Dhuwal language

Dhuwal
Dhay'yi
Native to Australia
Region Northern Territory
Native speakers
 3,500 (2006 census)[1]
Pama–Nyungan
Standard forms
Dhuwaya
Dialects
  • Gupapuyngu
  • Gumatj
  • Djambarrpuyngu
  • Djapu
  • Liyagalawumirr
  • Guyamirlili
  • Dhalwangu [Dhay'yi]
  • Djarrwark [Dhay'yi]
Yolŋu Sign Language
Official status
Official language in
 Northern Territory (as lingua franca for aborigines) [2]
Language codes
ISO 639-3 Variously:
dwu – Dhuwal
djr – Djambarrpuyngu
gnn – Gumatj
guf – Gupapuyngu
dax – Dayi (Dhay'yi)
dwy – Dhuwaya
Glottolog dhuw1248  (Dhuwal-Dhuwala)[3]
dayi1244  (Dayi)[4]
AIATSIS[1] N198* Dhuwal, N199* Dhuwala, N118 Dhay'yi

Dhuwal (Dual, Duala) is a dialect cluster of the Australian Aboriginal Yolŋu language, spoken in Australia's Northern Territory. All varieties of Yolŋu are mutually intelligible to some extent.

Dialects

Dialects of the Yirritja moiety are (a) Gupapuyngu and Gumatj; those of the Dhuwa moiety are (b) Djambarrpuyngu, Djapu, Liyagalawumirr, and Guyamirlili (Gwijamil). In addition, it would appear that the Dhay'yi (Dayi) dialects, (a) Dhalwangu and (b) Djarrwark, are part of the same language.[5]

Ethnologue divides Dhuwal into four languages, plus Dayi and the contact variety Dhuwaya:

Numbers are from the 2006 census.

Dhuwaya is a stigmatized contact variant used by the younger generation in informal contexts, and is the form taught in schools, having replaced Gumatj ca. 1990.

Orthography

Probably every Australian language with speakers remaining has had an orthography developed for it, in each case in the Latin script. Sounds not found in English are usually represented by digraphs, or more rarely by diacritics, such as underlines, or extra symbols, sometimes borrowed from the International Phonetic Alphabet. Some examples are shown in the following table.

Language Example Translation Type
Pitjantjatjara paṉa 'earth, dirt, ground; land' diacritic (underline) indicates retroflex 'n'
Wajarri nhanha 'this, this one' digraph indicating 'n' with dental articulation
Gupapuyŋu yolŋu 'person, man' 'ŋ' (from IPA) for velar nasal

References

  1. 1 2 Dhuwal at the Australian Indigenous Languages Database, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies  (see the info box for additional links)
  2. ↑ http://www.ethnologue.com/language/djr
  3. ↑ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian, eds. (2016). "Dhuwal-Dhuwala". Glottolog 2.7. Jena: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  4. ↑ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian, eds. (2016). "Dayi". Glottolog 2.7. Jena: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  5. ↑ Dixon, R. M. W. (2002). Australian Languages: Their Nature and Development. Cambridge University Press. p. xxxvi.
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