The Daly languages are an
areal group of four to five
language families
A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ''ancestral language'' or ''parental language'', called the proto-language of that family. The term "family" reflects the tree model of language origination in hi ...
of
Indigenous Australian 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 ...
. They are spoken within the vicinity of the
Daly River in the
Northern Territory
The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory ...
.
Classification
In the
lexicostatistic classification of O'Grady, Voegelin and Voegelin, the Daly languages were put in four distinct families.
Darrell Tryon
Darrell T. Tryon (20 July 1942 – 15 May 2013) was a New Zealand-born linguist, academic, and specialist in Austronesian languages. Specifically, Tryon specialised in the study of the languages of the Pacific Islands, particularly Vanuatu, th ...
combined these into a single family, with the exception of
Murrinh-patha
The Murrinh-Patha, or Murinbata, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the Northern Territory.
Language
Murrinh-Patha language, Murrinh-Patha is spoken by about 2500 people, and serves as a lingua franca for several other ethnic groups, such ...
.
However, such methodologies are less effective with languages with a long history of word borrowing.
Ian Green found that the languages could not be shown to be related by the
comparative method
In linguistics, the comparative method is a technique for studying the development of languages by performing a feature-by-feature comparison of two or more languages with common descent from a shared ancestor and then extrapolating backwards t ...
, and so should be considered five independent families and
language isolate
Language isolates are languages that cannot be classified into larger language families. Korean and Basque are two of the most common examples. Other language isolates include Ainu in Asia, Sandawe in Africa, and Haida in North America. The num ...
s.
[Green, I. "The Genetic Status of Murrinh-patha" in Evans, N., ed. "The Non-Pama-Nyungan Languages of Northern Australia: comparative studies of the continent’s most linguistically complex region". ''Studies in Language Change'', 552. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics, 2003.] The features they do share also tend to be shared with neighboring languages outside the Daly group.
The established families (according to Nordlinger) are:
*
Wagaydyic (Anson Bay)
**
Batjamalh (Wadjiginy)
**
Pungu Pungu (Kandjerramalh)
*
Malak-Malak (Nguluk Wanggar)
*
Western Daly
**
Marri Ngarr
The Maringar are an indigenous Australian people of the Northern Territory.
Country
In Norman Tindale's estimate the Maringar had about midway along the Moyle River and its contiguous swamplands and various tributaries.
Social organisation
The ...
**
Merranunggu
**
Marrithiyel
**
Marramaninjsji
*
Eastern Daly
**
Matngele (Werret/Dakayu)
**
Kamu
*
Southern Daly
**
Murrinh-patha
The Murrinh-Patha, or Murinbata, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the Northern Territory.
Language
Murrinh-Patha language, Murrinh-Patha is spoken by about 2500 people, and serves as a lingua franca for several other ethnic groups, such ...
**
Ngan’gityemerri
Malak-Malak and Wagaydyic were once considered grouped into a Northern Daly family. Contemporary classifications may use Northern Daly to refer to Malak-Malak to the exclusion of the Wagaydyic languages (as Nordlinger does).
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 three Daly languages:
[Capell, Arthur. 1940]
The Classification of Languages in North and North-West Australia
''Oceania'' 10(3): 241-272, 404-433.
:
References
External links
* The Daly Languages website
dalylanguages.org brings together analysis, field note sketches and recordings of these languages.
{{language families
Proposed language families
Non-Pama-Nyungan languages