Nukunu language
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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.[1]
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 Script error: No such module "Lang"., present tense form of verb 'to speak')
Classification
Nukunu is a Pama–Nyungan language, closely related to neighboring languages in the Miru cluster[2] 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 | Script error: No such module "IPA". | Script error: No such module "IPA". |
| Low | Script error: No such module "IPA". | |
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 | Script error: No such module "IPA". | Script error: No such module "IPA". | Script error: No such module "IPA". | Script error: No such module "IPA". | Script error: No such module "IPA". | Script error: No such module "IPA". |
| Voiced | Script error: No such module "IPA". | ||||||
| Nasal | Script error: No such module "IPA". | Script error: No such module "IPA". | Script error: No such module "IPA". | Script error: No such module "IPA". | Script error: No such module "IPA". | Script error: No such module "IPA". | |
| Lateral | Script error: No such module "IPA". | Script error: No such module "IPA". | Script error: No such module "IPA". | Script error: No such module "IPA". | |||
| Tap | Script error: No such module "IPA". | ||||||
| Trill | Script error: No such module "IPA". | ||||||
| Approximant | Script error: No such module "IPA". | Script error: No such module "IPA". | Script error: No such module "IPA". | ||||
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
References
- Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".