Iwaidjan languages

Infobox Language family
name=Iwaidjan
region=Cobourg Peninsula region, Northern Territory
familycolor=Australian
fam1=Arnhem Land languages
child1=Wurrugu/Marrgu
child2=Iwaidjic languages
child3=Amurdak

The Iwaidjan or Yiwaidjan languages are a small family of non-Pama-Nyungan Australian Aboriginal languages spoken in the Cobourg Peninsula region of Western Arnhem Land.

In 1997 Nicholas Evans proposed an Arnhem Land family that includes the Iwaidjan languages.

The Iwaidjan languages

clade
label1=proto-Iwaidjan
1=clade
1=clade
1=Wurrugu
2=Marrgu
2=clade
label1=Iwaidjic
1=clade
1=clade
label1=Warrkbi
1=clade
1=Iwaidja
2=clade
1=Garig
2=Ilgar
2=clade
1=Manangkari
2=Maung
3=Amurdak Garig and Ilgar are two almost identical dialects. [Evans (1998): pp. 115, 144.] Manangkari may be a dialect of Maung. [Evans (1998): pp. 115–116.]

tatus

Iwaidja is spoken by about 150 people in the community of Minjilang on Croker Island,Evans (1998): p. 115] alongside English, Kunwinjku and Maung.Fact|date=April 2007 Maung is primarily spoken in the community of Warruwi on Goulburn Island, and it too has about 150 speakers. Both languages are still being learnt by children.

All the other Iwaidjan languages are close to extinction. In 1998, Amurdak had three remaining speakers, Garig and Ilgar three speakers between them, Marrgu one speaker, and Wurrugu one rememberer.

Phonology

The Iwaidjan languages have similar phoneme inventories. Exceptions are noted below the tables.

Vowels

In addition to these, Maung also has IPA|/e/ and IPA|/o/, mostly in loanwords from Kunwinjku and Kunparlang.Evans (1998): p. 118.]

Consonants

To these Marrgu adds a lamino-dental stop and nasal, IPA|/d̪ n̪/, while Maung lacks the two flapped laterals,Evans (1998): p. 118.] which are quite unusual among Australian languages. Also unusual is the velar approximant IPA|/ɰ/, which is an areal feature shared with Tiwi and Gunbarlang. [Evans (1998): p. 117.]

Relationships with other languages

The vocabularies of all the Iwaidjan languages contain loanwords from Macassarese and Malay,Evans (1998): p. 116.] both Malayo-Polynesian languages from Indonesia. Iwaidja and Maung have also borrowed heavily from Kunwijku, another Australian language of the Gunwingguan family.

While the Iwaidjan languages share a number of features with other non-Pama-Nyungan language families, it is uncertain which they are closest related to.Fact|date=April 2007 Ross has proposed that they form part of an Arnhem Land family.

Notes

References

*cite book |author=Evans, Nicholas |year=1998 |chapter=Iwaidja mutation and its origins |editor=Anna Siewierska & Jae Jung Song |title=Case, Typology and Grammar: In honor of Barry J. Blake |pages=115–149 |location=Amsterdam/Philadelphia |publisher=John Benjamins Publishing Company