Nyikina (also Nyigina, Njigina) is an Australian Aboriginal language of Western Australia, spoken by the Nyigina people.
Nyikina | |
---|---|
Region | Lower Fitzroy River, Western Australia |
Ethnicity | Nyigina |
Native speakers | 61 (2016 census)[1] |
Nyulnyulan
| |
Latin | |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | nyh |
Glottolog | nyig1240 |
AIATSIS[2] | K3 |
ELP | Nyikina |
Warrwa may have been a dialect.
Classification
editR. M. W. Dixon (2002) regards Nyikina, Warrwa, Yawuru and Jukun as a single language.
Nyikina is placed in the Nyulnyulan family of non-Pama–Nyungan languages.
Phonology
editConsonants
editPeripheral | Laminal | Apical | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Labial | Velar | Palatal | Alveolar | Retroflex | |
Plosive | b | ɡ | ɟ | d | ɖ |
Nasal | m | ŋ | ɲ | n | ɳ |
Lateral | ʎ | l | ɭ | ||
Tap | ɾ | ||||
Approximant | w | j | ɻ |
- Sounds /ɟ, ɡ/, when following /l/ or in intervocalic positions, can be heard as [j, ɣ].
- /ɾ/ can also occasionally occur as a trill [r].[4]
Vowels
editFront | Back | |
---|---|---|
High | i | u |
Low | a |
Phoneme | Allophones |
---|---|
/i/ | [i], [ɪ] |
/a/ | [ä], [ɑ], [ʌ], [æ] |
/u/ | [u], [ʊ] |
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ "Census 2016, Language spoken at home by Sex (SA2+)". stat.data.abs.gov.au. ABS. Retrieved 30 October 2017.
- ^ K3 Nyikina at the Australian Indigenous Languages Database, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
- ^ This map is indicative only.
- ^ Stokes, Bronwyn (1982). A Description of Nyigina, A Language of West Kimberley, Western Australia. Canberra: Australian National University.
- Capell, A. (1952–1953). "Notes on the Njigina and Warwa tribes, N.W. Australia". Mankind. 4 (9): 351–360, 450–496. doi:10.1111/j.1835-9310.1952.tb00261.x.
- Dixon, R. M. W. (2002). Australian Languages: Their Nature and Development. Cambridge University Press.
- Muecke, Stephen (2004). "A Chance to Hear a Nyigina Song". In Ryan, J. (ed.). Imagining Australia: Literature and Culture in the New New World. Wallace-Crabbe, C. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Committee on Australian Studies. pp. 123–135. ISBN 978-0-674-01573-9.
- Stokes, B. (1982). A description of Nyigina, a language of the West Kimberley, Western Australia. PhD dissertation. Australian National University.
External links
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