Yanyuwa language

Yanyuwa
Yanyuwa
Pronunciation[jaṉuwa]
Native toAustralia
RegionNorthern Territory
EthnicityYanyuwa, Wadiri
Native speakers
47 (2021 census)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3jao
Glottologyany1243
AIATSIS[2]N153
ELPYanyuwa
Yanyuwa is the patch of yellow on the northern coast, between the orange and the green.
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Yanyuwa (Yanyuwa pronunciation: [jaṉuwa]) is the language of the Yanyuwa people of the Sir Edward Pellew Group of Islands in the Gulf of Carpentaria outside Borroloola (Yanyuwa: Burrulula) in the Northern Territory, Australia.

Yanyuwa, like many other Australian Aboriginal languages, is a highly agglutinative language with ergative-absolutive alignment, whose grammar is pervaded by a set of 16 noun classes whose agreements are complicated and numerous.

Yanyuwa is a critically endangered language. The anthropologist John Bradley has worked with the Yanyuwa people for three decades and is also a speaker of Yanyuwa. He has produced a large dictionary and grammar of the language,[3] along with a cultural atlas in collaboration with a core group of senior men and women.

  1. ^ Australian Bureau of Statistics (2021). "Cultural diversity: Census". Retrieved 13 October 2022.
  2. ^ N153 Yanyuwa at the Australian Indigenous Languages Database, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
  3. ^ Bradley, John (with Yanyuwa families). 2016. Wuka nya-nganunga li-Yanyuwa li-Anthawirriyarra – Language for Us, The Yanyuwa Saltwater People. Australian Scholarly Publishing. ISBN 978-1925003673.