Kuku Nyungkal dialect

The Kuku Nyungkal dialect (also written Kuku Nyungkul, Kuku Njunggal, Guugu Nyungkul, Gugu Njunggal, Kuku Njungkul,[2] Kuku Ngungkal[3]) is an Australian Aboriginal language and the language of the Kuku Nyungkal people of Far North Queensland. It is a variety of Kuku Yalanji still being spoken (though by fewer people than speak Kuku Yalanji itself).[4] Most of the speakers today live in the communities of Wujal Wujal and Mossman.

Kuku Nyungkal
Gugu Njunggal
RegionAnnan River, Queensland
EthnicityKuku Nyungkal people
Native speakers
(undated figure of 5)
Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3–
Glottologkuku1274
AIATSIS[1]Y90

The UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger includes Kuku Nyungkal language as part of a larger Kuku Yalanji languages listing, identifying and listing all the Kuku Yalanji languages as a whole as being "severely endangered".[5]

As of 2020, Kuku Ngungkal is one of 20 languages prioritised as part of the Priority Languages Support Project, being undertaken by First Languages Australia and funded by the Department of Communications and the Arts. The project aims to "identify and document critically-endangered languages — those languages for which little or no documentation exists, where no recordings have previously been made, but where there are living speakers".[3]

Phonology

Vowels

Kuku Nyungkal has three vowels as follows:[4]

VowelsEnglish equivalent
aas in f a ther
ias in p i t
uas in p u t

Consonants

Kuku Nyungkal has thirteen consonants as follows:[4]

bdjklmnnyngrrrwy

All are pronounced as they would be in English, with the rr used for a rolled r, as in the Scottish r.

References
  1. Y90 Kuku Nyungkal at the Australian Indigenous Languages Database, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
  2. Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Studies "Gugu Nyungkul language (Y90) (Qld SD55-13)" Language and People Thesaurus webpage Archived 30 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine Accessed 21 January 2011
  3. "Priority Languages Support Project". First Languages Australia. Archived from the original on 13 January 2020. Retrieved 13 January 2020.
  4. Hershberger, Henry & Hershberger Ruth (1986) "Kuku Yalanji Dictionary Summer Institute of Linguistics. Darwin" Accessed 21 January 2010
  5. UNESCO "Interactive Atlas" UNESCO Atlas of the Worlds languages in danger webpage Accessed 23 January 2011


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