Guugu Yimithirr language

Guugu Yimithirr language

language
name=Guugu Yimithirr
familycolor=Australian
region=Hopevale, Queensland
speakers=200–300
fam1=Pama-Nyungan
script=Latin alphabet
iso2=aus
iso3=kky

Guugu Yimithirr (many other spellings; see below) is an Australian Aboriginal language, the traditional language of the Guugu Yimithirr people of Far North Queensland. Most of the speakers today live at a mission at Hopevale.

Name

The word "guugu" means "speech, language", while "yimithirr" (or "yumuthirr") means "yimi"-having, "yimi" being the word for "this". The use of the word "yi(mi)", rather than some other word for "this", was seen as a distinctive feature of Guugu Yimithirr. The element "guugu" and the practice of naming based on some distinctive word is found in many other languages.

The name has many spelling variants, including Gogo-Yimidjir, Gugu-Yimidhirr, Gugu Yimithirr, Guugu Yimidhirr, Guguyimidjir (used by Ethnologue), Gugu Yimijir, Kukuyimidir, Koko Imudji, Koko Yimidir, Kuku Jimidir, Kuku Yimithirr, and Kuku Yimidhirr.

Geographic distribution

The stops are usually voiceless and unaspirated initially and after short vowels, and voiced after consonants and long vowels.

The retroflexes IPA| [ɖ ɳ] may not be single phonemes, but clusters of IPA|/ɻd ɻn/. However, there is at least one word which, for older speakers, is pronounced with a word-initial retroflex: "run", which is IPA| [ɖudaː] or IPA| [ɖuɖaː] .

The rhotic IPA|/r/ is normally a flap IPA| [ɾ] , but may be a trill in emphatic speech.

Phonotactics

All words, with the exception of a couple of interjections, begin with one consonant. The consonant can be a stop, nasal, or semivowel (that is, IPA|/l r ɻ/ do not occur initially).

Words can end in either a vowel or a consonant. The allowed word-final consonants are IPA|/l r ɻ j n n̪/.

Within words, any consonant can occur, as well as clusters of up to three consonants, which cannot occur initially or finally.

Grammar

Like many Australian languages, Guugu Yimithirr pronouns have accusative morphology while other nouns have ergative morphology. That is, the subject of an intransitive verb has the same form as the subject of a transitive verb if the subject is a pronoun, but the same form as object of a transitive verb otherwise.

Regardless of whether nouns or pronouns are used, the usual sentence order is Subject Object Verb, although other word orders are possible.

References

*cite book |last=Banks |first=Joseph |authorlink=Joseph Banks |year=1962 |editor=J. C. Beaglehole |title=The Endeavour journal of Joseph Banks, 1768-1771
*cite journal |last=Breen |first=Gavan |authorlink=Gavan Breen |year=1970 |title=A re-examination of Cook's Gogo-Yimidjir word list |journal=Oceania |volume=41 |issue=1 |pages=28–38
*cite book |last=Cook |first=James |authorlink=James Cook |year=1955 |title=The Journals of Captain James Cook |location=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press
*cite book |last=Dixon |first=R. M. W. |authorlink=R. M. W. Dixon |year=2002 |title=Australian Languages: Their Nature and Development |location=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |url=http://www.cambridge.org/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=0521473780
*cite journal |last=Haviland |first=John B. |authorlink=John B. Haviland |year=1974 |title=A last look at Cook's Guugu-Yimidhirr wordlist |journal=Oceania |volume=44 |issue=3 |pages=216–232
*cite book|last=Haviland |first=John B. |authorlink=John B. Haviland |year=1979 |chapter=Guugu Yimidhirr Sketch Grammar |editor=R. M. W. Dixon and B. Blake |title=Handbook of Australian Languages Vol I |pages=26–180
*cite journal |last=Haviland |first=John B. |authorlink=John B. Haviland |year=1985 |title=The life history of a speech community: Guugu Yimidhirr at Hopevale |journal=Aboriginal History |volume=8 |number=7 |pages=170–204
*cite journal |author=Richard Phillips |coauthors=Sidney H. Ray |year=1898 |title=Vocabulary of Australian Aborigines in the neighbourhood of Cooktown, North Queensland |journal=The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland |volume=27 |pages=144–147 |doi=10.2307/2842861
*cite book |last=Roth |first=Walter E. |authorlink=Walter E. Roth |year=1901 |title=The structure of the Koko-Yimidir language |location=Brisbane |publisher=Government Printer
*cite book |last=Schwarz |first=G. H. |authorlink=George Heinrich Schwarz |year=1946 |title=Order of service and hymns |location=Brisbane |publisher=Watson, Ferguson
*cite book |last=de Zwaan |first=Jan Daniel |year=1969 |title=A preliminary analysis of Gogo-Yimidjir |location=Canberra |publisher=Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies
*cite journal |last=de Zwaan |first=Jan Daniel |year=1969 |title=Two studies in Gogo-Yimidjir |journal=Oceania |volume=39 |issue=3 |pages=198–217

External links

* [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=kky Ethnologue report for language code:kky]
* [http://www.fatsil.org/LOTM/aug97.htm Cape York and Gulf Indigenous Languages Program]
* [http://www.geocities.com/Athens/9479/guugu.html Australia Aboriginal Languages]
* [https://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/correspondence/bulletins/2005/february/sample/2005indvicsample.pdf Guugu Yimithirr exercises (page 2)] .


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