Нюнгарский язык

Nyungar ( / п J ʊ ŋ ɡ ər / , также Noongar ) является язык австралийских аборигенов или диалекте континуум , до сих пор говорят некоторые члены Noongar общины, которые живут в юго - западном углу Западной Австралии . Перепись 1996 г. зафиксировала 157 говорящих; это число увеличилось до 232 к 2006 году. Строгость сбора данных Австралийским бюро статистики данных переписи населения подверглась сомнению, и количество говорящих, как полагают, значительно выше. ^[3]

Нунгар был впервые записан в 1801 году Мэтью Флиндерсом , который составил несколько списков слов. ^[4]

Диалекты / языки ньюнгарской подгруппы [ править ]

Принято считать, что до европейского заселения не существовало единого стандартного ньюнгарского (или нунгарского) языка: это была подгруппа (или, возможно, диалектный континуум ) близкородственных языков, носители которых были дифференцированы географически (а в некоторых случаях и культурно) практики). Диалекты слились в современный ньюнгарский язык после колонизации. Конференция 1990 года, организованная Консультативным советом проекта нюнгарского языка, признала, что подгруппа нюнгарского языка включает как минимум три различных языка. Это было подчеркнуто в Нунгарском словаре 2011 года под редакцией Бернарда Руни, который был основан на диалекте / языке юат (джуат) из северо-западной части области подгруппы нюнгар. ^[5]

Выделенная область карты, показанная справа, может соответствовать ньюнгарской подгруппе. Показанные подразделения соответствуют отдельным диалектам / языкам. В современном ньюнгарском эти диалекты / языки слились. В некоторых случаях существуют разногласия относительно того, были ли все эти диалекты / языки частью первоначальной ньюнгарской подгруппы. Некоторые из них могли быть разными языками, а некоторые принадлежали к соседним подгруппам.

Многие лингвисты полагают, что самый северный показанный язык, Амангу, не входил в подгруппу нюнгар, а был частью подгруппы Карту и, возможно, был диалектом языка Карту нханда . (Таким образом, Амангу мог быть синонимом диалекта, известного как Нхангагарди, который в разное время также классифицировался как часть Нханда, Нюнгар или Види .)

Существует общее мнение о том, что следующие диалекты / языки принадлежат к подгруппе нюнгар : ^[2] уджари, минанг, бибельман (он же Пибельман; Биббулман), ^[6] канеанг (каниянг), варданди, балардунг (он же Баллардонг; вероятно, включал Тьяпанмай / Джабанмай) и Юат (Джуат).

Вильман, Ваджук (Ваджук) и пинджаруп также обычно считаются диалектами ньюнгарского, хотя такая идентификация не совсем безопасна. ^{[ необходима цитата ]}

Считается, что коренг (горенг) люди говорили на диалекте уджари или были тесно связаны с ним, и в этом случае их язык был бы частью подгруппы нюнгар. ^{[ необходима цитата ]}

Ньякинджаки (Ньякиньяки), возможно, был диалектом Калаамая - языка, связанного с исходной ньюнгарской подгруппой, но отделенного от нее. ^[6]

Неясно, значительно ли отличался диалект нджунга (или нунга) от вуджари. Однако, согласно Норману Тиндейлу, народ нджунга отверг название Вуджари и перенял некоторые обычаи своих восточных соседей, не говорящих на ньюнгарском языке, Нгаджунмая . ^[7]

Документация [ править ]

Названия Nyungar для птиц были включены в Serventy и Whittell «ы птиц Западной Австралии (1948), отмечая их региональные вариации. ^[8] Более поздний обзор и синтез записанных названий и консультации с ньюнгарами позволили составить список рекомендованной орфографии и произношения для птиц (2009 г.), встречающихся в регионе. ^[8] Автор, Ян Эбботт, также опубликовал эти рекомендации для растений (1983 г.) и млекопитающих (2001 г.) и предложил заменить ими другие общеупотребительные термины. ^[9]

Несколько небольших списков слов были записаны в первые дни существования колонии Суон-Ривер , например, публикация Роберта Менли Лайона 1833 года «Взгляд на манеры и язык аборигенов Западной Австралии» . Лион получил большую часть своей информации от Ягана, когда Яган находился в заключении на острове Карнак . Несмотря на то, что Лайонская работа была первой в своем роде, дневник Джорджа Флетчера Мура, переизданный в 1884 году, описал лионскую работу как «содержащую много неточностей и много фантастики». ^[10] В августе и октябре 1839 г. в Perth Gazette были опубликованыСловарь аборигенов Западной Австралии, написанный лейтенантом Греем из 83-го полка HM. ^{[11] [12]} Грей провел двенадцать месяцев, изучая языки ньюнгарцев, и пришел к выводу, что между ними было много общего, незадолго до публикации он получил от мистера Бассела из района Басселтон список из 320 слов из этого региона, который был почти идентичен тем, что он собрал в районе реки Суон. Работа Грея, к его большому разочарованию, была опубликована в незаконченном списке, когда он покидал колонию, но он полагал, что публикация поможет в общении между поселенцами и людьми ньюнгара. Также было отмечено, что Грэй язык Nyungar не имел мягкий гр sound, there was no use of f and that h was very rarely used and never at the start of a word.^[13]

Serious documentation of the Nyungar language began in 1842 with the publication of A Descriptive Vocabulary of the Language in Common Use Amongst the Aborigines of Western Australia by George Fletcher Moore, later republished in 1884 as part of the diary of George Fletcher Moore. This work included a substantial wordlist of Nyungar. The first modern linguistic research on Nyungar was carried out by Gerhardt Laves on the variety known as "Goreng", near Albany in 1930, but this material was lost for many years and has only recently been recovered. Beginning in the 1930s and then more intensively in the 1960s Wilfrid Douglas learnt and studied Nyungar, eventually producing a grammar, dictionary, and other materials.^[14] More recently Nyungar people have taken a major role in this work as researchers, for example Rose Whitehurst who compiled the Noongar Dictionary in her work for the Noongar Language and Culture Centre.^[15] Tim McCabe has recently finished a PhD in the Nyungar language, having been taught a variety of the language by Clive Humphreys of Kellerberrin, and is teaching Nyungar to inmates in Perth prisons.

Peter Bindon and Ross Chadwick have compiled an authoritative cross referenced "A Nyoongar Wordlist: from the South West of Western Australia", by assembling material from all of the above writers in their original spelling. It is clear from this reference that the orthographies used did not only reflect dialectical differences, but also how the various authors "heard" and transcribed spoken Nyungar.^[16]

Current situation[edit]

An English dialect with Nyungar admixture, known as Neo-Nyungar, is spoken by perhaps 8,000 ethnic Nyungar.^[18]

Since the late 20th century, there has been increased interest in reviving the Nyungar/Noongar language, including ambitious plans to teach it at many schools throughout the state.

Noongar Language Centre[edit]

The Noongar Language and Culture Centre was set up at the Bunbury Aboriginal Progress Association in 1986, and grew to include offices in Northam and Perth. Authors such as Charmaine Bennell have released several books in the language.^[19] Educators Glenys Collard and Rose Whitehurst started recording elders speaking using Noongar language in 1990.^[20]

In 1997 at a meeting of around 200 Noongar people at Marribank, a standard orthography was agreed on for teaching the language in schools. A unanimous vote decided that the language would be spelt "Nyoongar", but later, as teaching and learning resources were being developed for the Languages Other Than English (LOTE) curriculum which would be taught in schools, it was decided to change to "Noongar".^[21]

By 2010, 37 schools in the South West and Perth were teaching the language.^[20]

In 2014, the Noongar Boodjar Language Cultural Aboriginal Corporation (NBLCAC) was incorporated, and the Commonwealth Government provided funding for four years from 2015 under the Indigenous Languages Support program to establish the Noongar Language Centre.^[21] The offices are located in Cannington.^[22]

Noongarpedia[edit]

In 2015 Professor Len Collard from the Indigenous Studies faculty at the University of Western Australia challenged the science behind the claim that it is an endangered language, citing the lack of rigour in the data. Collard began leading a project to create the "Noongarpedia", recording the language in a wiki format, allowing for expansion over time.^[3] The project is continuing as of April 2021^[update], with the site growing in the Wikimedia Incubator. It is the first Wikipedia in an Aboriginal Australian language site, but it is intended to be bilingual, so as to be used as a teaching aid in schools.^[23]

Daisy Bates Online[edit]

The collaborative work of digitising and transcribing many word lists created by ethnographer Daisy Bates in the 1900s at Daisy Bates Online^[24] provides a valuable resource for those researching, especially Western Australian languages.^[25] The project is co-ordinated by Nick Thieburger, who works in collaboration with the National Library of Australia "to have all the microfilmed images from Section XII of the Bates papers digitised".^[26] Started in 2017,^[24] the project is ongoing.^[26]

Language through the arts[edit]

Singer-songwriter Gina Williams has promoted the use of the language through song, including lullabies for children and a translation of the song "Moon River".^[27]

An adaption and translation of the Shakespearean tragedy Macbeth into Nyungar is on the programme for the 2020 Perth Festival. The play, named Hecate, is produced by Yirra Yaakin Theatre Company with Bell Shakespeare, and performed by an all-Noongar cast. The play took years to translate, and has sparked wider interest in reviving the language.^[27][28]

Phonology[edit]

The following are the sounds in the Noongar language:^[15]

Vowels[edit]

Consonants[edit]

Vocabulary[edit]

Many words vary in a regular way from dialect to dialect, depending on the area. For example: the words for bandicoot include quernt (south) and quenda (west); the word for water may be käip (south) or kapi (west), or the word for fire may vary from kaall to karl.

A large number of modern place names in Western Australia end in -up, such as Joondalup, Nannup and Manjimup. This is because in the Noongar language, -up means "place of". For example, the name Ongerup means "place of the male kangaroo".^[29] The word "gur", "ger" or "ker" in Noongar meant a gathering. Daisy Bates suggests that central to Noongar culture was the "karlupgur", referring to those that gather around the hearth (karlup).^[30]

Nyungar words which have been adopted into Western Australian English, or more widely in English, include the given name Kylie "boomerang",^[31] gilgie or jilgie, the freshwater crayfish Cherax quinquecarinatus, and gidgie or gidgee, "spear". The word for smoke, karrik, was adopted for the family of compounds known as karrikins. The word kodj "to be hit on the head" comes from the term for a stone axe.^[31] The word quokka, denoting a type of small macropod, is thought to come from Nyungar.^[32]

Pronunciation[edit]

Grammar[edit]

Nyungar grammar is fairly typical of Pama–Nyungan languages in that it is agglutinating, with words and phrases formed by the addition of affixes to verb and noun stems.^[33] Word order in Nyungar is free, but generally tends to follow a subject–object–verb pattern.^[34] Because there are several varieties of Nyungar,^[35] aspects of grammar, syntax and orthography are highly regionally variable.

Verbs[edit]

Like most Australian languages, Nyungar has a complex tense and aspect system.^[36] The plain verb stem functions as both the infinitive and the present tense. Verb phrases are formed by adding suffixes or adverbs to the verb stem.^[37]

The following adverbs are used to indicate grammatical tense or aspect.^[38][39]

• boorda           later (boorda ngaarn, “will eat later”)
• mila               future (mila ngaarn, “will eat after a while”)
• doora             conditional (doora ngaarn, “should eat”)

Some tense/aspect distinctions are indicated by use of a verb suffix. In Nyungar, the past or preterite tense is the same as the past participle.^[38]

• -iny           progressive (ngaarniny, “eating”)
• -ga            past (ngaarnga, “ate, had eaten”)

A few adverbs are used with the past tense to indicate the amount of time since the event of the verb took place.^[38]

• gorah              a long time (gorah gaarnga, “ate a long time ago”)
• karamb           a short time (karamb ngaarnga, “ate a little while ago”)
• gori                 just now (gori ngaarnga, “just ate”)

Nouns[edit]

There are no articles in Nyungar.^[40][41]Nouns (as well as adjectives) take a variety of suffixes which indicate grammatical case, specifically relating to motion or direction, among other distinctions.^[42][43]

• -(a)k           locative (boorn-ak, “in the tree”)
• -(a)k           purposive (daatj-ak, “for meat”)
• -(a)l            instrumental (kitj-al, “by means of a spear”)
• -an/ang       genitive (noon-an kabarli, “your grandmother”)
• -(a)p           place-of (boorn-ap, “place of trees”)
• -koorl          illative (keba-koorl, “towards the water”)
• -ool             ablative (kep-ool, “away from the water”)
• -ngat           adessive (keba-ngat, “near the water”)
• -(a)biny       translative (moorditj-abiny, “becoming strong”)
• -mokiny       semblative (dwert-mokiny, “like a dog”)
• -boorong      having or existing (moorn-boorong, “getting dark”)
• -broo           abessive (bwoka-broo, “without a coat”)
• -kadak         comitative (mereny-kadak, “with food”)
• -mit             used-for (kitjal baal daatj-mit barangin'y, “a spear is used for hunting kangaroos”)
• -koop          belong-to, inhabitant of (bilya-koop, “river dweller”)
• -djil             emphatic (kwaba-djil, “very good”)
• -mart           species or family (bwardong-mart, “crow species”)
• -(i)l             agentive suffix used with ergative

The direct object of a sentence (what might be called the Dative) can also be expressed with the locative suffix -ak.^[44][45]

Grammatical number is likewise expressed by the addition of suffixes. Nouns that end in vowels take the plural suffix -man, whereas nouns that end in consonants take -gar.^[46][47] Inanimate nouns, that is, nouns that do not denote human beings, can also be pluralized by the simple addition of a numeral.^[47]

Pronouns[edit]

Nyungar pronouns are declined exactly as nouns, taking the same endings.^[45][48] Thus, possessive pronouns are formed by the addition of the regular genitive suffix -ang.^[48] Conversely, object pronouns are formed by the addition of the -any suffix.^[48] Notably, there does not appear to be a great deal of pronominal variation across dialectal lines.^[46]

	Subject	Object	Possessive
I	ngany	nganyany	nganyang
he/she/it	baal	baalany	baalang
they	baalap	baalabany	baalabang
you	noonook	noonany	noonang
we	ngalak	ngalany	ngalang

Nyungar features a set of dual number pronouns which identify interpersonal relationships based on kinship or marriage. The “fraternal” dual pronouns are used by and for people who are siblings or close friends, “paternal” dual pronouns are used by and for people who are paternal relatives (parent-child, uncle-niece and so forth),^[49] and “marital” pronouns are used by and for people who are married to each other or are in-laws.^[50]

	Fraternal	Paternal	Marital
1st person	ngali	ngala	nganik
2nd person	nubal	nubal	nubin
3rd person	bula	bulala	bulen

Typically, if the subject of a sentence is not qualified by a numeral or adjective, a subject-marker pronoun is used. Thus: yongka baal boyak yaakiny (lit. “kangaroo it on-rock standing), “the kangaroo is standing on the rock.”^[51]

Adjectives[edit]

Adjectives precede nouns.^[51] Some adjectives form the comparative by addition of the suffix -jin but more generally the comparative is formed by reduplication, a common feature in Pama-Nyungan languages.^[52] The same is also true for intensified or emphatic adjectives, comparable to the English word “very”. The superlative is formed by the addition of -jil.^[53]

Negation[edit]

Statements are negated by adding the appropriate particle to the end of the sentence. There are three negation particles:

• bart              used generally with verbs
• yuada           used generally with adjectives

There is also an adverbial negation word, bru, roughly equivalent to the English “less” or “without”.^[54]

Interrogatives[edit]

Questions are formed by the addition of the interrogative interjection kannah alongside the infinitive root of the verb.^[55]

See also[edit]

• Boodjar Nyungar Placenames

References[edit]

External links[edit]

Noongar test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator

• Bibliography of Bibbulman language and people resources, at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
• Noongarpedia word list (under construction)
• Billardong Noongar Waangkany Ballardong Noongar dictionary