The Nyawaygi language, also spelt Nyawaygi, Nywaigi, or Nawagi, is an
extinct Australian Aboriginal
Aboriginal Australians are the various Indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, such as Tasmania, Fraser Island, Hinchinbrook Island, the Tiwi Islands, and Groote Eylandt, but excluding the Torres Strait Isl ...
language that was spoken by the
Nyawaygi people in
North Queensland
North Queensland or the Northern Region is the northern part of the Australian state of Queensland that lies just south of Far North Queensland. Queensland is a massive state, larger than many countries, and its tropical northern part has been ...
, on the east coast of
Australia. The Nyawaygi language region includes the landscape within the
Hinchinbrook Regional Council,
Halifax Bay
Halifax Bay is a region located around a bay in the Coral Sea, situated on the Australian coast in Far North Queensland. It is bordered by the town of Ingham to the north, city of Townsville to the south and Great Palm Island off the coast to ...
, and
Rollingstone.
Nyawaygi had the smallest number of consonants, 12, of any Australian language. It had 7 conjugations, 3 open and 4 closed, the latter including monosyllabic roots, and, in this regard, conserved a feature of proto-Pama–Nyungan lost from contiguous languages.
Vocabulary
Some words from the Nyawaygi language, as spelt and written by Nyawaygi authors include:
* ''Alu'': head
* ''Angal'': boomerang
* ''Balgan'': stone
* ''Buramu'': butterfly
* ''Gabagan'': aunt
* ''Touca tula'': good day
* ''Wadi'': laugh
* ''Yunggul'': one
Notes
Dyirbalic languages
Extinct languages of Queensland
Languages extinct in the 2000s
2009 disestablishments in Australia
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