Nyigina language

Nyikina (also Nyigina, Njigina) is an Australian Aboriginal language of Western Australia, spoken by the Nyigina people.

Warrwa may have been a dialect.

Classification

R. M. W. Dixon (2002) regards Nyikina, Warrwa, Yawuru and Jukun as a single language.

Nyikina is placed in the Nyulnyulan family of non-Pama–Nyungan languages.

Phonology

Consonants

• Sounds /ɟ, ɡ/, when following /l/ or in intervocalic positions, can be heard as [j, ɣ].
• /ɾ/ can also occasionally occur as a trill [r].^[4]

Vowels

See also

• Belinda Dann
• Loongkoonan
• Butcher Joe Nangan

References

• Capell, A. (1952–1953). "Notes on the Njigina and Warwa tribes, N.W. Australia". Mankind. 4 (9): 351–360, 450–496. doi:10.1111/j.1835-9310.1952.tb00261.x.
• Dixon, R. M. W. (2002). Australian Languages: Their Nature and Development. Cambridge University Press.
• Muecke, Stephen (2004). "A Chance to Hear a Nyigina Song". In Ryan, J. (ed.). Imagining Australia: Literature and Culture in the New New World. Wallace-Crabbe, C. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Committee on Australian Studies. pp. 123–135. ISBN 978-0-674-01573-9.
• Stokes, B. (1982). A description of Nyigina, a language of the West Kimberley, Western Australia. PhD dissertation. Australian National University.

External links

• The film "Mad Bastards" (2010) depicting Nyikina language and culture

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