Kabi Kabi, also spelt Gabi-Gabi/Gubbi Gubbi, is a language of
Queensland in Australia, formerly spoken by the
Kabi Kabi people
The Gubbi Gubbi people also known as Kabi Kabi are an Aboriginal Australian people native to south-eastern Queensland. They are now classified as one of several Murri language groups in Queensland.
Naming
As is often the case, ethnonyms dis ...
of
South-east Queensland. The main dialect, Kabi Kabi, is
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 ...
, but there are still 24 people with knowledge of the Butchulla dialect (also spelt Batjala, Batyala, Badjala, and variants), a language spoken by the
Butchulla people of
Fraser Island.
Words
According to
Norman Tindale (1974), the word Kabi (
kabi Kabi or KABI may refer to:
Places
* Kabi Longstok, town in North Sikkim district, Sikkim, India
* Kabi, Sikkim, village in North Sikkim district, Sikkim, India
* Kabi River (''Kafu River''), river in Uganda
People
* Boris Kabi (born 1984), Ivorian ...
, means "no".
[
"Wunya ngulum" means "Welcome, everyone" in Kabi Kabi/Gabi-Gabi.
]
Language status
The main dialect is extinct, but there were still 24 people with knowledge of the Batjala dialect (a language spoken by the Butchulla people of Fraser Island) as of the 2016 Australian census
The 2016 Australian census was the 17th national population census held in Australia. The census was officially conducted with effect on Tuesday, 9 August 2016. The total population of the Commonwealth of Australia was counted as – an incre ...
.
Phonology
The following is in the Badjala/Butchulla dialect:
Consonants
* /n̪/ is always heard as palatal �when preceding /i/, and in word-final position.
* /d̪/ can be heard in free variation with palatal �
* /b d̪ ɡ/ can have lenited allophones � ð ɣin intervocalic positions.
* /ɻ/ has a lateral allophone of �when preceding /b/.
* /ɡ/ is often slightly palatalised as �ʲbefore /i/.
Vowels
* can sometimes be heard as before .
* can be heard as when preceding an intervocalic .[Bell, Jeanie P. (2003)]
References
External links
Bibliography of Gabi Gabi people and language resources
at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
Heritage of Kabi Kabi people - Sunshine Coast Tourism Information Centre
Waka–Kabic languages
Extinct languages of Queensland
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