Yalarnnga language
Extinct Australian Aboriginal language
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Yalarnnga (also Jalarnnga, Jalanga, Yelina, Yellunga, Yellanga, Yalarrnnga, Yalanga or Yalluna[2]) is an extinct Australian Aboriginal language of the Pama–Nyungan language family, that may be related to the Kalkatungu language.[1][3] It was formerly spoken by the Yalarnnga people in areas near the Gulf of Carpentaria the towns of Dajarra and Cloncurry in far northwestern Queensland.[3][4] The last native speaker died in 1980.[5] It is a suffixing agglutinative language with no attested prefixes.[2]
| Yalarnnga | |
|---|---|
| Region | Queensland |
| Ethnicity | Yalarnnga |
| Extinct | 1980 |
Pama–Nyungan
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | ylr |
| Glottolog | yala1262 |
| AIATSIS[1] | G8 |
| ELP | Yalarnnga |
Classification
Yalarnnga is sometimes grouped with Kalkatungu as the Kalkatungic (Galgadungic) branch of the Pama–Nyungan family. O'Grady et al.,[6] however, classify Kalkatungu as the sole member of the "Kalkatungic group" of the Pama-Nyungan family, and Dixon (2002)[7] regards Kalkatungic as an areal group.
Phonology
Consonants
Vowels
| Phoneme/Sound | Allophones | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| /i/ | [ɪ] | in unstressed or lax positions |
| [iˑ] | as a realization of the sequence /ji/ | |
| [i] | elsewhere | |
| /a/ | [ə, ɐ] | in unstressed or lax positions |
| [æ, ɛ] | when within the position of palatal sounds | |
| [ɑ] | when stressed and preceded by peripheral consonants | |
| [ɒ] | when stressed and preceded by /w/ | |
| [ä] | elsewhere | |
| /u/ | [ʉ, y] | when within the position of palatal sounds |
| [ʊ] | in unstressed or lax positions | |
| [o] | occasionally in word-final positions | |
| [u] | elsewhere |
