Gaagudju (also spelt Gagadu, Gaguju, and Kakadu) is an Australian Aboriginal language spoken in the environs of

Kakadu National Park Kakadu National Park is a protected area in the Northern Territory of Australia, southeast of Darwin. It is a World Heritage Site. Kakadu is also gazetted as a locality, covering the same area as the national park, with 313 people recorded liv ...

, in Arnhem Land,

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory shares its borders with Western Aust ...

, Australia.

Country and status

Explorer Baldwin Spencer incorrectly ascribed the name "Kakadu tribe" to all of the people living in the

Alligator Rivers Alligator Rivers is the name of an area in an Arnhem Land region of the Northern Territory of Australia, containing three rivers, the East, West, and South Alligator Rivers. It is regarded as one of the richest biological regions in Australia, ...

area, but Gaagudju was confined to the plains South and East Alligator Rivers. The language is classed as extinct, since its last fluent speaker,

Big Bill Neidjie Big Bill Neidjie ( – 23 May 2002), nicknamed "Kakadu Man", was the last surviving speaker of the Gaagudju language, an Aboriginal Australian language from northern Kakadu, after which Kakadu National Park is named. He was an elder of the Gaa ...

, died on 23 May 2002; AUSTLANG's sources recorded no speakers between 1975 and 2016.

Classification

Gaagudju has traditionally been classified with the

Gunwinyguan languages The Gunwinyguan languages (Gunwinjguan, Gunwingguan), also core Gunwinyguan or Gunwinyguan proper, are a possible branch of a large language family of Australian Aboriginal languages in Arnhem Land, northern Australia. The most populous languag ...

. However, in 1997

Nicholas Evans Nicholas Benbow Evans (26 July 1950 – 9 August 2022) was a British journalist, screenwriter, television and film producer and novelist. Biography Nicholas Benbow Evans was born in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, son of Anthony Evans, director of ...

proposed an Arnhem Land family that includes Gaagudju.

Phonology

Vowels

Consonants

Vocabulary

Capell Capell or Capel is a surname. Notable people with the name include: Capell * Arthur Capell, 1st Baron Capell of Hadham (1608–1649), English politician * Arthur Capell, 1st Earl of Essex (1631–1683), English statesman * Arthur Capell (1902–1 ...

(1942) lists the following basic vocabulary items:Capell, Arthur. 1941-1942, 1942-1943
Languages of Arnhem Land, North Australia
''Oceania'' 12: 364-392, 13: 24-51. :

References

External links

AusAnthrop Australian Aboriginal tribal database
{{Authority control Extinct languages of the Northern Territory Macro-Gunwinyguan languages Language isolates of Australia Languages extinct in the 2000s