Wadjiginy, also known as Wagaydy (Wogait) and Batjamalh, is an Australian Aboriginal language. Apart from being closely related to Kandjerramalh, it is not known to be related to any other language, though it has borrowed grammatical and lexical material from neighboring Northern Daly languages.[1]

Wadjiginy
Wogait
Patjtjamalh
Native toAustralia
RegionDaly River
EthnicityWadjiginy
Native speakers
5 (2005)[1]
Wagaydyic
  • Wadjiginy
Language codes
ISO 639-3wdj
Glottologwadj1254
AIATSIS[1]N31
ELPBatjamalh
Linguasphere28-fbb-a

Wadjiginy was spoken in the Northern Territory.

Wadjiginy (Wadyiginy, Wagaydy, Wogaity) is the name of the people; this native language is Patjtjamalh (Batjamalh, Batytyamalh).[1]

Phonology

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Consonants

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Peripheral Laminal Apical
Labial Velar Dental Palatal Alveolar Retroflex
Stop p~b k~ɡ c~ɟ t~d ʈ~ɖ
Nasal m ŋ ɲ n ɳ
Lateral l ɭ
Rhotic r ɻ
Approximant w j
  • Voiceless stop sounds may also fluctuate to voiced sounds when in word-initial, intervocalic, post-nasal, and post-liquid positions.
  • /k, p/ can also be heard as fricatives [ɣ], [β] when in intervocalic and post-liquid positions.
  • /w/ can be heard as a bilabial approximant [β̞] when before front vowels /i, ɛ, ø/.

Vowels

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Front Back
High i ø~y ʊ
Mid ɛ
Low a
  • /ø/ can also be realized as a higher [y] sound as well as [ø].[2]
Phoneme Allophones
/i/ [i], [ɨ̞], [ɪ]
/ʊ/ [ʊ], [o]
/ɛ/ [ɛ], [ɜ]
/ø/ [ø], [y]
/a/ [a], [ä], [ɑ]

Vocabulary

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Capell (1940) lists the following basic vocabulary items:[3]

gloss Woːgaidj
man ŋanan
woman ŋoalaŋ
head bödja
eye miba
nose widja
mouth ŋaːg
tongue ŋaːɖal
stomach bɛnman
bone big
blood gavin
kangaroo mudj
opossum dadjädaid
crow wagwag
fly mul
sun qeig
moon qaɽa
fire vin
smoke wingar
water wiːg
damn šgààÿp

References

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  1. ^ a b c d N31 Wadjiginy at the Australian Indigenous Languages Database, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
  2. ^ Ford, Lysbeth J. (1990). The phonology and morphology of Bachamal (Wogait). Canberra: Australian National University.
  3. ^ Capell, Arthur (1940). "The Classification of Languages in North and North-west Australia". Oceania. 10 (3): 241–272. doi:10.1002/j.1834-4461.1940.tb00292.x. ISSN 1834-4461.
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