Ngalakan language

Ngalakan
Ngalakgan
Spoken in	Australia
Region	Northern Territory
Extinct	2004
Language family	Gunwinyguan Gunwinyguan proper Rembargic (Jala) Ngalakan
Language codes
ISO 639-3	nig
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Ngalakan or Ngalakgan is an Australian Aboriginal language. It is one of the Northern Non-Pama–Nyungan languages.

Sounds

Consonants

Ngalakan has a typical Australian consonant inventory, with many coronal places of articulation (see Coronals in Indigenous Australian languages), including nasals at every stop place, and four liquids, but no fricatives. Baker (1999, 2008) analyses the language as having both geminate and singleton realizations of every plosive consonant. Merlan (1983), however, argues that there is a fortis–lenis contrast, and thus two series of plosives rather than the one shown here. Lenis/short plosives have weak contact and intermittent voicing, while fortis/long plosives have full closure, a more powerful release burst, and no voicing. Similar contrasts are found in other Gunwinyguan languages, such as Bininj Gun-wok,^[1] Jawoyn, Dalabon, Rembarrnga, Ngandi,^[2] as well as in the neighboring Yolngu languages.

	Bilabial	Apico-Alveolar	Apico-Retroflex	Lamino- Postalveolar	Velar
Nasal	m	n	ɳ	ɲ	ŋ
Stop	p	t	ʈ	c	k
Tap		ɾ
Lateral		l	ɭ
Approximant	w		ɻ	j

^[3]

Vowels

	Front	Back
High	i	u
Mid	e	o
Low	a

References

1. ^ Fletcher & Evans 2002
2. ^ Heath 1978
3. ^ Brett J. Baker (2008).

• Baker, Brett (2008). Word structure in Ngalakgan. Stanford: CSLI. 
• Fletcher, Janet; Evans, Nicholas (2002), "An acoustic phonetic analysis of intonational prominence in two Australian languages", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 32 (2): 123–140 
• Heath, Jeffrey (1978). Ngandi grammar, texts and dictionary. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. 
• Merlan, Francesca (1983). Ngalakan grammar, texts and vocabulary. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.