Iwaidja, in
phonemic
In phonology and linguistics, a phoneme () is a unit of sound that can distinguish one word from another in a particular language.
For example, in most dialects of English, with the notable exception of the West Midlands and the north-west ...
spelling ''Iwaja'', is 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 ...
of the
Iwaidja people with about 123 native, with an extra 20 to 30 L2 speakers in northernmost Australia. Historically having come from the base of the
Cobourg Peninsula, it is now spoken on
Croker Island. It is still being learnt by children within the Northern Territory.
Phonology
Consonants
Iwaidja has the following 20 consonants.
:Note: The postalveolar lateral and lateral flap are rare, and it cannot be ruled out that they are sequences of and . The plosives are
allophonically voiced, and are often written .
Vowels
Iwaidja has three vowels, /a, i, u/. The following table shows the allophones of these vowels as described by Pym and Larrimore.
[Pym, Noreen, and Bonnie Larrimore. Papers on Iwaidja phonology and grammar. Series A Vol. 2., 1979.]
Morphophonemics
Iwaidja has extensive
morphophonemic
Morphophonology (also morphophonemics or morphonology) is the branch of linguistics that studies the interaction between morphological and phonological or phonetic processes. Its chief focus is the sound changes that take place in morphemes ...
alternation. For example, body parts occur with possessive prefixes, and these alter the first consonant in the root:
Both the words ''arm'' and ''to be sick'' originally started with an /m/, as shown in related languages such as
Maung. The pronominal prefix for ''it, its'' altered the first consonant of the root. In Iwaidja, this form extended to the masculine and feminine, so that gender distinctions were lost, and the prefix disappeared, leaving only the
consonant mutation
Consonant mutation is change in a consonant in a word according to its morphological or syntactic environment.
Mutation occurs in languages around the world. A prototypical example of consonant mutation is the initial consonant mutation of all ...
—a situation perhaps unique in Australia, but not unlike that of the
Celtic languages
The Celtic languages (usually , but sometimes ) are a group of related languages descended from Proto-Celtic. They form a branch of the Indo-European language family. The term "Celtic" was first used to describe this language group by Edward ...
.
Semantics
The Iwaidja languages are nearly unique among the languages of the world in using verbs for
kin terms. Nouns are used for direct address, but transitive verbs in all other cases. In English something similar is done in special cases: ''he fathered a child; she mothers him too much.'' But these do not indicate social relationships in English. For example, ''he fathered a child'' says nothing about whether he is the man the child calls "father". An Iwaidja speaker, on the other hand, says ''I nephew her'' to mean "she is my aunt". Because these are verbs, they can be inflected for
tense. In the case of in-laws, this is equivalent to ''my ex-wife'' or ''the bride-to-be'' in English. However, with blood relations, past can only mean that the person has died, and future only that they are yet to be born.
Alternative names
* ''Yibadjdja'' (
Kunwinjku exonym
An endonym (from Greek: , 'inner' + , 'name'; also known as autonym) is a common, ''native'' name for a geographical place, group of people, individual person, language or dialect, meaning that it is used inside that particular place, group ...
).
Notes
References
* Nicholas Evans, 2000. "Iwaidjan, a very un-Australian language family." In ''Linguistic Typology'' 4, 91-142. Mouton de Gruyter.
External links
AuSIL's Iwaidja dictionary (available from Iwaidja to English and English to Iwaidja)DOBES documentation of endangered languages, IwaidjaOLAC resources in and about the Iwaidja languageCrowd-sourcing and Language documentation: Ma! Iwaidja phrasebook and dictionary iPhone App
{{DEFAULTSORT:Iwaidja Language
Iwaidjan languages