- Gooniyandi language
Infobox Language
name=Gooniyandi
region=Western Australia
speakers=100
familycolor=Australian
fam1=Bunuban
script=Latin alphabet
iso2=aus
iso3=gniGooniyandi is an Australian Aboriginal language now spoken by about 100 people, most of whom live in or near
Fitzroy Crossing inWestern Australia . Gooniyandi is anendangered language as it is not being passed on to children, who instead grow up speaking Kriol.Classification
Gooniyandi is closely related to Bunuba, to about the same degree as English is related to Dutch. The two are the only members of the Bunuban language family. Unlike the majority of Australian Aboriginal languages, Gooniyandi and Bunuba are non-Pama-Nyungan.
Writing system
A system of spelling Gooniyandi in the
Latin alphabet was adopted by the community in 1984, and subsequently revised in 1990 and again in 1999. It is not phonemic, as it omits some distinctions made in speech.Grammar
Gooniyandi has no genders, but a large number of cases; it uses an
ergative-absolutive case system. It is a verb-final language, but without a dominant order between the subject and the object.References
*cite book |last=McGregor |first=William |year=1990 |title=A Functional Grammar of Gooniyandi |location=Amsterdam |publisher=John Benjamins
*cite book |last=McGregor |first=William |year=1994 |chapter=Gooniyandi |editor=Nick Thieberger & William McGregor |title=Macquarie Aboriginal Words |publisher=The Macquarie Library |pages=193–213
*cite book |last=McGregor |first=William |year=2004 |title=The Languages of the Kimberley, Western Australia |location=London, New York |publisher=Taylor & Francis
*cite book|author=M Haspelmath, M S Dryer, D Gil, B Comrie|title=The World Atlas of Language Structures|year=2005|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=OxfordExternal links
* [http://www.rosettaproject.org/archive/gni Gooniyandi at the Rosetta project]
* [http://www.omniglot.com/writing/gooniyandi.php Gooniyandi on the Omniglot website]
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