Jingulu language
Encyclopedia
Jingulu is an Australian language
spoken by the Jingili people in the Northern Territory
of Australia
, historically around the township of Elliot
. It is an endangered language
with only between 10 and 15 speakers in 1997, the youngest being in the fifties. An additional number of 20 people had some command of the language. It should however be noted that the language was not used in daily communication which instead was conducted in either English
or Kriol
.
s:
The close vowel
/i/ may be realized as [i], [ɨ] or [e]; the close vowel
/u/ most commonly as [u], but also [o] and [ɔ]; and the open vowel
/a/ as [a], [ʌ], [æ] and [ə].
Vowel length
is contrastive, resulting in the long vowels /aː/, /iː/ and /u/. In orthography, /aː/ appears as, while the other two appear with a homorganic consonant
, and , respectively.
. Jingulu exhibits a regressive vowel harmony, which means that the vowels of nominal or verb
al roots
may be subject to change triggered by suffix
es which contain a close vowel
and which are directly adjacent to the root. The vowel harmony affects open vowel
s in the roots, which become close
. Due to Jingulu's small inventory of vowel
s, it will always be the open vowel
/a/ which is subject to change, always becoming /i/.
However, if vowel harmony
is triggered and the root
contains a close vowel
, none of the open vowel
s to the left of the close vowel
will be subject to change.
s:
There is only little evidence showing that the retroflex consonant
s are contrastive. Most speakers of Jingulu do not make a distinction between the retroflex consonants and their alveolar equivalents
. Often they merely serve as allophone
s. However, there are a number of minimal pairs where there indeed is a distinction, for instance dirnd- "shoot" and dind- "grind"; mininmi "Acacia victoriae
" and mirnirnmi "fire drill"; and walu "forehead" and warlu "burn scar."
The glides, /w/ and /j/, may be dropped word-initially, which is also true for /ŋ/. The latter may also be replaced by a glide.
or class
of which there are four: masculine
, feminine
, neuter
and vegetable. The vegetable class is the smallest of the classes with least nominals. Next comes the feminine class, and then the neuter and the masculine classes.
The characteristic endings of nominals belonging to the vegetable class are -imi and -ibi. Most nominals of this class are long, thin, pointed or sharp objects. For instance, a lot of vegetable
s, body parts, instruments and weather phenomena. Examples include wardbardbumi "bush passionfruit," mankijbi "back of neck" and kingmi "rainbow."
The characteristic endings for feminine nominals are -ini, -irni, -idi and -irdi. Most nominals of this class are female animates
, different kinds of axes, the sun, as well as for most smaller songbirds, and many unusual animals. Examples include nambiliju "female body," dardawurni "axe" and lirrikbirni "cockatoo
."
The characteristic ending for masculine nominals is -a, although a lot of masculine nominals also end in a consonant
. Most nominals of this class are animates
, although it also contains a number of flat or rounded inanimates. Examples include jambilija "male body," kiyinarra "vagina" and yarrulan "youth."
Finally, the characteristic ending for neuter nominals is -u. This class contains nominals that do not fall into any of the previous classes, and especially words for abstract concepts and entities. Examples include yurrku "nectar," ngabarangkurru "blood" and karala "ground."
s: referential, anaphoric and cataphoric. In Jingulu, the referential demonstratives of which there are about five sets refer to objects which may be distal or proximal, and may be translated as "this" or "that." The anaphoric demonstratives of which there is one set refers to something which is already known by the speaker and listener at the time of speaking, and may be translated as "this (you know)" or "that (you know)." Finally, the cataphoric demonstrative of which there is only one refers to something which is not yet known by both the speaker and listener and is to be introduced, and may be translated as "this (which you are to know about)" or "that (which you are to know about)."
As the demonstrative
s are considered nominals, most of them belong to one of the four nominal classes
.
There are five sets of referential demonstratives: jama and jimi; nyam-; ngin- and nyin-; ngunu; and ngunungku. The first three sets are all by default distal, but may be made proximal by the use of the suffix -(r)niki. None of the last two sets may take the proximal marker, as ngunu is always considered distal, and ngunungku is generally considered proximal, normally translated as "this way."
jama belongs to the masculine class, and jimi to the neuter class. However, jama may refer to nominals of all classes, and jimi may also refer to nominals of the vegetable class.
The demonstrative
nyam- takes either the suffix -a, -arni- or -bala depending on whether it refers to a nominal of the masculine, feminine, or neuter or vegetable class. Likewise, the demonstratives ngin- and nyin- take the suffix -da, -a or -i depending on whether it refers to a nominal of the masculine, feminine or neuter class, and become ngima and nyima when referring to a nominal of the vegetable class. While a nyam- demonstrative takes the proximal marker, it becomes nyamarniki no matter class.
The demonstrative
ngunu belongs to the neuter class, but may also refer to nominals of the vegetable class. ngunungku may refer to nominals of all classes.
There is one set of anaphoric demonstratives: kuna and kuya. These are only used rarely, and are often replaced by referential demonstratives. The former refers to nominals of the masculine class, and the latter to nominals of the neuter class. However, the former may also refer to nominals of other classes, and the latter to nominals of the vegetable class as well.
The only cataphoric demonstrative is jiyi and refers to nominals of all classes.
Bundurrunu umbumami ngarnu jamirnani marlukarni, bundundurru marriya, angkula wumbumaardi kamamurra. Kamamurra jamarni marlukarni narnangajarriya biyurlarruni, kaminjirru kularrani. Kaminjirru kulayarni ngarnu ngajanarriya bundundurru marliya. Nginirni bundurru ngabangarriyi ngarni ngindirna marlukarna. Bubujirna marlukarna ngabangarriyi ngarnu bundurrunu ngunyangarriyi, ngambaya manyan kaya bundundurra.
The Old Blind Man
Be so kind as to cook that old man some food, he can't cook because he's blind. That old blind man is looking about for his children, perhaps his grandchildren or nephews. Our young people look after our feeding when we are sick. I'll take some food to that old man. I'll take this food over and give it to the hold white-haired man so that he can have a sleep once he's full up.
form of their language.
Australian Aboriginal languages
The Australian Aboriginal languages comprise several language families and isolates native to the Australian Aborigines of Australia and a few nearby islands, but by convention excluding the languages of Tasmania and the Torres Strait Islanders...
spoken by the Jingili people in the Northern Territory
Northern Territory
The Northern Territory is a federal territory of Australia, occupying much of the centre of the mainland continent, as well as the central northern regions...
of Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, historically around the township of Elliot
Elliott District Community Government Council
The Elliott District Community Government Council was a Local Government Area of the Northern Territory, Australia. It was centred around the town of Elliott, 254 km north of Tennant Creek and 419 km south of Katherineon the Stuart Highway. The Community Government Council covered an area...
. It is an endangered language
Endangered language
An endangered language is a language that is at risk of falling out of use. If it loses all its native speakers, it becomes a dead language. If eventually no one speaks the language at all it becomes an "extinct language"....
with only between 10 and 15 speakers in 1997, the youngest being in the fifties. An additional number of 20 people had some command of the language. It should however be noted that the language was not used in daily communication which instead was conducted in either English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
or Kriol
Australian Kriol language
Kriol is an Australian creole language that developed initially in the region of Sydney and Newcastle in New South Wales in the early days of White colonisation, and then moved west and north with White and Black stockmen and others...
.
Vowels
Jingulu has 3 vowelVowel
In phonetics, a vowel is a sound in spoken language, such as English ah! or oh! , pronounced with an open vocal tract so that there is no build-up of air pressure at any point above the glottis. This contrasts with consonants, such as English sh! , where there is a constriction or closure at some...
s:
| Front Front vowel A front vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a front vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far in front as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Front vowels are sometimes also... |
Central Central vowel A central vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a central vowel is that the tongue is positioned halfway between a front vowel and a back vowel... |
Back Back vowel A back vowel is a type of vowel sound used in spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a back vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far back as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Back vowels are sometimes also called dark... |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Close Close vowel A close vowel is a type of vowel sound used in many spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a close vowel is that the tongue is positioned as close as possible to the roof of the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.This term is prescribed by the... |
i /i/ | u /u/ | |
| Open Open vowel An open vowel is defined as a vowel sound in which the tongue is positioned as far as possible from the roof of the mouth. Open vowels are sometimes also called low vowels in reference to the low position of the tongue... |
a /a/ |
The close vowel
Close vowel
A close vowel is a type of vowel sound used in many spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a close vowel is that the tongue is positioned as close as possible to the roof of the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.This term is prescribed by the...
/i/ may be realized as [i], [ɨ] or [e]; the close vowel
Close vowel
A close vowel is a type of vowel sound used in many spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a close vowel is that the tongue is positioned as close as possible to the roof of the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.This term is prescribed by the...
/u/ most commonly as [u], but also [o] and [ɔ]; and the open vowel
Open vowel
An open vowel is defined as a vowel sound in which the tongue is positioned as far as possible from the roof of the mouth. Open vowels are sometimes also called low vowels in reference to the low position of the tongue...
/a/ as [a], [ʌ], [æ] and [ə].
Vowel length
Vowel length
In linguistics, vowel length is the perceived duration of a vowel sound. Often the chroneme, or the "longness", acts like a consonant, and may etymologically be one, such as in Australian English. While not distinctive in most dialects of English, vowel length is an important phonemic factor in...
is contrastive, resulting in the long vowels /aː/, /iː/ and /u/. In orthography, /aː/ appears as
Homorganic consonants
Homorganic consonants is a phonetics term for consonant sounds which are articulated in the same position or place of articulation in the mouth, such as , or...
,
Vowel harmony
An important feature of Jingulu's phonology is vowel harmonyVowel harmony
Vowel harmony is a type of long-distance assimilatory phonological process involving vowels that occurs in some languages. In languages with vowel harmony, there are constraints on which vowels may be found near each other....
. Jingulu exhibits a regressive vowel harmony, which means that the vowels of nominal or verb
Verb
A verb, from the Latin verbum meaning word, is a word that in syntax conveys an action , or a state of being . In the usual description of English, the basic form, with or without the particle to, is the infinitive...
al roots
Root (linguistics)
The root word is the primary lexical unit of a word, and of a word family , which carries the most significant aspects of semantic content and cannot be reduced into smaller constituents....
may be subject to change triggered by suffix
Suffix
In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns or adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs...
es which contain a close vowel
Close vowel
A close vowel is a type of vowel sound used in many spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a close vowel is that the tongue is positioned as close as possible to the roof of the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.This term is prescribed by the...
and which are directly adjacent to the root. The vowel harmony affects open vowel
Open vowel
An open vowel is defined as a vowel sound in which the tongue is positioned as far as possible from the roof of the mouth. Open vowels are sometimes also called low vowels in reference to the low position of the tongue...
s in the roots, which become close
Close vowel
A close vowel is a type of vowel sound used in many spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a close vowel is that the tongue is positioned as close as possible to the roof of the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.This term is prescribed by the...
. Due to Jingulu's small inventory of vowel
Vowel
In phonetics, a vowel is a sound in spoken language, such as English ah! or oh! , pronounced with an open vocal tract so that there is no build-up of air pressure at any point above the glottis. This contrasts with consonants, such as English sh! , where there is a constriction or closure at some...
s, it will always be the open vowel
Open vowel
An open vowel is defined as a vowel sound in which the tongue is positioned as far as possible from the roof of the mouth. Open vowels are sometimes also called low vowels in reference to the low position of the tongue...
/a/ which is subject to change, always becoming /i/.
- ngaja + -mindi-yi = ngijimindiyi
- see + - = "we will see"
- ngarrabaj + -wurru-nu = ngirribijiwurrunu
- tell + - = "they told (it to him)"
However, if vowel harmony
Vowel harmony
Vowel harmony is a type of long-distance assimilatory phonological process involving vowels that occurs in some languages. In languages with vowel harmony, there are constraints on which vowels may be found near each other....
is triggered and the root
Root (linguistics)
The root word is the primary lexical unit of a word, and of a word family , which carries the most significant aspects of semantic content and cannot be reduced into smaller constituents....
contains a close vowel
Close vowel
A close vowel is a type of vowel sound used in many spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a close vowel is that the tongue is positioned as close as possible to the roof of the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.This term is prescribed by the...
, none of the open vowel
Open vowel
An open vowel is defined as a vowel sound in which the tongue is positioned as far as possible from the roof of the mouth. Open vowels are sometimes also called low vowels in reference to the low position of the tongue...
s to the left of the close vowel
Close vowel
A close vowel is a type of vowel sound used in many spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a close vowel is that the tongue is positioned as close as possible to the roof of the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.This term is prescribed by the...
will be subject to change.
- warlaku + -rni = warlakurni
- male dog + = female dog
- ankila + -rni = ankilirni
- cross cousin + = female cross cousin
Consonants
Jingulu has 17 consonantConsonant
In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are , pronounced with the lips; , pronounced with the front of the tongue; , pronounced with the back of the tongue; , pronounced in the throat; and ,...
s:
| Bilabial Bilabial consonant In phonetics, a bilabial consonant is a consonant articulated with both lips. The bilabial consonants identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet are:... |
Alveolar Alveolar consonant Alveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli of the superior teeth... |
Retroflex Retroflex consonant A retroflex consonant is a coronal consonant where the tongue has a flat, concave, or even curled shape, and is articulated between the alveolar ridge and the hard palate. They are sometimes referred to as cerebral consonants, especially in Indology... |
Palatal Palatal consonant Palatal consonants are consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the hard palate... |
Velar Velar consonant Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum).... |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | b /b/ | d /d/ | rd /ɖ/ | j /c/ | k /k/ |
| Nasal Nasal consonant A nasal consonant is a type of consonant produced with a lowered velum in the mouth, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. Examples of nasal consonants in English are and , in words such as nose and mouth.- Definition :... |
m /m/ | n /n/ | rn /ɳ/ | ny /ɲ/ | ng /ŋ/ |
| Trill Trill consonant In phonetics, a trill is a consonantal sound produced by vibrations between the articulator and the place of articulation. Standard Spanish <rr> as in perro is an alveolar trill, while in Parisian French it is almost always uvular.... |
rr /r/ | ||||
| Approximant Approximant consonant Approximants are speech sounds that involve the articulators approaching each other but not narrowly enough or with enough articulatory precision to create turbulent airflow. Therefore, approximants fall between fricatives, which do produce a turbulent airstream, and vowels, which produce no... |
w /w/ | r /ɻ/ | y /j/ | ||
| l /l/ | rl /ɭ/ | ly /ʎ/ |
There is only little evidence showing that the retroflex consonant
Retroflex consonant
A retroflex consonant is a coronal consonant where the tongue has a flat, concave, or even curled shape, and is articulated between the alveolar ridge and the hard palate. They are sometimes referred to as cerebral consonants, especially in Indology...
s are contrastive. Most speakers of Jingulu do not make a distinction between the retroflex consonants and their alveolar equivalents
Alveolar consonant
Alveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli of the superior teeth...
. Often they merely serve as allophone
Allophone
In phonology, an allophone is one of a set of multiple possible spoken sounds used to pronounce a single phoneme. For example, and are allophones for the phoneme in the English language...
s. However, there are a number of minimal pairs where there indeed is a distinction, for instance dirnd- "shoot" and dind- "grind"; mininmi "Acacia victoriae
Acacia victoriae
Acacia victoriae commonly known as Gundabluie or Bardi bush is a shrub or tree native to Australia. It grows 2–5 m, sometimes 9 m tall. It has spines 2–12 mm in length.Subspecies:A. victoriae subsp. arida Pedley-Uses:...
" and mirnirnmi "fire drill"; and walu "forehead" and warlu "burn scar."
The glides, /w/ and /j/, may be dropped word-initially, which is also true for /ŋ/. The latter may also be replaced by a glide.
- widij- "to tie" may be realized as /widij-/ or /idij-/
- yidaangka "in a few days" may be realized as /jidaːŋka/ or /idaːŋka/
- ngirrm- "to make" may be realized as /ŋirm-/, /irm-/ or /jirm-/
- nguny- "to give" may be realized as /ŋuɲ-/, /uɲ-/ or /wuɲ-/
Class
All nominals in Jingulu below to a certain genderGrammatical gender
Grammatical gender is defined linguistically as a system of classes of nouns which trigger specific types of inflections in associated words, such as adjectives, verbs and others. For a system of noun classes to be a gender system, every noun must belong to one of the classes and there should be...
or class
Noun class
In linguistics, the term noun class refers to a system of categorizing nouns. A noun may belong to a given class because of characteristic features of its referent, such as sex, animacy, shape, but counting a given noun among nouns of such or another class is often clearly conventional...
of which there are four: masculine
Grammatical gender
Grammatical gender is defined linguistically as a system of classes of nouns which trigger specific types of inflections in associated words, such as adjectives, verbs and others. For a system of noun classes to be a gender system, every noun must belong to one of the classes and there should be...
, feminine
Grammatical gender
Grammatical gender is defined linguistically as a system of classes of nouns which trigger specific types of inflections in associated words, such as adjectives, verbs and others. For a system of noun classes to be a gender system, every noun must belong to one of the classes and there should be...
, neuter
Grammatical gender
Grammatical gender is defined linguistically as a system of classes of nouns which trigger specific types of inflections in associated words, such as adjectives, verbs and others. For a system of noun classes to be a gender system, every noun must belong to one of the classes and there should be...
and vegetable. The vegetable class is the smallest of the classes with least nominals. Next comes the feminine class, and then the neuter and the masculine classes.
The characteristic endings of nominals belonging to the vegetable class are -imi and -ibi. Most nominals of this class are long, thin, pointed or sharp objects. For instance, a lot of vegetable
Vegetable
The noun vegetable usually means an edible plant or part of a plant other than a sweet fruit or seed. This typically means the leaf, stem, or root of a plant....
s, body parts, instruments and weather phenomena. Examples include wardbardbumi "bush passionfruit," mankijbi "back of neck" and kingmi "rainbow."
The characteristic endings for feminine nominals are -ini, -irni, -idi and -irdi. Most nominals of this class are female animates
Animacy
Animacy is a grammatical and/or semantic category of nouns based on how sentient or alive the referent of the noun in a given taxonomic scheme is...
, different kinds of axes, the sun, as well as for most smaller songbirds, and many unusual animals. Examples include nambiliju "female body," dardawurni "axe" and lirrikbirni "cockatoo
Cockatoo
A cockatoo is any of the 21 species belonging to the bird family Cacatuidae. Along with the Psittacidae and the Strigopidae , they make up the parrot order Psittaciformes . Placement of the cockatoos as a separate family is fairly undisputed, although many aspects of the other living lineages of...
."
The characteristic ending for masculine nominals is -a, although a lot of masculine nominals also end in a consonant
Consonant
In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are , pronounced with the lips; , pronounced with the front of the tongue; , pronounced with the back of the tongue; , pronounced in the throat; and ,...
. Most nominals of this class are animates
Animacy
Animacy is a grammatical and/or semantic category of nouns based on how sentient or alive the referent of the noun in a given taxonomic scheme is...
, although it also contains a number of flat or rounded inanimates. Examples include jambilija "male body," kiyinarra "vagina" and yarrulan "youth."
Finally, the characteristic ending for neuter nominals is -u. This class contains nominals that do not fall into any of the previous classes, and especially words for abstract concepts and entities. Examples include yurrku "nectar," ngabarangkurru "blood" and karala "ground."
Demonstratives
Jingulu has three kinds of demonstrativeDemonstrative
In linguistics, demonstratives are deictic words that indicate which entities a speaker refers to and distinguishes those entities from others...
s: referential, anaphoric and cataphoric. In Jingulu, the referential demonstratives of which there are about five sets refer to objects which may be distal or proximal, and may be translated as "this" or "that." The anaphoric demonstratives of which there is one set refers to something which is already known by the speaker and listener at the time of speaking, and may be translated as "this (you know)" or "that (you know)." Finally, the cataphoric demonstrative of which there is only one refers to something which is not yet known by both the speaker and listener and is to be introduced, and may be translated as "this (which you are to know about)" or "that (which you are to know about)."
As the demonstrative
Demonstrative
In linguistics, demonstratives are deictic words that indicate which entities a speaker refers to and distinguishes those entities from others...
s are considered nominals, most of them belong to one of the four nominal classes
Noun class
In linguistics, the term noun class refers to a system of categorizing nouns. A noun may belong to a given class because of characteristic features of its referent, such as sex, animacy, shape, but counting a given noun among nouns of such or another class is often clearly conventional...
.
Referential
There are five sets of referential demonstratives: jama and jimi; nyam-; ngin- and nyin-; ngunu; and ngunungku. The first three sets are all by default distal, but may be made proximal by the use of the suffix -(r)niki. None of the last two sets may take the proximal marker, as ngunu is always considered distal, and ngunungku is generally considered proximal, normally translated as "this way."
jama belongs to the masculine class, and jimi to the neuter class. However, jama may refer to nominals of all classes, and jimi may also refer to nominals of the vegetable class.
- Jimi-ni jurruma-mi burrbuji-kaji!
- - wipe_out- finnish-
- "Get rid of all that!"
- Jama-baji-ni buyu-wurru-ju."
- -- smoke--
- "Those people are smoking."
- Jimi-niki-ni karriyaku imbiy-urru-ju marrinju.
- -- different speak-- language
- "This is a different language they speak (here)."
The demonstrative
Demonstrative
In linguistics, demonstratives are deictic words that indicate which entities a speaker refers to and distinguishes those entities from others...
nyam- takes either the suffix -a, -arni- or -bala depending on whether it refers to a nominal of the masculine, feminine, or neuter or vegetable class. Likewise, the demonstratives ngin- and nyin- take the suffix -da, -a or -i depending on whether it refers to a nominal of the masculine, feminine or neuter class, and become ngima and nyima when referring to a nominal of the vegetable class. While a nyam- demonstrative takes the proximal marker, it becomes nyamarniki no matter class.
- Irriminjulu ngini-rniki buba ngirrma-nga-yi bardakurra.
- kindling - fire make-- good
- "This kindling will make a good fire."
- Wanyik-urlu nyina-bulu ladaji-wunyu-ju arduku.
- girl- - dry-- slow
- "The two girls are slowly drying out."
The demonstrative
Demonstrative
In linguistics, demonstratives are deictic words that indicate which entities a speaker refers to and distinguishes those entities from others...
ngunu belongs to the neuter class, but may also refer to nominals of the vegetable class. ngunungku may refer to nominals of all classes.
- Ngunu dij bila-mi nyanyalu!
- break- branch
- "Break that branch!"
- Jangkuwardka-ngarri-yi ngunungku kalirrungu-ngka.
- climb_up-- hill-
- "I will climb the mountain this way."
Anaphoric
There is one set of anaphoric demonstratives: kuna and kuya. These are only used rarely, and are often replaced by referential demonstratives. The former refers to nominals of the masculine class, and the latter to nominals of the neuter class. However, the former may also refer to nominals of other classes, and the latter to nominals of the vegetable class as well.
- Nginda wurru-ku kuna-ngka biningkurru-ngka.
- -went - lake-
- "They went to that lake (you know the one)."
- Kuyu-mbili-rni mankiya-nga-yi.
- -- sit--
- "I'll go sit in that place (that you know)."
Cataphoric
The only cataphoric demonstrative is jiyi and refers to nominals of all classes.
- Nyamba-nama nyambala karriyaku-nama kaburrkaburrji jiyi-rni ijijurnminji-mi.
- what- different- brown - butcherbird-
- "Now there's a different one that is brown, that's the butcherbirdButcherbirdButcherbirds are magpie-like birds in the genus Cracticus. They are native to Australasia. Their closest relatives are the three species of currawong...
."
Text example
Kamamurra MarlukaBundurrunu umbumami ngarnu jamirnani marlukarni, bundundurru marriya, angkula wumbumaardi kamamurra. Kamamurra jamarni marlukarni narnangajarriya biyurlarruni, kaminjirru kularrani. Kaminjirru kulayarni ngarnu ngajanarriya bundundurru marliya. Nginirni bundurru ngabangarriyi ngarni ngindirna marlukarna. Bubujirna marlukarna ngabangarriyi ngarnu bundurrunu ngunyangarriyi, ngambaya manyan kaya bundundurra.
The Old Blind Man
Be so kind as to cook that old man some food, he can't cook because he's blind. That old blind man is looking about for his children, perhaps his grandchildren or nephews. Our young people look after our feeding when we are sick. I'll take some food to that old man. I'll take this food over and give it to the hold white-haired man so that he can have a sleep once he's full up.
Sign
The Jingulu had a developed signAustralian Aboriginal sign languages
Many Australian Aboriginal cultures have or traditionally had a manually coded language, a sign-language counterpart of their spoken language. This appears to be connected with various speech taboos between certain kin or at particular times, such as during a mourning period for women or during...
form of their language.