Yolŋu Matha

Infobox Language
name=Yolŋu Matha
region=Northern Territory, Australia
speakers=
familycolor=Australian
fam1=Pama-Nyungan
fam2=
script=Latin alphabet
iso2=aus
lc1=dji|ld1=Djinang|ll1=Djinang language
lc2=dhg|ld2=Dhangu|ll2=Dhangu language
lc3=duj|ld3=Dhuwal|ll3=Dhuwal language
lc4=djb|ld4=Djinba|ll4=Djinba language
lc5=rit|ld5=Ritharngu|ll5=Ritharngu language
lc6=dsx|ld6=Dhay'yi|116=Dhay'yi language
lc7=dji|ld7=Yan-nhangu|117=Yan-nhangu language
lc8=jay|ld8=Jarnango|118=Jarnango language
lc9=dax|ld9=Dayi|119=Dayi language
lc10=djr|ld10=Djambarrpuyngu|120=Djambarrpuyngu language
lc11=gnn|ld11=Gumatj |121=Gumatj language
lc12=guf|ld12=Gupapuyngu|122=Gupapuyngu language

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

Yolŋu Matha consists of 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 25 or so clans also has a named language variety.The dialects or separate language as used by the Ethnologue are:
*Dhangu
*Jarnango
*Dhuwal
*Dayi
*Djambarrpuyngu
*Dhuwal
*Gumatj
*Gupapuyngu
*Ritarungo
*Djinang
*Djinba
*Djinang

ee also

*Ten Canoes - a film largely in 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 [http://www.ards.com.au/language/B.Lowe_Web_Dict.pdf] .

There are also several grammars of Yolngu languages by Jeffrey Heath, Frances Morphy, Melanie Wilkinson and others [http://www.ards.com.au/langorder.htm] .

Words and expressions

*Gakal = the action or syptom of progression in an illness
*Gapumirr = watery [ Trudgen, Richard, 2000, 'Thirteen years of wanting to know', Why worriers lie down and die, Adoriginal Resource and Development Services, Inc. Darwin, pp. 97-112] .
*Manymak = Good, OK

References

* Aboriginal Resource and Development Services (ARDS) [http://www.ards.com.au/default.html]
* Charles Darwin University, Darwin, Yolŋu Matha course [http://learnline.cdu.edu.au/yolngustudies/index.htm]
* ARDS Rhombuy Dhäwu: Legal English-Yolngu Matha Online Dictionary [http://www.rombuy.com.au/] ]
* Trudgen, Richard, "Why Warriors Lie Down & Die" [http://www.ards.com.au/whywarriors.htm] , ARDS, Darwin, 2000.
* Examples of Yolngu Matha being spoken [http://www.ards.com.au/audio_archive.htm]
* [http://www.abc.net.au/rn/arts/ling/stories/s514879.htm Radio National story]
* Watson, Helen and David Wade Chambers (with the Yolngu community at Yirrkala). "Singing the Land, Signing the Land". Deakin University.
* [http://www.aph.gov.au/Senate/committee/legcon_ctte/crimes_bail_sentencing/submissions/sub12att_b.pdf Madayin Law in Yolngu and English]