Bungandidj is a language of
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
, spoken by the
Bungandidj people
The Bungandidj people are an Aboriginal Australian people from the Mount Gambier region in south-eastern South Australia, and also in western Victoria. Their language is the Bungandidj language. Bungandidj was historically frequently rendered a ...
,
Indigenous Australian
Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples ...
s who lived in an area which is now in south-eastern
South Australia
South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...
and in south-western
Victoria
Victoria most commonly refers to:
* Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia
* Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada
* Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory
* Victoria, Seychelle ...
. According to
Christina Smith and her book on the Buandig people, the Bungandidj called their language ''drualat-ngolonung'' (speech of man), or ''Booandik-ngolo'' (speech of the Booandik).
[Christina Smith, ]
The Booandik Tribe of South Australian Aborigines: A Sketch of Their Habits, Customs, Legends, and Language
', Spiller, 1880 As of 2017, there is a revival and maintenance programme under way for the language.
Historical variants of the name include: ''Bunganditj'', ''Bungandaetch'', ''Bunga(n)daetcha'', ''Bungandity'', ''Bungandit'', ''Buganditch'', ''Bungaditj'', ''Pungantitj'', ''Pungatitj'', ''Booganitch'', ''Buanditj'', ''Buandik'', ''Booandik'', ''Boandiks'', ''Bangandidj'', ''Bungandidjk'', ''Pungandik'', ''Bak-on-date'', ''Barconedeet'', ''Booandik-ngolo'', ''Borandikngolo'', ''Bunganditjngolo'', and ''Burhwundeirtch.''
Phonology
Bungandidj phonology is typical of Australian languages generally, sharing characteristics such as a single series of stops (no voicing contrast) at six places of articulation, a full corresponding set of nasals, laminals at all four coronal places of articulation and two glides.
Extrapolating from historical written sources and knowledge of surrounding languages, Blake posits the following consonant inventory:
Consonants
Vowels
Notes on orthography
* Early descriptions of Bungandidj made no distinction between the trill/flap /r/ and approximant /ɻ/ and evidence for this contrast is based on comparative evidence only. Blake transcribes both as .
* Although there is no voicing distinction, stops are transcribed with voiced symbols in homorganic nasal-stop clusters (where voicing is expected).
* Syllable-final palatals are transcribed with the digraphs to avoid a final -y being confused with a vowel.
* Historical sources include five vowel graphemes including and , however it is likely that belongs to the /i/ phoneme and belongs to the /o/ phoneme. However, Blake conservatively retains some and segments where they are consistently transcribed in this way across historical sources.
A poem
Smith (1880), on pages 138–139, records a poem written in Bungandidj :
minah bird
Minah Ogbenyealu Bird, (also known as Mynah Bird, 11 March 1950 – July 1995) was a Nigerian model and actress active in the United Kingdom in the 1970s.
Biography
Bird hailed from Aba in Nigeria and was educated in both Nigeria and F ...
.)
References
{{Australian Aboriginal languages
Drual languages
Extinct languages of South Australia
Extinct languages of Victoria (Australia)