| Dhuwal | |
|---|---|
| Dhay'yi | |
| Native to | Australia |
| Region | Northern Territory |
| Ethnicity | Daii,Dhuwal,Dhuwala,Makarrwanhalmirr |
Native speakers | 4,200 (2021 census)[1] |
Pama–Nyungan
| |
Standard forms |
|
| Dialects |
|
| Yolŋu Sign Language | |
| Official status | |
Official language in | Northern Territory (as lingua franca for Aboriginal people)[2] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | Variously:dwu – Dhuwaldjr – Djambarrpuyngugnn – Gumatjguf – Gupapuyngudax – Dayi (Dhay'yi)dwy – Dhuwaya |
| Glottolog | dhuw1248 Dhuwal-Dhuwaladayi1244 Dayi |
| AIATSIS[3] | N198 Dhuwal,N199 Dhuwala,N118 Dhay'yi |
| ELP | Dhuwala |
| Liyagalawumirr | |
| Liyagawumirr | |
| Dhay'yi | |
Dhuwal (alsoDual,Duala) is one of theYolŋu languages spoken byAboriginal Australians in theNorthern Territory, Australia. Although all Yolŋu languages aremutually intelligible to some extent, Dhuwal represents a distinctdialect continuum of eight separate varieties. In 2019, Djambarrpuyŋu became the first Indigenous language to be spoken in an Australian parliament, when Yolŋu man and member of theNorthern Territory Legislative AssemblyYingiya Guyula gave a speech in his native tongue.[4]
According to linguistRobert M. W. Dixon,
Ethnologue divides Dhuwal into four languages, plus Dayi and the contact variety Dhuwaya (numbers are from the 2006 census.[citation needed]):
Dhuwaya is a stigmatised contact variant[clarification needed] used by the younger generation in informal contexts, and is the form taught in schools, having replaced Gumatj ca. 1990.[citation needed]
| Peripheral | Laminal | Apical | Glottal | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labial | Velar | Dental | Palatal | Alveolar | Retroflex | |||
| Plosive | Fortis | p | k | t̪ | c | t | ʈ | ʔ |
| Lenis | b | g | d̪ | ɟ | d | ɖ | ||
| Nasal | m | ŋ | n̪ | ɲ | n | ɳ | ||
| Tap | ɾ | |||||||
| Lateral | l | ɭ | ||||||
| Glide | w | j | ɻ | |||||
| Front | Back | |
|---|---|---|
| High | iiː | uuː |
| Low | aaː | |
Vowel length is contrastive in first syllable only.[6][7]
Probably every Australian language with speakers remaining has had an orthography developed for it, in each case in theLatin script. Sounds not found in English are usually represented bydigraphs, or more rarely bydiacritics, such as underlines, or extra symbols, sometimes borrowed from theInternational Phonetic Alphabet. Some examples are shown in the following table.
| Language | Example | Translation | Type |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pitjantjatjara dialect of theWestern Desert language | paṉa | 'earth, dirt, ground; land' | diacritic (underline) indicates theretroflex nasal ([ɳ]) |
| Wajarri | nhanha | 'this, this one' | digraph indicating thedental nasal ([n̪]) |
| Yolŋu languages | yolŋu | 'person, man' | ⟨ŋ⟩ represents thevelar nasal (borrowed from theInternational Phonetic Alphabet) |