| Githabul | |
|---|---|
| Condamine–Upper Clarence Bandjalang | |
| githabul | |
| Native to | Australia |
| Region | Queensland,New South Wales |
| Ethnicity | Githabul,Kalibal,Geynyan |
Native speakers | 4 (2016 census)[1] |
Pama-Nyungan
| |
| Dialects |
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | gih |
| Glottolog | cond1242 |
| AIATSIS[2] | E14 Githabul,E16.1 Dinggabal,E15 Galibal,D36 Geynyan |
| ELP | Githabul |
 A map of the vairities and their locales as described by Githabul people atWoodenbong | |
Githabul, also known asGalibal,Dinggabal, andCondamine – Upper Clarence Bandjalang, is anAustralian Aboriginal language spoken by theGithabul living inSouth Queensland andNorth-East New South Wales.
In the Githabul language, the wordgithabul means 'those who saygitha';githa means 'that's right' and is a common exonym and endonym for the people and their language.
Githabul specifically refers to the language as spoken aroundWoodenbong, while the southern variety spoken nearDrake was known as Dingabal which means 'those who saydinga', withdinga meaning 'that's right'.
The eastern variety spoken nearKyogle on theRichmond river used the termgalibal which meant 'those who saygali';gali means 'this' and contrasts withGithabul andDinggabal which usedgale.[3]
| Peripheral | Laminal | Apical | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labial | Velar | Palatal | Alveolar | |
| Plosive | b | ɡ | ɟ | d |
| Nasal | m | ŋ | ɲ | n |
| Rhotic | ɾ | |||
| Lateral | l | |||
| Approximant | w | j | ||
| Front | Back | |
|---|---|---|
| Close | i iː | u uː |
| Mid | e eː | |
| Open | a aː | |
Verbs are conjugated with the use of suffixes. It is anaspect-dominant language, as opposed totense-dominant like English. Githabul suffixes mostly conjugate foraspect and mood.
Verb suffixes are placed in six orders. A verb may not take more than one suffix from an order, and similar to nouns, suffixes are attached in a set order. Combinations of these suffixes express all possible conjugations of Githabul verbs, with only a small number of combinations possible. Githabul verb stems are commonly two syllables in length and always end in a vowel.[5]
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| -ba 'causative' | -ndi 'Carry whilst...' | -li 'reflexive/passive' | -ja 'Past tense' | -hn 'imperfective aspect' | -du 'habitual mood' |
| -wa 'repetitive' | -hny 'imminent aspect' | -i 'preconditional' | |||
| -ma 'causative' | -h 'imperative' | -de 'preconditional' | |||
| -hla 'continuous aspect' | |||||
| -nah 'antechronous aspect' | |||||
| -nyun 'synchronous aspect' | |||||
| -yah 'purposive' | |||||
| -jin 'synchronous aspect' | |||||
| -n 'permissive' | |||||
| -ni 'perfective' |
Adjectives can be marked with a suffix to indicate the gender of the noun they qualify. Githabul has one of the most extensive gender systems of all the Bandjalangic languages.[6]
| Gender | Suffix |
|---|---|
| Animate (male) | -gali |
| Animate (female) - weak quality | -gan |
| Animate (female) - strong quality | -galigan |
| Animate (female) - size | -Nahgan |
| Arboreal | -Nahn* |
| Neuter | -gay |
*N stands for a homorganic nasal.
Githabul possesses a complicated set of demonstratives that make a three-way distinction, with proximal, medial, and distal sets. There is a further distinguishing of demonstrative adjectives and location demonstratives. The adjective set can be additionally suffixed to create demonstrative pronouns. The adjective set has three forms for "things in sight", "things hidden or not in sight" and "things not there anymore", while the location set has forms to indicate the general area and definite area, whether in sight or not in sight, and past and present forms.[7]
| Demonstratives | Proximal (this) | Medial (that) | Distal (that over there) |
|---|---|---|---|
| In sight (sg)* | gale | male | gile |
| In sight (plrl) | gahnyu | mahnyu | gahmu |
| Not in sight (sg) | gunah | munah | gahba |
| Not in sight (plrl) | ganyeh | manyeh | gahnye |
The above set can be suffixed with order 7 noun suffixes to form demonstrative pronouns that function like ordinary independent nouns. e.g.Yanindeh galeni wangahbaya! 'Take this with you!
The 'not in sight' and 'not here anymore' forms can take the order 2 noun suffix -gan to form time words. E.ggunahgan 'recently'.
| Demonstratives | Proximal (here) | Medial (there) | Distal (over there) |
|---|---|---|---|
| In sight (definite area) | gaji | maji | gah |
| In sight (general area) | gunu | munu | gundeh |
| Not in sight (present) | gayu | mayu | guhyu |
| Not in sight (past) | gaye | maye | gahye |
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