Diyari language

Diyari
Spoken in	South Australia
Extinct	?
Language family	Pama–Nyungan Karnic? Karna Diyari
Writing system	Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3	dif
This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters.

Diyari or Dieri is an Australian Aboriginal language of South Australia spoken by the Diyari tribe.

Phonology

Vowels

	Front	Back
High	i	u
Low	a

Consonants

		Peripheral		Laminal		Apical
		Bilabial	Velar	Palatal	Dental	Alveolar	Retroflex
Stop	Voiceless	p	k	c	t̪	t	ʈ
	Voiced					d~dʳ	ɖ
Nasal		m	ŋ	ɲ	n̪	n	ɳ
Lateral				ʎ	l̪	l	ɭ
Trill						[r]
Flap						[ɾ]
Approximant		w		j			ɻ

The voiced alveolar stop [d] may have trilled release [dʳ] depending on dialect. Peter Austin (1988) suggests that this is due to Yandruwanhdha influence.

The voiced retroflex stop /ɖ/ often becomes a tap [ɽ] between vowels.

The stop [d]~[dʳ] is complementary distribution with both the trill [r] and the flap [ɾ]. Austin (1981) analysed the trill [r] as being the intervocalic allophone of /d/~/dʳ/, with the flap /ɾ/ being a separate phoneme. R. M. W. Dixon (2002) suggests that [ɾ] could be considered the intervocalic allophone of /d/~/dʳ/, so then /r/ would be a separate phoneme. Having /d/ realized as [ɾ] would parallel the realization of /ɖ/ as [ɽ], and having /r/ rather than /ɾ/ as a phoneme matches most other Australian languages.

Grammar

Diyari has three different morphosyntactic alignments:

• Singular common nouns and male personal names follow an absolutive–ergative system.
• Plural first and second person pronouns follow a nominative–accusative system.
• Plural common nouns, female personal names and other pronouns follow a tripartite system.

Sign

The Diyari had a highly developed sign language.

References

• Austin, Peter K. (1981). A grammar of Diyari, South Australia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521228492. 
• Austin, Peter K. (1988). "Trill-released stops and language change in Central Australian languages". Australian Journal of Linguistics 8 (2): 218–245. doi:10.1080/07268608808599398. 
• Dixon, R. M. W. (2002). Australian Languages: Their Nature and Development. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521473780. http://www.cambridge.org/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=0521473780. 
• Trefry, David (1970). "The phonological word in Dieri". In Laycock, D. C.. Linguistic trends in Australia. Canberra: Australian Institute for Aboriginal Studies. pp. 65–73. 

External links

• Ethnologue report for language code:dif