ
Semivowel w j

Phonotactics

All Anindilyakwa words end in a vowel. Clusters of up to three consonants can occur within words.

Grammar

Noun classes

Anindilyakwa has five noun classes, or genders, each marked by a prefix:

  • Human male
  • Non-human male
  • Female (human or non-human)
  • Inanimate "lustrous", with the prefix a-.
  • Inanimate "non-lustrous", with the prefix mwa-.

For bound pronouns, instead of "human male" and "non-human male" classes there is a single "male" class.

All native nouns carry a class prefix, but some loanwords may lack them.

Numerals

According to Stokes[10] the language traditionally had numerals up to twenty but since the introduction of English, English words are now used almost exclusively for numbers above five.

Adjectives

Size degrees is done in two grades the positive and a diminutive (warrngka), although reduplication of this word is possible for an intensifying effect.[9]

Example

This song is a translation of the church song "This is the day", sung by the local churchgoers in the community of Angurugu. The spelling and translation requires confirmation.

Anindilyakwa Approximate translation
Mema mamawurra

Ngumanekburrakama God

Narriyekiyerra, Akuwerikilyelyingmajungwuna

Narriyekiyerra

Akuwerikilyelyingmajungwuna

 This day

Made by God

We will rejoice and be glad in it

This is the day made by God

We will rejoice in it

References
  1. "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). "Anindilyakwa". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  3. N151 Anindilyakwa at the Australian Indigenous Languages Database, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
  4. http://www.deh.gov.au/soe/techpapers/languages/indicator3d.html Archived July 17, 2005, at the Wayback Machine
  5. "2016 Census QuickStats: Anindilyakwa (Groote)". www.censusdata.abs.gov.au. Australian Bureau of Statistics. Retrieved 27 August 2017.
  6. Van Egmond, M-E. (2012). "Enindhilyakwa phonology, morphosyntax and genetic position." Doctoral thesis. University of Sydney. pp. 314–70.
  7. Bowern, C. (2017). "Language isolates of Australia." in Campbell, L., ed. Language Isolates. Abingdon: Routledge: 323–43
  8. Stokes, J. (1981). "Anindilyakwa phonology from phoneme to syllable". In Waters, B. (ed.). Australian phonologies: collected papers. Darwin: Summer Institute of Linguistics, Australian Aborigines Branch. pp. 138–81.
  9. Leeding, V. J. (1989). Anindilyakwa phonology and morphology. PhD dissertation. University of Sydney.
  10. Stokes, J. (1982). "A description of the mathematical concepts of Groote Eylandt Aborigines". In Hargrave, S. (ed.). Work Papers of SIL-AAB: Language and Culture. Darwin: Summer Institute of Linguistics, Australian Aborigines Branch. pp. 33–152.
  • Leeding, V. J. (1996). "Body parts and possession in Anindilyakwa". In Chappell, H.; McGregor, W. (eds.). The grammar of inalienability: a typological perspective on body part terms and the part-whole relation. Berlin: Mounton de Gruyter. pp. 193–249.
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