The Kuku Nyungkal dialect (also written Kuku Nyungkul, Kuku Njunggal, Guugu Nyungkul, Gugu Njunggal, Kuku Njungkul,Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Studies "Gugu Nyungkul language (Y90) (Qld SD55-13)" Language and People Thesaurus webpage
Accessed 21 January 2011 Kuku Ngungkal) 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 ...

and the language of the

Kuku Nyungkal people The Kuku Nyungkal people (or Annan River Tribe) are a group of Australian Aborigines, Aboriginal Australians who are the original custodians of the coastal mountain slopes, Wet Tropics of Queensland, wet tropical forests, waters, and waterfalls ...

Far North Queensland Far North Queensland (FNQ) is the northernmost part of the Australian state of Queensland. Its largest city is Cairns and it is dominated geographically by Cape York Peninsula, which stretches north to the Torres Strait, and west to the Gulf C ...

. It is a variety of

Kuku Yalanji The Kuku Yalanji, also known as Gugu-Yalanji, Kuku Yalandji or Kokojelandji, are an Aboriginal Australian people originating from the rainforest regions of Far North Queensland. Language The traditional language of the people is Guugu Yaland ...

still being spoken (though by fewer people than speak Kuku Yalanji itself).Hershberger, Henry & Hershberger Ruth (1986) "''Kuku Yalanji Dictionary'' Summer Institute of Linguistics. Darwin"
Accessed 21 January 2010 Most of the speakers today live in the communities of

Wujal Wujal Wujal Wujal is a rural town and locality in the Wujal Wujal Aboriginal Shire, Queensland, Australia. In the , Wujal Wujal had a population of 282 people. It is an Aboriginal community. The community of Wujal Wujal is located in the Cape York r ...

and Mossman. The UNESCO ''

Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger The UNESCO ''Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger'' is an online publication containing a comprehensive list of the world's endangered languages. It originally replaced the ''Red Book of Endangered Languages'' as a title in print after a ...

'' includes Kuku Nyungkal language as part of a larger Kuku Yalanji languages listing, identifying and listing all the Kuku Yalanji languages as a whole as being "severely endangered".UNESCO "Interactive Atlas" UNESCO Atlas of the Worlds languages in danger webpage
Accessed 23 January 2011 , Kuku Ngungkal is one of 20 languages prioritised as part of the Priority Languages Support Project, being undertaken by First Languages Australia and funded by the

Department of Communications and the Arts The Australian Department of Communications and the Arts was a department of the Government of Australia charged with responsibility for communications policy and programs and cultural affairs. In December 2019, prime minister Scott Morrison ...

. The project aims to "identify and document critically-endangered languages — those languages for which little or no documentation exists, where no recordings have previously been made, but where there are living speakers".

Phonology

Vowels

Kuku Nyungkal has three

vowel A vowel is a syllabic speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness and also in quantity (leng ...

s as follows:

Consonants

Kuku Nyungkal has thirteen

consonant In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are and pronounced with the lips; and pronounced with the front of the tongue; and pronounced wit ...

s as follows: All are pronounced as they would be in English, with the rr used for a rolled r, as in the Scottish r.

References

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