The Nyawaygi language, also spelt Nyawaygi, Nywaigi, or Nawagi, is an
extinct
Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...
Australian Aboriginal language that was spoken by the
Nyawaygi people in
North Queensland, on the east coast of
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...
. The Nyawaygi language region includes the landscape within the
Hinchinbrook Regional Council,
Halifax Bay, and
Rollingstone.
Nyawaygi had the smallest number of consonants, 12, of any Australian language. It had 7 conjugations, 3 open and 4 closed, the latter including monosyllabic roots, and, in this regard, conserved a feature of proto-Pama–Nyungan lost from contiguous languages.
Vocabulary
Some words from the Nyawaygi language, as spelt and written by Nyawaygi authors include:
* ''Alu'': head
* ''Angal'': boomerang
* ''Balgan'': stone
* ''Buramu'': butterfly
* ''Gabagan'': aunt
* ''Touca tula'': good day
* ''Wadi'': laugh
* ''Yunggul'': one
Notes
Dyirbalic languages
Extinct languages of Queensland
Languages extinct in the 2000s
2009 disestablishments in Australia
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