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Barranbinja language

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Barranbinja
Native toAustralia
RegionNew South Wales
EthnicityBarranbinya
Extinct1979, with the death of Emily Margaret Horneville
Pama–Nyungan
  • Southeastern?
Language codes
ISO 639-3None (mis)
Glottologbarr1252
AIATSIS[1]D26
Barranbinja (green) among other Pama–Nyungan languages (tan)

Barranbinja or Barrabinya is an extinct Australian Aboriginal language of New South Wales.[2] The last speaker was probably Emily Margaret Horneville (d. 1979), who was recorded by Lynette Oates who then published a short description of it.[3] It had also been recorded by R.H. Mathews along with Muruwari,[4] though not all items in his wordlist were recognised by Horneville. Both Mathews and Oates conclude that Barranbinya and Muruwari were in a dialect relation.

Relationship with other languages

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Lynette Oates' work on Muruwari and Barranbinya gives a cognate count of 44% between the two varieties, concluding that both were likely in a dialect relation.[3] R.H. Mathews (1903), who recorded both Muruwari and Barranbinya, also commented that besides vocabulary differences, the grammar of both Muruwari and Barranbinya were essentially the same.[4]

Together, Muruwari and Barranbinya form an isolate group within the Pama-Nyungan language family, and were very different in many respects from their geographic neighbours (which belong to many different Pama-Nyungan subgroups).[3] For more information, see the description for Muruwari.

Phonology

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Phonemic inventory

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The phonemic inventory is very similar to Muruwari, although the relative paucity of data means that the status of many phonemes is not clear (in round brackets).[3]

Consonant phonemes
Peripheral Apical Laminal
Velar Labial Retroflex Alveolar Palatal Dental
Stops ⟨g⟩ /k/ ⟨b⟩ /p/ ⟨rd⟩* /ʈ/ ⟨d⟩ /t/ ⟨dy⟩* /c/ ⟨dh⟩ //
Nasals ⟨ng⟩ /ŋ/ ⟨m⟩ /m/ ⟨rn⟩* /ɳ/ ⟨n⟩ /n/ ⟨ny⟩* /ɲ/ ⟨nh⟩ //
Laterals (⟨rl⟩* /ɭ/) ⟨l⟩* /l/ (⟨ly⟩* /ʎ/) (⟨lh⟩* //)
Rhotics ⟨r⟩* /ɻ/ (⟨R⟩* /ɾ/)
⟨rr⟩* /r/
Semivowels ⟨w⟩ /w/ ⟨y⟩ /j/

All phonemes except those with a star (*) may be word-initial.

Vowel phonemes
Front Central Back
High ⟨i⟩ /i/,
⟨ii⟩ //
⟨u⟩ /u/,
⟨uu⟩ //
Low ⟨a⟩ /a/,
⟨aa⟩ //

[3]

Phonotactics

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Nearly all words end in a vowel, though there are some rare occurrences of word-final -ny and -n, which is in stark contrast with neighbouring Muruwari and Ngiyambaa, where word-final nasals and approximants are very common. Oates speculates that this may be he result of influence from Paakantyi and other western languages, which also display a preference for word-final vowels.

References

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  1. ^ D26 Barranbinja at the Australian Indigenous Languages Database, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
  2. ^ Dixon, R. M. W. (2002). Australian Languages: Their Nature and Development. Cambridge University Press. p. xxxv.
  3. ^ a b c d e Oates, Lynette (1988). "Barranbinya: Fragments of a N.S.W. Aboriginal language". Papers in Australian Linguistics. 17: 185–204.
  4. ^ a b Mathews, Robert Hamilton (1903). "The Burranbinya language". Proceedings and Transactions of the Royal Geographic Society of Australia, Queensland. 18 (57).