| Also Known As: Wongaidya,Tjura,Noocoona,Doora,Pukunna,Nukuna,Nookoona,Njuguna,Wallaroo,Tyura,Nukunu,Nukana,Nuguna,Nukunnu,Warra,Nokunna,Nukunu language
Description:
Nukunu (many other names; see below) is a moribund Australian Aboriginal language spoken by the Nukunu people in Yorke Peninsula, South Australia.
This language has been known by many names by neighboring tribes and Australianists, including:
Nukunu is a Pama-Nyungan language, closely related to neighboring languages in the Miru cluster like Narungga, Kaurna, and Ngadjuri.
Nukunu has three different vowels with contrastive long and short lengths (a, i, u, a:, i:, u:).
The Nukunu consonantal inventory is typical for a Pama-Nyungan language, with six places of articulation for stops and nasals. There are three rhotics in the language.
A phonemic voicing contrast exists in Nukunu, but it has only been observed in the retroflex stop series. An example demonstrating such a contrast intervocalically is kurdi (phlegm, IPA ['kuɖi]) and kurti (quandong, IPA ['kuʈi]).
In contrast with other Thura-Yura languages, Nukunu did not partake in either the initial th- lenition before vowels or the lenition of initial k- before vowels...... full article at Wikipedia |
