| Burarra | |
|---|---|
| Region | Northern Territory |
| Ethnicity | Burarra,Gadjalivia |
Native speakers | 1,229 (2021 census)[1] |
Arnhem?
| |
| Dialects |
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | bvr |
| Glottolog | bura1267 |
| AIATSIS[2] | N82 |
| ELP | Burarra |
TheBurarra language is anAustralian Aboriginal language spoken by theBurarra people ofArnhem Land. It has several dialects.
Other names and spellings include Barera, Bawera, Burada, Bureda, Burera, An-barra (Anbarra), Gidjingaliya, Gu-jingarliya, Gu-jarlabiya, Gun-Guragone (also used forGuragone), Jikai, Tchikai.
TheDjangu people have a Burarra clan, which is sometimes confused with this language.[3]
Burarra is a prefixing non-Pama-Nyungan language. Along withGurr-goni, it makes up the Burarran branch of the Maningrida language family (which also includesNdjébbana andNa-kara).[4][5][6]
TheBurarra people are from the Blyth and Cadell River regions of Central and North-central Arnhem Land, but many now reside further west inManingrida township at the mouth of the Liverpool River.[4][7]
Glasgow (1994) distinguishes three dialects of Burarra:Gun-nartpa (Mu-golarra /Mukarli group from the Cadell River region),Gun-narta (An-barra, western side of the mouth of the Blythe River), andGun-narda (Martay, eastern side of the Blythe River).[7] These dialect names derive from each dialect's word for the demonstrative "that". She further notes that the two latter dialects (Gun-narta andGun-narda) are frequently grouped together and referred to by their eastern neighbours as "Burarra", and by themselves as "Gu-jingarliya" ('language'/'with tongue').
Green (1987) distinguishes two dialects:Gun-nartpa andBurarra (Gu-jingarliya), but notes that noticeable dialectal differences exist within the group of Burarra speakers.[4]
| Labial | Alveolar | Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | fortis | p | t | ʈ | c | k |
| lenis | b | d | ɖ | ɟ | g | |
| Nasal | m | n | ɳ | ɲ | ŋ | |
| Lateral | l | ɭ | ||||
| Rhotic | r | ɻ | ||||
| Glide | w | j | ||||
In most cases, fortis and lenis refers to the voicing in consonants wherefortis is voiceless andlenis is voiced.[9] In this case, plosives are distinguished by intra-oral peak pressure and stricture duration. Fortis consonants are usually longer in duration and have a greater intra-oral pressure while lenis consonants can often be pronounced as fricatives or approximants. The Burarra language also allows for the clustering of consonants.[8]
Burara has a five vowel system.
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u | |
| Open-mid | æ~ɛ | ɔ | |
| Open | a |
The vowels can be realized as:
Burarra is a prefixing, multiple-classifying language. Verbs co-reference their subjects and objects through the use of prefixes, and inflect for tense and status. Serial verbs can be used to express categories like aspect, compound action and causation.[4]
Nouns inflect for case and belong to one of four noun classes (an-, jin-, mun- andgun-).[4][7]