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Burduna is an Aboriginal language that was traditionally spoken in the region between the Ashburton and Gascyone Rivers in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. It belongs to the Kanyara group of languages, which also includes Binigura/Pinikura (also known as Thalanyji).

The language is now classified as critically endangered, with no recorded native speakers as of 2004. However, there are some people of Burduna heritage who can still speak and recognise a few words and phrases.

Evolution

Burduna has been classified as a double-marking language. Although it has been categorised as a Kanyara language, it is significantly different from the other languages in the category as it underwent a number of changes in pronunciation.

Over the years, the language lost most of its nasal sounds and tones. Certain words that contains peripheral stops with p and k sounds lenited to a w sound instead. For example, papu (father) became pawu, and puka (bad) became puwa. However, this lenition did not occur when the previous syllable contained a w. Instead, the consonants p and k descended, and were pronounced as b and g respectively.

Another marked difference included the pronunciation of polysyllabic words such as yakan (spouse) and pukurra (devil). These words lost their middle consonants and were shortened to yaan and puurra. The vowels were pronounced with a long, drawn-out sound.

Burduna words also contained consonant clusters in words such as db in dagba (spider) or rdg in ngardga (beard). Furthermore, words that originally contained consonant clusters underwent lenition and were pronounced with softer sounds. For example, mb was pronounced as p, nd as t, and ngg as k.

In addition, where other languages have a dh or a j in the middle of words, Burduna evolved to contain a y. For example, the Thalanyji word ngadhal (cousin) had its Burduna complement spelt as ngayal.

Culture and development

The Burduna people were located around the Nyang and Maroonah regions between the Ashburton and Gascyone rivers in north-western Australia. Their traditional country regions included the regions around the Yannarie and Lyndon rivers. Some of the area in and around the Towera region is also identified as being traditional Burduna land.

The Kanyara people traditionally spoke three different languages - Purduna or Burduna, Thalanyji, and Bayungu or Payungu. The three languages share highly similar sentence structure and vocabulary, with 60-70% of words being common across all three of them.

The societal structure of the Burduna people consisted of four different subsets. Each subset was further divided into 'totems', and each totem was further divided into 'phrartries'. Individuals within a phrartry were assigned gender-specific titles, and these titles were used to address them in the same manner as personal names are used today. A totemic phrartry was inherited in a patrilineal manner, i.e., an offspring born to parents from two different phrartries was assigned to the phrartry of the father. Marriages within the same totem phrartry were not allowed.

Often, these totems and phrartries interspersed with people from different linguistic backgrounds. For example, the totem 'Snake' included the Burduna-speaking population as well as the Thalanyji-speaking population.

As a result of white settlement along the Ashburton and Gascyone river regions, the language ceased to be used, and is believed to have died out sometime during the first half of the twentieth century. There are a few people living in Onslow and Carnarvon who can still speak and recognize a few words and phrases, but the majority of Burduna descendants have intermarried with other language groups. The National Language Indigenous 2004 Survey estimated that there are no native speakers of the language. It has thus been classified as endangerment level 0.

Lexicon and grammar

There are two major word classes and three minor ones in the Burduna language. The first major word class contains the nominal words, which includes nouns and adjectives, names, pronouns, demonstratives, and cardinal directions.

The second major word group includes the verbs. The three minor word groups include adverbs, particles, and interjections.

Notes

1. Also known as Purduna, Bayungu, or Payungu.

References

1. Burduna at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
   Bayungu at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
2. W24 Purduna at the Australian Indigenous Languages Database, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies  (see the info box for additional links)
3. Endangered Languages Project data for Payungu.
4. ^ Austin, Peter (1988). "Classification of southern Pilbara languages". Papers in Australian Linguistics. 17: 1–17.
5. Dixon, Robert M. (2002). Australian languages: their nature and development. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521473781.
6. ^ "W24: Burduna | aiatsis collection". collection.aiatsis.gov.au. Archived from the original on 31 October 2018. Retrieved 17 December 2021.
7. Austin, Peter (1988). "Aboriginal languages of the Gascoyne-Ashburton region" (PDF). La Trobe Working Papers in Linguistics. 1: 43–63 – via La Trobe University.
8. ^ "Purduna". Sorosoro. Archived from the original on 5 January 2011. Retrieved 17 December 2021.
9. ^ Austin, Peter (1991). "Double case marking in Kanyara and Mantharta languages, Western Australia" (PDF). La Trobe Working Papers in Linguistics. 4: 19–36 – via La Trobe University.
10. ^ Austin, Peter (1981). "Proto-Kanyara and proto-Mantharta historical phonology". Lingua. 54 (4): 295–333. doi:10.1016/0024-3841(81)90009-7.
11. ^ McConvell, Patrick; Kelly, Piers; Lacrampe, Sébastien, eds. (5 April 2018). Skin, Kin and Clan: The dynamics of social categories in Indigenous Australia (1st ed.). ANU Press. doi:10.22459/skc.04.2018. ISBN 978-1-76046-163-8.

External links

• Wangka Maya Pilbara Aboriginal Language Centre — contains information about the Burduna language and many other Pilbara languages, as well as usage examples

• Kanyara languages
• Endangered indigenous Australian languages in Western Australia