| Also Known As: Yidindji,Yiddinji,Gillah,Idin Idindji,Guwamal,Gijow,Warryboora,Jidindji,Warra-warra,Idin-wudjar,Eneby,Woggil,Deba,Gerrah,Maimbie,Yukkaburra,Kitba,Indindji,Yitintyi,Pegullo-bura,Yetinji,Yidin,Mungera Ohalo,Boolboora,Idinji,Yidini
Description:
Yidiny (also spelled Yidinj, Yidiɲ, Yidinʸ) is a nearly extinct Australian Aboriginal language, spoken by the Yidindji tribe of northern Queensland.
The Yidiny language has a number of particles that change the meaning of an entire clause. These, unlike other forms in the language, such as nouns, verbs and gender markers, have no grammatical case and take no tense inflections. The particles in the Yidiny language: nguju - 'not' (nguju also functions as the negative interjection 'no'), giyi - 'don't', biri - 'done again', yurrga - 'still', mugu - 'couldn't help it' (mugu refers to something unsatisfactory but that is impossible to avoid doing), jaymbi / jaybar - 'in turn'. E.g. 'I hit him and he jaymbi hit me', 'He hit me and I jaybar hit him'.
In common with several other Australian Aboriginal languages, Yidiny is an agglutinative ergative-absolutive language. There are many affixes which indicate a number of different grammatical concepts, such as the agent of an action (shown by -nggu), the ablative case (shown by -mu or -m), the past tense (shown by -nyu) and the present and future tenses (both represented with the affix -ng). There are also two affixes which lengthen the last..... full article at Wikipedia |
