Bunuba language

Bunuba
Bunaba, Bunapa, Punuba, Punapa, Punaba, Buniba
Native toWestern Australia
RegionKimberley (Western Australia)
EthnicityBunuba
Native speakers
150 (2021 census)[1]
Bunuban
  • Bunuba
Language codes
ISO 639-3bck
Glottologbuna1275
AIATSIS[2]K5
ELPBunuba
Bunuba Country near Fitzroy Crossing, Kimberley Region of Western Australia

Bunuba (Bunaba, Bunapa, Punuba, Punapa, Punaba, Buniba) is an Australian Aboriginal language spoken by some 41 older Bunuba adults, most of whom live in Junjuwa, an Aboriginal community in Fitzroy Crossing in Western Australia.[3] Bunuba is not related to the Pama-Nyungan language family that spans the majority of Australia; however, it is a relative of Guniyandi. Both are subgroups of the Bunuban language family.[4] Bunuba consists of two dialects, 'light' and 'heavy' Bunuba.[5][6]

Due to the growing concern of their language becoming extinct, the elders to maintain the use of Bunuba by passing on stories to younger community members around campfires at night. This is a way for Bunuba elders to prevent the extinction of their language, by passing it down through generations.[7] Language maintenance and revival has increased during the later decades of the 20th century and the early 21st century due to the growing documentation of Bunuba language, and the production of resources that have been written and used by Bunuba community members.

  1. ^ Australian Bureau of Statistics (2021). "Cultural diversity: Census". Retrieved 13 October 2022.
  2. ^ K5 Bunuba at the Australian Indigenous Languages Database, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
  3. ^ Anonymous (26 July 2019). "K5: Bunuba". collection.aiatsis.gov.au. Retrieved 4 January 2022.
  4. ^ Knight, Emily (2008). "7. Hyperpolysemy in Bunuba, a Polysynthetic Language of the Kimberley, Western Australia". In Goddard, Cliff (ed.). Cross-Linguistic Semantics. Amsterdam, Netherlands: John Benjamins Publishing Company. pp. 206. ISBN 9789027205698.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference :3 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference :5 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Language: Bunuba, Australia, retrieved 29 June 2019