| Also Known As: Ibadjo,Eiwaja,Limba,Iwaidji,Karadjee,Jiwadja,Iwaydja
Description:
Iwaidja, in phonemic spelling Iwaja, is an Australian language with about 150 speakers in northernmost Australia. Historically from the base of the Cobourg Peninsula, it is now spoken on Croker Island. It is still being learned by children.
Iwaidja has three vowels, /a, i, u/, and the following consonants:
Iwaidja has extensive morphophonemic alteration. For example, body parts occur with possessive prefixes, and these alter the first consonant in the root:
Both the words arm and to be sick originally started with an /m/, as shown in related languages such as Maung. The pronominal prefix for it, its altered the first consonant of the root. In Iwaidja, this form extended to the masculine and feminine, so that gender distinctions were lost, and the prefix disappeared, leaving only the consonant mutation — a situation perhaps unique in Australia, but not unlike that of the Celtic languages.
The Iwaidja languages are nearly unique among the languages of the world in using verbs for kin terms. Nouns are used for direct address, but transitive verbs in all other cases. In English something similar is done in special cases: he fathered a child; she mothers him too much. But these do not..... full article at Wikipedia |
