Guniyandi language

Gooniyandi is an Australian Aboriginal language now spoken by about 100 people, most of whom live in or near Fitzroy Crossing in Western Australia.[4] Gooniyandi is an endangered language as it is not being passed on to children,[4] who instead grow up speaking Kriol.

Gooniyandi
RegionWestern Australia
EthnicityGooniyandi
Native speakers
210 (2021 census)[1]
Bunuban
  • Gooniyandi
Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3gni
Glottologgoon1238
AIATSIS[2]K6
ELPGooniyandi
GlottopediaGooniyandi[3]

Classification

Gooniyandi is closely related to Bunuba, to about the same degree as English is related to Dutch. The two are the only members of the Bunuban language family. Unlike the majority of Australian Aboriginal languages, Gooniyandi and Bunuba are non-Pama–Nyungan.

Phonology

Gooniyandi has three vowel sounds: /a, i, u/. /a/ has contrastive vowel length.[5]

Vowels
Front Back
High i u
Low a
Consonants
Peripheral Laminal Apical
Labial Velar Palatal Dental Alveolar Retroflex
Plosive b ɡ ɟ ⟨j⟩ t̪ ⟨th⟩ d ɖ ⟨rd⟩
Nasal m ŋ ⟨ng⟩ ɲ ⟨ny⟩ n̪ ⟨nh⟩ n ɳ ⟨rn⟩
Tap ɾ ⟨dd⟩
Lateral ʎ ⟨ly⟩ l ɭ ⟨rl⟩
Approximant w j ⟨y⟩ ɻ ⟨r⟩

Orthography

A Gooniyandi alphabet based on the Latin script was adopted by the community in 1984, and subsequently revised in 1990 and again in 1999.[4] It is not phonemic, as it omits some distinctions made in speech.[4]

Grammar

Gooniyandi has no genders, but a large number of cases; it uses an ergative-absolutive case system. It is a verb-final language, but without a dominant order between the subject and the object.

Notes
  1. Australian Bureau of Statistics (2021). "Cultural diversity: Census". Retrieved 13 October 2022.
  2. K6 Gooniyandi at the Australian Indigenous Languages Database, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
  3. Glottopedia article on Guniyandi language.
  4. "Gooniyandi language, alphabet and pronunciation". Omniglot. Retrieved 22 July 2018.
  5. McGregor 1990.

References
  • McGregor, William (1984). A grammar of Kuniyanti: an Australian Aboriginal language of the southern Kimberley, Western Australia (Ph.D. thesis). hdl:2123/15383.
  • McGregor, William (1990). A Functional Grammar of Gooniyandi. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
  • McGregor, William (1994). "Gooniyandi". In Nick Thieberger & William McGregor (ed.). Macquarie Aboriginal Words. The Macquarie Library. pp. 193–213.
  • McGregor, William (2004). The Languages of the Kimberley, Western Australia. London, New York: Taylor & Francis.
  • M Haspelmath; M S Dryer; D Gil; B Comrie (2005). The World Atlas of Language Structures. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
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