#ngarinyin

Linguistic Diversity Challenge Day 4: Ngarinyin

What is the language called in English and the language itself?

It is called Ngarinyin as well as Ungarinyin.

Where is the language spoken?

The language is spoken in north-west Kimberley, Australia.

How many people speak the language? 

It is a nearly extinct language with 12- 50 speakers.

Which language family does it belong to? What are some of its relative languages?

Ngarinyin belongs to the Worrorran languages. Its relative languages are Wunambal & Worrorra. In addition, Ngarinyin is said to be a dialect cluster.

What writing system does it use? 

It uses the Latin script. Some example sentences from the book by Charles are: Abulan ada ngadma  (We are sitting quietly.)  Ari jirri nini iyirri Junbagu  (The man is thinking about Junba.)

What kind of grammatical features does the language have?

Ngarinyin is an OSV and VSO language. It has little affixation, definite articles,  and 8-9 cases. The majority of verbs are of the compound type consisting of a non-finite verbal word + finite auxiliary verb. There are 14 roots on which all compound verbs are based on. Of these, only two are used exclusively in compound verbs, while the rest are used in simple and compound verbs.  Each of these roots occurs only with certain allomorphs of each of the three tense-mode morphemes that mark present indicative, past indicative, and past irrealis optative.

What does the language sound like?

Vowels: It has 5 vowels.

Consonants: And 17 consonants. The wording in Coate & Oates suggested a dental consonant series but Rumsey indicates instead a "laminal pre-palatal" series in which broad laminal contact may extend as far as the back of the teeth. These are interpreted as palatal.

What do you personally find interesting about the language?

What I found interesting were the kinship terms in which the mother’s agnates such as father, sibling or brother’s child are not distinct. The mother’s distant genealogical agnates and distantly-related agnates are referred to in generation-merging ways when talking about inter-clan relationships. Ngarinyin also used to have an avoidance register.

References:

Charles, R.G., Nulgit, P.N, & Treloyn, S. (2019). J is for Junba: A bilingual alphabet book in Ngarinyin language and English (1st ed.). Halls Creek, Western Australia: Kimberley Language Resource Centre.

Coate, H. H. J., & Oates, L. F. (1970). A grammar of Ngarinjin, Western Australia. Canberra: Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies.

Rumsey, A. (1982). An intra-sentence grammar of Ungarinjin, north-western Australia. Canberra: Dept. of Linguistics, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University.

Rumsey, A. (January 01, 1981). Kinship and context among the Ngarinyin. Oceania -- 1981; 51(3); 181-192 -- Bibl.; Diags.