The Macro-Gunwinyguan languages, also called Arnhem or Gunwinyguan, are a family of

Australian Aboriginal languages 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 ...

spoken across eastern

Arnhem Land Arnhem Land is a historical region of the Northern Territory of Australia, with the term still in use. It is located in the north-eastern corner of the territory and is around from the territory capital, Darwin. In 1623, Dutch East India Compa ...

in northern Australia. Their relationship has been demonstrated through shared morphology in their verbal inflections. Many of the languages have a fortis–lenis contrast in plosive consonants. Lenis/short plosives have weak contact and intermittent voicing, while fortis/long plosives have full closure, a more powerful release burst, and no voicing.

Languages

Rebecca Green (2004) reconstructed the paradigms of 28 Proto-Arnhem verbs. The languages included by Green are as follows, though Green only accepts Maningrida as a demonstrated branch: *

Maningrida Maningrida, also known as Manayingkarírra and Manawukan, is an Aboriginal community in the heart of the Arnhem Land region of Australia's Northern Territory. Maningrida is east of Darwin, and north east of Jabiru. It is on the North Central ...

** Burarra ** Guragone ** Djeebbana ** Nakkara *? East Arnhem: ** Nunggubuyu **

Ngandi The Ngandi were an indigenous Australian people of the Northern Territory. The Ngandji are another tribe, and the two are not to be confused. Country The Ngandi's lands, some 1,500 sq-miles in extent, encompassed the area around the upper Wil ...

** Anindilyakwa (Enindhilyagwa)* *? Marran: ** Marra ** Warndarang † **? Yugul † **? Alawa* **?

Mangarayi The Mangarayi, also written Mangarai, were an indigenous Australian people of the Northern Territory. Language Mangarayi is thought to be one of the Gunwingguan languages. Francesca Merlan published a grammar of the language in 1982, one that i ...

† * Kungarakany † * Gaagudju † *?

Gunwinyguan The Macro-Gunwinyguan languages, also called Arnhem or Gunwinyguan, are a family of Australian Aboriginal languages spoken across eastern Arnhem Land in northern Australia. Their relationship has been demonstrated through shared morphology i ...

(Gunwinyguan proper) **Gunwinggic: *** Kunwinjku (Gunwinggu, Bininj Kunwok) *** Gunbarlang † ** Jawoyn (Djauan) ** Dalabon (Ngalkbun) † **Jala (Rembarngic): *** Rembarunga ***

Ngalakgan The Ngalakgan are an indigenous Australian people of the Northern Territory. Language Ngalakgan is generally classified as a member of the Gunwinyguan family. Country Ngalakgan territory covered an estimated , north of the Roper River as far a ...

† **Warrayic: † *** Waray *** Uwinymil This is close to what Evans (1997) proposed under the name Gunwinyguan (cf. his very different proposal of '' Arnhem Land languages''.) Marra, Warndarrang, Alawa, and Mangarrayi have been argued to constitute a Marran family of considerable time depth (Sharpe 2008). Heath (1990) demonstrated an East Arnhem family of Ngandi + Nunggubuyu, to which Enindhilyagwa was added (as a closer relative to Nunggubuyu) by Van Egmond (2012).Van Egmond, M-E. (2012). "Enindhilyakwa phonology, morphosyntax and genetic position." Doctoral thesis. University of Sydney. pp. 314–70. Bowern, C. (2017). "Language isolates of Australia." in Campbell, L., ed. ''Language Isolates''. Abingdon: Routledge: 323–43 However, Green (2003) argues that only Maningrida has been established as a valid subgroup, and that the interrelationships of the other languages are as yet unclear. The evidence for Gunwinyguan and perhaps other nodes listed above may simply be reflections of a relationship of all Arnhem languages when only a subset of them was investigated. That is, these groups may be based on shared retentions of Proto-Arnhem rather than distinct historical developments. (However, in reviewing Green, Evans pointed out that much of the Maningrida morphology was also shared by Mangarrayi.) An agnostic view of the family would list each language separately, except for the established Maningrida branch: : Kungarakany, Mangarrayi, Marra,

, Bininj Kunwok (Gunwinggu), Warndarrang, Uwinymil, Gaagudju, Dalabon, Kunbarlang, Rembarrnga, Nunggubuyu, Jawoyn,

Warray The Awarai (Warray) are an indigenous Australian people of the Northern Territory. Language The Norwegian explorer Knut Dahl wrote down a short list of vocabulary of the Awarai language. Country The Awarai tribal lands took in some of territ ...

*Green does not address Anindilyakwa, Alawa, or Yugul. Yugul is too poorly attested for comparison based on her methods; the other two await validation. Yangmanic, including Wardaman, had once been included in Gunwinyguan, but has been removed from recent classifications.

External classification

Evans Evans may refer to: People *Evans (surname) * List of people with surname Evans Places United States *Evans Island, an island of Alaska * Evans, Colorado *Evans, Georgia *Evans County, Georgia *Evans, New York *Evans Mills, New York *Evans Cit ...

(1997) proposes that these languages are related to Pama–Nyungan in a family he calls Macro-Pama–Nyungan, but this has not yet been demonstrated.McConvell, Patrick and Nicholas Evans. (eds.) 1997. ''Archaeology and Linguistics: Global Perspectives on Ancient Australia.'' Melbourne:

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print book ...

In 2003, he proposed that they are also related to the

Eastern Daly languages The Eastern Daly languages are an extinct family of Australian aboriginal languages that are fairly closely related, at 50% cognate. They were: * Matngele * Kamu These languages had elements of verbal structure that suggest they may be related ...

Vocabulary

Capell (1940) lists the following basic vocabulary items for the Gunwinyguan languages: : Capell (1942) lists the following additional basic vocabulary items for the Gunwinyguan languages: :

Proto-language

Below are some reconstructed Proto-Gunwinyguan (i.e., Proto-Gunwinyguan ''proper'') animal and plant names from Harvey (2003):Harvey, Mark. 2003. An initial reconstruction of Proto Gunwinyguan phonology. In Evans, Nicholas (ed.), ''The non-Pama-Nyungan languages of northern Australia: comparative studies of the continent's most linguistically complex region'', 205-268. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. : :

References

{{Language families Indigenous Australian languages in the Northern Territory Proposed language families Non-Pama-Nyungan languages