Kundjeyhmi (spelt Gundjeihmi until 2015)
is a dialect of
Bininj Kunwok
Bininj Kunwok is an Australian Aboriginal language which includes six dialects: Kunwinjku (formerly Gunwinggu), Kuninjku, Kundjeyhmi (formerly Gundjeihmi), Manyallaluk Mayali (Mayali), Kundedjnjenghmi, and two varieties of Kune (Kune Dulerayek a ...
, 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 ...
.
The
Aboriginal people
Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...
who speak Kundjeyhmi are
Bininj
The Bininj are an Aboriginal Australian people of Western Arnhem land in the Northern Territory. The sub-groups of Bininj are sometimes referred to by the various language dialects spoken in the region, that is, the group of dialects known as Bi ...
people, who live primarily in
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 l ...
. Kundjeyhmi is considered an endangered dialect, with young speakers increasingly switching to English,
Aboriginal English,
Kunwinjku
The Kunwinjku (formerly written Gunwinggu) people are an Australian Aboriginal people, one of several groups within the Bininj people, who live around West Arnhem Land to the east of Darwin, Northern Territory. Kunwinjku people generally refer t ...
and
Australian Kriol
Australian Kriol is an English-based creole languages, English-based creole language that developed from a pidgin used initially in the region of Sydney and Newcastle, New South Wales, Newcastle in New South Wales, Australia, in the early day ...
.
Kundjeyhmi has a number of lexical and grammatical features that differ from the larger Kunwinjku and
Kuninjku dialects.
In June 2015, the then Gundjeihmi dialect group officially adopted standard Kunwinjku orthography, meaning it would in future be spelt ''Kundjeyhmi''.
[
]
References
Further reading
* , 2 volumes
External links
Gundjeihmi Aboriginal Corporation
*
Kundjeyhmi dictionary applicationBininj Kunwok online dictionaryBibliography of Gundjeihmi people and language resources
at AIATSIS
Gunwinyguan languages
Arnhem Land
Indigenous Australian languages in the Northern Territory
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