Social:Jarrakan languages

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Short description: Language family of northern Australia
Jarragan
Jarrakan, Djeragan
Geographic
distribution
from Halls Creek to Wyndham and Kununurra along the Ord River in the eastern Kimberley region
Linguistic classificationOne of the world's primary language families
Subdivisions
  • Kija
  • Miriwoongic
Glottologjarr1235[1]
Jarragan languages (purple), among other non-Pama-Nyungan languages (grey)
NotesSee Gija Dictionary (Kofod et al., 2022) for standard orthography.

The Jarragan (formerly, Jarrakan or Djeragan) languages are a small family of Australian Aboriginal languages spoken in northern Australia. The name is derived from the word jarrag, which means "language" in Kija.

The three main Jarragan languages are:

  • Jarragan
    • Gija (about 160 speakers)
    • Miriwoongic
      • Miriwoong (about 150 speakers)
      • Gajirrawoong [2]

These are divided into two groups: Gijic, consisting of only Gija, and Miriwoongic, consisting of Miriwoong and Gajirrawoong; Dixon (2002) considers the latter to be a single language.

Doolboong may also have been a Jarragan language, but this is uncertain as it is extinct and essentially unattested.

Vocabulary

Capell (1940) lists the following basic vocabulary items:[3]

English Gija Guluwarin Miriwun Gadjerong
man djiːlin djiɣilin djawalaŋ djɔːmaŋ
woman ŋaːlil ŋaːlil gawilaŋ gabilaŋ
head guŋgulïn dumun gaminduŋ guɽunjuŋ
eye muːlu mɔːla mɔːl moːl
nose manil njiganïn njumbur njumbur
mouth ḏuwundïn ḏuwundïn ḏalala ḏabandaṉ
tongue ḏalalan ḏalalan ḏalala ḏalalaŋ
stomach djaːm daɽwun galdjän raːriːŋ
bone gwïdji daːlïn jaːriŋ jaːriŋ
blood gjauəlïn gjauldji garŋan guŋulu
kangaroo djiːriṉ djiriṉ djiːriŋ djiːriŋ
opossum laŋguṉ naŋguṉ guman guman
emu wanjäbal madjugul madjuguŋ
crow waŋgaɳa wɔŋgaral waŋgariŋ waŋgadiŋ
fly buɳul wurŋäl ŋurin ŋurin
sun baːndil baːndil gaŋiriṉ baːndiṉ
moon gaɳgiṉ gaɳgiṉ gangiŋ gaɳgiŋ
fire maɳiṉ gidjauəlïn gadjaːwilaŋ maːnuŋ
smoke wangiṉ dulubgari ḏuŋgi ḏuŋgiṉ
water guːɭiṉ goːliṉ gäluŋ gaːbuŋ

References

  1. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds (2017). "Jarrakan". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History. http://glottolog.org/resource/languoid/id/jarr1235. 
  2. "Census 2016, Language spoken at home by Sex (SA2+)". http://stat.data.abs.gov.au/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=ABS_C16_T09_SA. 
  3. Capell, Arthur. 1940. The Classification of Languages in North and North-West Australia. Oceania 10(3): 241-272, 404-433. doi:10.1002/j.1834-4461.1940.tb00292.x
  • McGregor, William (2004). The Languages of the Kimberley, Western Australia. London, New York: Taylor & Francis. p. 40. 

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