Gunbarlang language

Gunbarlang
Warlang
Native to Australia
Region Arnhem Land
Native speakers
 19 (2006 census)[1]
Arnhem
Dialects
  • Djimbilirri
  • Gurrigurri
  • Gumunggurdu
  • Marrabanggu
  • Marranumbu
  • Gunguluwala[2]
Language codes
ISO 639-3 wlg
Glottolog kunb1251[3]
AIATSIS[1] N69

Gunbarlang (Kunbarlang) is an Australian Aboriginal language in northern Australia with multiple dialects. Other names are Gungalang and Warlang. Speakers are multilingual in Gunwinygu and Mawng. Most of the ethnic group now speaks Gunwinygu.[4]

Classification

Gunbarlang is tentatively included into the Marne group of Gunwinyguan family.[5]

Geographic distribution

Some Gunbarlang speakers live in Warruwi on South Goulburn Island and Maningrida. Historically, it was also spoken in Oenpelli.[6]

Grammar

Gunbarlang is a polysynthetic language with complex verb morphology. It includes polypersonal agreement, incorporation, and a number of derivational affixes. Word order in a (transitive) clause is SVO or SOV.[7]

Morphosyntax

Morphology is primarily agglutinating. Verbal morphology (rather than case marking or syntax) encodes a significant part of grammatical relations.

Verbal

The verb includes obligatory agreement with its core arguments in the form of bound pronouns. The subject/agent prefix precedes the object prefix. Subject prefixes form four mood series: positive indicative, "non-performative", future/intentional, and potential.[8]

The verb features derivational affixes, such as benefactive, directional, and TAM.

Nominal

Case in not marked on nouns and free pronouns, but bound pronouns follow nominative-accusative alignment.[9]

Gunbarlang distinguishes five noun classes on demonstratives (M, F, plants, body-parts, and inanimate), but only four on other constituents (collapsing the latter two).[10][11]

References

  1. 1 2 Gunbarlang at the Australian Indigenous Languages Database, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
  2. ↑ Dixon, R. M. W. (2002). Australian Languages: Their Nature and Development. Cambridge University Press. p. xl.
  3. ↑ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian, eds. (2016). "Kunbarlang". Glottolog 2.7. Jena: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  4. ↑ Gunbarlang at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  5. ↑ Evans, N. (2003). Bininj Gun-Wok: A Pan-Dialectal Grammar of Mayali, Kunwinjku and Kune. ANU. p. 33.
  6. ↑ Harris, J. K. (1969). Preliminary grammar of Gunbalang.
  7. ↑ Coleman, C. (1982). A Grammar of Gunbalang with Special Reference to Grammatical Relations.
  8. ↑ Dixon, R. M. W. (2002). Australian Languages: Their Nature and Development. Cambridge University Press. p. 338.
  9. ↑ Dixon, R. M. W. (2002). Australian Languages: Their Nature and Development. Cambridge University Press. p. 350.
  10. ↑ Coleman, C. (1982). A Grammar of Gunbalang with Special Reference to Grammatical Relations.
  11. ↑ Dixon, R. M. W. (2002). Australian Languages: Their Nature and Development. Cambridge University Press. p. 478.


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