Adnyamathanha language
| Adnyamathanha | |
|---|---|
| Region | South Australia |
|
Native speakers
|
110 (2006 census) |
|
Pama–Nyungan
|
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | Either: adt – Adnyamathanha gvy – Guyani |
| Glottolog |
adny1235 (Adnyamathanha)guya1249 (Guyani)
|
| AIATSIS |
L10 Adnyamathanha, L9 Kuyani |
Adnyamathanha (pronounced /ˈɑːdnjəmʌdənə/; many other names, see below) or yura ngarwala is an Australian Aboriginal language. It is the traditional language of the Adnyamathanha people.
The name of the witchetty grub comes from Adnyamathanha.
Estimates of the number of people who speak Adnyamathanha are variable, though it is definitely severely endangered. According to Oates 1973 there were only 30 speakers, around 20 according to Schmidt in 1990, 127 in the 1996 census, and about 107 counted in the 2006 census.
Yura ngarwala is a widely used term for the Adnyamathanha language. It translates literally to 'people speak'. However, in modern times yura has come to mean 'Adnyamathanha person', rather than 'person' generally, and thus the term translates to 'Adnyamathanha person speak'.
This language has been known by many names and variants of names, including:
Guyani is also spelled Kijani, Kuyani, Kwiani.
R. M. W. Dixon classifies Adnyamathanha and Guyani as a single language. Ethnologue treats them as separate, and so they each have their own ISO 639-3 codes.
Adjnjamathanha and Guyani have the same phonemic inventory.
Most of the nasals and laterals are allophonically prestopped.
[v] may be an allophone of /p/.
While the closely related Guyani retains word-initial stops, Adnyamathanha has undergone systematic lenition of stops in this position. Former *p has become [v], former *t̪ and probably also *c have become /j/, and former *k has disappeared entirely.
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