Bungandidj is a language of

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, spoken by the Bungandidj people, Indigenous Australians who lived in an area which is now in south-eastern South Australia and in south-western Victoria. According to Christina Smith and her book on the Buandig people, the Bungandidj called their language ''drualat-ngolonung'' (speech of man), or ''Booandik-ngolo'' (speech of the Booandik).Christina Smith,
The Booandik Tribe of South Australian Aborigines: A Sketch of Their Habits, Customs, Legends, and Language
', Spiller, 1880 As of 2017, there is a revival and maintenance programme under way for the language. Historical variants of the name include: ''Bunganditj'', ''Bungandaetch'', ''Bunga(n)daetcha'', ''Bungandity'', ''Bungandit'', ''Buganditch'', ''Bungaditj'', ''Pungantitj'', ''Pungatitj'', ''Booganitch'', ''Buanditj'', ''Buandik'', ''Booandik'', ''Boandiks'', ''Bangandidj'', ''Bungandidjk'', ''Pungandik'', ''Bak-on-date'', ''Barconedeet'', ''Booandik-ngolo'', ''Borandikngolo'', ''Bunganditjngolo'', and ''Burhwundeirtch.''

Phonology

Bungandidj phonology is typical of Australian languages generally, sharing characteristics such as a single series of stops (no voicing contrast) at six places of articulation, a full corresponding set of nasals, laminals at all four coronal places of articulation and two glides. Extrapolating from historical written sources and knowledge of surrounding languages, Blake posits the following consonant inventory:

Consonants

Vowels

Notes on orthography

* Early descriptions of Bungandidj made no distinction between the trill/flap /r/ and approximant /ɻ/ and evidence for this contrast is based on comparative evidence only. Blake transcribes both as . * Although there is no voicing distinction, stops are transcribed with voiced symbols in homorganic nasal-stop clusters (where voicing is expected). * Syllable-final palatals are transcribed with the digraphs to avoid a final -y being confused with a vowel. * Historical sources include five vowel graphemes including and , however it is likely that belongs to the /i/ phoneme and belongs to the /o/ phoneme. However, Blake conservatively retains some and segments where they are consistently transcribed in this way across historical sources.

A poem

Smith (1880), on pages 138–139, records a poem written in Bungandidj : (Fly beetle, bat, night) (Fly, march-fly, beetle) (parrot, little parrot.) ( wattle bird,) ( minah bird.)

References

{{Australian Aboriginal languages Drual languages Extinct languages of South Australia Extinct languages of Victoria (Australia)