The Nyulnyulan languages are a small
family
Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...
of closely related
Australian Aboriginal languages spoken in northern
Western Australia
Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...
. Most languages in this family are extinct, with only three extant languages, all of which are almost extinct.
Internal classification
The languages form two branches established on the basis of lexical and morphological innovation.
* Western or Nyulnyulic:
::
Nyulnyul †
::
Bardi
::
Jawi
::
Djabirr-Djabirr †
::
Nimanburru †
* Eastern or Dyukun:
::
Yawuru
The Yawuru, also spelt Jawuru, are an Indigenous Australian people of the Kimberley region of Western Australia.
Language
A Japanese linguist, Hosokawa Kōmei (細川弘明), compiled the first basic dictionary of the Yawuru language in 1988, a ...
::
Dyugun †
::
Warrwa †
::
Nyigina
The Nyikina people (also spelt Nyigina and Nyikena, and listed as Njikena by Tindale) are an Aboriginal Australian people of the Kimberley region of Western Australia.
They come from the lower Fitzroy River (which they call ''mardoowarra''). ...
::
Ngumbarl †
Vocabulary
Capell
Capell or Capel is a surname. Notable people with the name include:
Capell
* Arthur Capell, 1st Baron Capell of Hadham (1608–1649), English politician
* Arthur Capell, 1st Earl of Essex (1631–1683), English statesman
* Arthur Capell (1902–1 ...
(1940) lists the following basic vocabulary items for the Nyulnyulan languages:
[Capell, Arthur. 1940]
The Classification of Languages in North and North-West Australia
''Oceania'' 10(3): 241-272, 404-433.
:
Lexical isoglosses
Some lexical
isoglosses between Proto-Western Nyulnyulan and Proto-Eastern Nyulnyulan:
:
Proto-languages
Proto-Nyulnyulan
The following reconstruction of Proto-Nyulnyulan is from Stokes and McGregor (2003):
[Stokes, Bronwyn and William McGregor. 2003. Classification and Subclassification of the Nyulnyulan Languages. In Nicholas Evans (ed.), ''The non-Pama-Nyungan languages of northern Australia: comparative studies of the continent's most linguistically complex region'', 29-74. Canberra: Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University.]
;Abbreviations
*WNN: Western Nyulnyulan
*ENN: Eastern Nyulnyulan
:
Proto-Western Nyulnyulan
The following reconstruction of Proto-Western Nyulnyulan is from Stokes and McGregor (2003):
:
Proto-Eastern Nyulnyulan
The following reconstruction of Proto-Eastern Nyulnyulan is from Stokes and McGregor (2003):
:
References
* Bowern, Claire. 2004. ''Bardi Verb Morphology in Historical Perspective'' PhD, Harvard University
* Bowern, Claire. 2010.
Two Missing Pieces in a Nyulnyulan Jigsaw Puzzle'. LSA, Baltimore.
*
{{language families
Language families
Non-Pama-Nyungan languages
Indigenous Australian languages in Western Australia