Yolŋu languages

Yolŋu Matha
Spoken in	Northern Territory, Australia
Language family	Pama–Nyungan Yolŋu Matha
Writing system	Latin script
Language codes
ISO 639-3	variously: dji – Djinang dhg – Dhangu duj – Dhuwal djb – Djinba rit – Ritharngu jay – Yan-nhangu dax – Dayi djr – Djambarrpuyngu gnn – Gumatj guf – Gupapuyngu

Yolŋu Matha is a cover term for the languages of the Yolngu (Yolŋu), the Indigenous people of northeast Arnhem Land in northern Australia. (Yolŋu = people, Matha = tongue, language).

Yolngu languages have a fortis–lenis contrast in plosive consonants. Lenis/short plosives have weak contact and intermittent voicing, while fortis/long plosives have full closure, a more powerful release burst, and no voicing.

Varieties

Yolŋu Matha consists of about six mutually intelligible languages divided into about thirty clan varieties and perhaps twelve different dialects, each with its own Yolŋu name. While there is extensive variation between these dialects, there is generally common mutual intelligibility, hence the umbrella group of Yolngu Matha. The linguistic situation is very complicated, since each of the 30 or so clans also has a named language variety. The dialects or separate language as used by the Ethnologue are:

• Dhangu
  • Dhangu
  • Jarnango (that is, Yan-nhaŋu)
• Dhuwal
  • Dayi (Dhay'yi)
  • Dhuwal
  • Dhuwal (a cover term which also included Djampbarrpuyŋu)
  • Djambarrpuyngu
  • Gumatj
  • Gupapuyngu
  • Ritarungo (Ritharrŋu)
• Djinang
  • Djinang
  • Djinba

See also

• Ten Canoes - a film largely in the Ganalbiŋu variety of Yolŋu Matha.
• Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu A popular Australian singer who sings in the Gumatj dialect of the Yolngu language.

Dictionaries and resources

Dictionaries have been produced by Beulah Lowe, David Zorc and Michael Christie. A public-domain version of Beulah Lowe's dictionary is available as a pdf file.

There are also several grammars of Yolngu languages by Jeffrey Heath, Frances Morphy, Melanie Wilkinson and others.^[1]

Words and expressions

• Gakal = the action or symptom of progression in an illness
• Gapumirr = watery.^[2]
• Manymak = Good, OK

References

1. ^ ARDS Language Publications
2. ^ Trudgen, Richard, 2000, 'Thirteen years of wanting to know', Why warriers lie down and die, Adoriginal Resource and Development Services, Inc. Darwin, pp. 97-112

• Aboriginal Resource and Development Services (ARDS) [1]
• Charles Darwin University, Darwin, Yolŋu Matha course [2]
• ARDS Rhombuy Dhäwu: Legal English-Yolngu Matha Online Dictionary [3]
• Trudgen, Richard, Why Warriors Lie Down & Die [4], ARDS, Darwin, 2000.
• Examples of Yolngu Matha being spoken [5]
• Radio National story
• Watson, Helen and David Wade Chambers (with the Yolngu community at Yirrkala). Singing the Land, Signing the Land. Deakin University.
• Madayin Law in Yolngu and English