Yalarnnga (also Jalarnnga, Jalanga, Yelina, Yellunga, Yellanga, Yalarrnnga, Yalanga or Yalluna[2]) is an extinct Australian Aboriginal language of the Pama–Nyungan language family, that may be related to the Kalkatungu language.[1][3] It was formerly spoken by the Yalarnnga people in areas near the Gulf of Carpentaria the towns of Dajarra and Cloncurry in far northwestern Queensland.[3][4] The last native speaker died in 1980.[5] It is a suffixing agglutinative language with no attested prefixes.[2]
Classification
Yalarnnga is sometimes grouped with Kalkatungu as the Kalkatungic (Galgadungic) branch of the Pama–Nyungan family. O'Grady et al.,[6] however, classify Kalkatungu as the sole member of the "Kalkatungic group" of the Pama-Nyungan family, and Dixon (2002)[7] regards Kalkatungic as an areal group.
Vocabulary
Some words from the Yalarnnga language, as spelt and written by Yalarnnga authors include:[4][8]
- Kuyungu mungatha: good day
- Karlu / karlo: father
- Mernoo: mother
- Woothane: whiteman
- Kathirr: grass
- Karni: shoulder
- Katyimpa: two
- Kunyu: water
- Karrkuru: yellowbelly (fish)
- Monero: tame dog
References
- ^ a b G8 Yalarnnga at the Australian Indigenous Languages Database, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
- ^ a b Breen, Gavan (2007). The grammar of Yalarnnga : a language of western Queensland. Canberra, ACT: Pacific Linguistics, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, the Australian National University. ISBN 0858835673.
- ^ a b
This Wikipedia article incorporates text from Yulluna published by the State Library of Queensland under CC BY licence, accessed on 20 May 2022.
- ^ a b This Wikipedia article incorporates text from Yalarnnga published by the State Library of Queensland under CC BY licence, accessed on 16 May 2022.
- ^ Breen, Gavan; Blake, Barry J. (2007). The grammar of Yalarnnga : a language of western Queensland. Pacific Linguistics, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, The Australian National University. ISBN 978-0-85883-567-2.
- ^ O'Grady, Geoffrey N.; Voegelin, Charles F.; Voegelin, Florence M. (1966). "Languages of the World: Indo-Pacific Fascicle Six" (PDF). Anthropological Linguistics. 8 (2): 1–197. JSTOR 30029431 – via JSTOR.
- ^ Dixon, R. M. W. (2003). Australian Languages: Their Nature and Development. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521473781.
- ^ Eglinton, E. (1886). "The Burke River" (PDF). In Curr, Edward Micklethwaite (ed.). The Australian race: its origin, languages, customs, place of landing in Australia and the routes by which it spread itself over the continent. Vol. 2. Melbourne: J. Ferres. pp. 346–349.
