Gooniyandi is an
Australian Aboriginal language
The Indigenous languages of Australia number in the hundreds, the precise number being quite uncertain, although there is a range of estimates from a minimum of around 250 (using the technical definition of 'language' as non-mutually intellig ...
now spoken by about 100 people, most of whom live in or near
Fitzroy Crossing Fitzroy or FitzRoy may refer to:
People As a given name
*Several members of the Somerset family ( Dukes of Beaufort) have this as a middle-name:
**FitzRoy Somerset, 1st Baron Raglan (1788–1855)
**Henry Charles FitzRoy Somerset, 8th Duke of Beau ...
in
Western Australia
Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to ...
.
[ Gooniyandi is an ]endangered language
An endangered language or moribund language is a language that is at risk of disappearing as its speakers die out or shift to speaking other languages. Language loss occurs when the language has no more native speakers and becomes a " dead lang ...
as it is not being passed on to children,
Classification
Gooniyandi is closely related to Bunuba
The ''Bunuba'' (also known as Bunaba, Punapa, Punuba) are a group of Indigenous Australians and are one of the traditional owners of the Kimberley region, southern West Kimberley, in Western Australia. Many now live in and around the town of ...
, to about the same degree as English is related to Dutch. The two are the only members of the Bunuban language family. Unlike the majority of Australian Aboriginal languages, Gooniyandi and Bunuba are non-Pama–Nyungan.
Phonology
Gooniyandi has three vowel sounds: /a, i, u/. /a/ has contrastive vowel length.
Orthography
A Gooniyandi alphabet based on the Latin script
The Latin script, also known as Roman script, is an alphabetic writing system based on the letters of the classical Latin alphabet, derived from a form of the Greek alphabet which was in use in the ancient Greece, Greek city of Cumae, in southe ...
was adopted by the community in 1984, and subsequently revised in 1990 and again in 1999.[ It is not ]phonemic
In phonology and linguistics, a phoneme () is a unit of sound that can distinguish one word from another in a particular language.
For example, in most dialects of English, with the notable exception of the West Midlands and the north-wes ...
, as it omits some distinctions made in speech.[
]
Grammar
Gooniyandi has no genders, but a large number of cases; it uses an ergative-absolutive case system. It is a verb-final language, but without a dominant order between the subject and the object.
Notes
References
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External links
Gooniyandi on the Omniglot websiteRosetta Project: Gooniyandi Swadesh ListGooniyandi Aboriginal Corporation
{{Australian Aboriginal languages
Bunuban languages
Kimberley (Western Australia)
Endangered indigenous Australian languages in Western Australia