| Nukunu | |
|---|---|
| Native to | Australia |
| Region | South Australia |
| Ethnicity | Nukunu |
| Extinct | c. 2000 |
| Revival | 11-50 (2019) |
| Language family | Pama–Nyungan
|
| 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.
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 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 |
| 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 ) and kurti (quandong, IPA ).
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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