The Gunaikurnai or Gunai/Kurnai ( ) language, also spelt Gunnai, Kurnai, Ganai, Gaanay, or Kurnay ) is an

Australian Aboriginal Aboriginal Australians are the various indigenous peoples of the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland and many of its islands, excluding the ethnically distinct people of the Torres Strait Islands. Humans first migrated to Australia (co ...

dialect cluster A dialect is a variety of language spoken by a particular group of people. This may include dominant and standardized varieties as well as vernacular, unwritten, or non-standardized varieties, such as those used in developing countries or iso ...

of the

Gunaikurnai people The Kurnai () people Aboriginal Australian nation of south-east Australia. They are the Traditional Custodians of most of present-day Gippsland and much of the southern slopes of the Victorian Alps. The Kurnai nation is composed of five major ...

Gippsland Gippsland () is a rural region in the southeastern part of Victoria, Australia, mostly comprising the coastal plains south of the Victorian Alps (the southernmost section of the Great Dividing Range). It covers an elongated area of east of th ...

in south-east

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India * Victoria (state), a state of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital * Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...

Bidawal The Bidawal (also known as Bidhawal and Bidwell) were an Australian Aboriginal tribe of Gippsland, Victoria. According to Alfred William Howitt, the Bidawal were composed of "refugees from tribes". Language Country Bidawal land, basically to ...

was either a divergent dialect or a closely related language.

Varieties

means 'man'. The language had no traditional name, but each of its dialects was referred to separately. In a 1996 report to the

Victorian Aboriginal Corporation for Languages Aboriginal Victorians, the Aboriginal Australians of Victoria, Australia, occupied the land for tens of thousands of years prior to European settlement. Aboriginal people have lived a semi-nomadic existence of fishing, hunting and gathering an ...

, Clark refers to five Gunaikurnai dialects: ''Brabralung'', ''Braiakalung'', ''Brataualung'', ''Krauatungalung'' and ''Tatungalung''. * ( = man, = belonging to) located in central Gippsland. * ( = Man, = west, = belonging to) located around Sale through to the mountains. * (men belonging to this place which have fire; = men, or = fire, = belonging to) located in

South Gippsland South Gippsland, a region of Gippsland in Victoria, Australia, is a well-watered region consisting of low, rolling hills descending to the coast in the south and the Latrobe Valley in the north. It is part of the larger Gippsland Basin bioreg ...

. * ( = east, = belonging to) located eastwards to the

Snowy River The Snowy River is a major river in south-eastern Australia. It originates on the slopes of Mount Kosciuszko, Australia's highest mainland peak, draining the eastern slopes of the Snowy Mountains in New South Wales, before flowing through the ...

. * ( = sea, = belonging to) located in the coast area between Lake King and

Lake Wellington The Gippsland Lakes are a network of coastal lakes, marshes and lagoons in East Gippsland, Victoria, Australia covering an overall area of about between the rural towns of Lakes Entrance, Bairnsdale and Sale. The largest of the lakes are ...

. Gunaikurnai dialects have been confused with Muk-thang/

; there appear to be two distinct languages here, but it is not clear which variety belongs to which, as they both share the name .

Revival

Since the early 1990s, the

(VACL) organisation, established the Yirruk-Tinnor Gunnai/Kŭrnai language program which focused on reviving and reclaiming the Gunnai language of

. Doris Paton, Coordinator of the Program and Lynnette Solomon-Dent, Language worker and consultant are involved in the program. They have been responsible for developing a number of resource materials to support and educate further knowledge of the Gunnai language and Culture. Lynnette Solomon-Dent co-wrote with Christina Eira the VACL Linguist, the

Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority The Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA) is a statutory authority of the Victoria State Government The Victoria State Government, also referred to as the Victorian Government, is the executive government of the Australia ...

(VCAA) ''Aboriginal Languages, cultures and reclamation in Victorian schools:'' standards P-10 and protocols and were involved in the VCE Revival and Reclamation Study. These teaching documents and resources are collectively used to educate school aged children P-10, VCE, higher learning institutions and the Aboriginal community members, to further their knowledge and allow community members to continue to educate future generations. Gunaikurnai was featured in a stage performance for the first known time in 2021, when

Veronica Gorrie Veronica Gorrie (born 1971/1972), also known as Veronica Heritage-Gorrie, is an Aboriginal Australian writer. She is a Gunai woman of the Krauatungalang clan. Her first book, ''Black and Blue: A Memoir of Racism and Resilience'', a memoir ref ...

's play "Nullung" ("paternal grandmother") was presented as a play reading by the

Melbourne Theatre Company The Melbourne Theatre Company is a theatre company based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1953 as the Union Theatre Repertory Company at the Union Theatre at the University of Melbourne, it is the oldest professional theatre com ...

Phonology

Like other

Victorian languages Aboriginal Victorians, the Aboriginal Australians of Victoria, Australia, occupied the land for tens of thousands of years prior to European settlement. Aboriginal people have lived a semi-nomadic existence of fishing, hunting and gathering an ...

, Gunaikurnai allowed initial in its words. However, it also allowed initial , and well as the clusters () and (). This is quite unusual for an Australian language, and the same pattern was found in the

Tasmanian languages The Tasmanian languages were the languages indigenous to the island of Tasmania, used by Aboriginal Tasmanians. The languages were last used for daily communication in the 1830s, although the terminal speaker, Fanny Cochrane Smith, survived u ...

across

Bass Strait Bass Strait () is a strait separating the island state of Tasmania from the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland (more specifically the coast of Victoria (Australia), Victoria, with the exception of the land border across Boundary Islet). The ...

Consonants

Hercus (1969), states that plosives are conditionally voiced., citing Fesl also excludes in her thesis but notes that its absence may be due to a lack of data.

Vowels

and are said to occur less than , , and .

Possible placenames

A number of placenames in Gunaikurnai country feature the ending , meaning "place".

Notes

References

* * * * * * {{Pama–Nyungan languages, East Gippsland languages Extinct languages of Victoria (state) Gunaikurnai