Nukunu language

Nukunu
Nukunu
Region	South Australia
Ethnicity	Nukunu
Extinct	ca. 2000
Language family	Pama–Nyungan Thura-Yura (unclassified) Nukunu; ; ;
Writing system	Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3	nnv
Glottolog	nugu1241
AIATSIS	L4
ELP	Nukunu
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Nukunu (or Nugunu or many other names: see below) is a moribund Australian Aboriginal language spoken by Nukunu people on Yorke Peninsula, South Australia. As of 2017, there is a revival and maintenance programme under way for the language.^[2]

Names

This language has been known by many names by neighbouring tribes and Australianists, including:

Nukuna, Nokunna, Noocoona, Nookoona, Nuguna, Nukana, Nukunnu, Nukunu, Njuguna
Doora
Pukunna
Tjura, Tyura
Wallaroo, Warra
Wongaidya (from wangkatya, present tense form of verb 'to speak')

Classification

Nukunu is a Pama–Nyungan language, closely related to neighboring languages in the Miru cluster^[3] like Narungga, Kaurna, and Ngadjuri.

Phonology

Vowels

Nukunu has three different vowels with contrastive long and short lengths (a, i, u, a:, i:, u:).

	Front	Back
High	i iː	u uː
Low	a aː

Consonants

The Nukunu consonantal inventory is typical for a Pama–Nyungan language, with six places of articulation for stops and nasals. There are three rhotics in the language.

		Peripheral		Laminal		Apical
		Labial	Velar	Dental	Palatal	Alveolar	Retroflex
Stop	Voiceless	p	k	t̪	c	t	ʈ
Stop	Voiced						(ɖ)
Nasal		m	ŋ	n̪	ɲ	n	ɳ
Lateral				l̪	ʎ	l	ɭ
Tap						ɾ
Trill						r
Approximant		w		j			ɻ

A phonemic voicing contrast exists in Nukunu, but it has only been observed in the retroflex stop series. An example demonstrating such a contrast intervocalically is kurdi (phlegm, IPA ['kuɖi]) and kurti (quandong, IPA ['kuʈi]).

History

In contrast with other Thura–Yura languages, Nukunu did not partake in either the initial th- lenition before vowels or the lenition of initial k- before vowels.

Notes

^ L4 Nukunu at the Australian Indigenous Languages Database, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
^ Monaghan, Paul (2017). "1. Structures of Aboriginal life at the time of colonisation in South Australia". In Brock, Peggy; Gara, Tom (eds.). Colonialism and its aftermath: A history of Aboriginal South Australia (PDF). Extract, pp.i-xxiii. Wakefield. p. 17. ISBN 9781743054994.
^ Hercus pp. 1; Schmidt called this cluster (a subgroup of Thura–Yura) as "Miru" in 1919. Perhaps these languages are part of the Kadli group as well.

References

Hercus, Luise Anna (1992). "Introduction". A Nukunu Dictionary. Maitland, South Australia: National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry.

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[AIATSIS-1] L4 Nukunu at the Australian Indigenous Languages Database, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies

[2] Monaghan, Paul (2017). "1. Structures of Aboriginal life at the time of colonisation in South Australia". In Brock, Peggy; Gara, Tom (eds.). Colonialism and its aftermath: A history of Aboriginal South Australia (PDF). Extract, pp.i-xxiii. Wakefield. p. 17. ISBN 9781743054994.

[miru-3] Hercus pp. 1; Schmidt called this cluster (a subgroup of Thura–Yura) as "Miru" in 1919. Perhaps these languages are part of the Kadli group as well.

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