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Ngaygungu language

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ngaygungu
aka Ngȋ-koong-ō
Native toAustralia
RegionQueensland
Extinctlast attested 1938[1]
Pama–Nyungan ?
  • (unclassified, probably Maric)[2]
    • Ngaygungu
Language codes
ISO 639-3None (mis)
GlottologNone
AIATSIS[1]Y216

Ngaygungu (also known as Ngȋ-koong-ō[3]) is a sleeping,[4] Australian Aboriginal language originally spoken by the Ngaygungyi, for which a wordlist was recorded from Atherton in the Wet Tropics of Queensland by Walter Edmund Roth in October 1898,[3] later also recorded by Norman Barnett Tindale in 1938, but no longer spoken by any living speakers.[2]

Phonology

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Vowels

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Ngȋ-koong-ō has the following vowels[3]

ă ā ȃ ĕ ē ĭ ī ȋ ŏ ō oo

each pronounced as in English were the English vowels a, e, i, o to be marked[3] for length.

Consonants

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Ngȋ-koong-ō has twelve consonants as follows:[3]

b ch g j k m n ny ng r t y

each pronounced as they would be in English.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b Y216 Ngaygungu at the Australian Indigenous Languages Database, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
  2. ^ a b RMW Dixon (2002), Australian Languages: Their Nature and Development, p xxxiii
  3. ^ a b c d e Roth, Walter Edmund (1898), Some ethnological notes on the Atherton blacks (October 1898), Cooktown: Queensland Home Secretarys Department, Office of the Northern Protector of Aboriginals
  4. ^ Wesley, Leonard Y. (2008), "When Is an "Extinct Language" Not Extinct?" (PDF), Susataining Linguistic Diversity: Endangered and Minority Languages and Language Varieties: 23–34