Native speakers 1,300 (2006 census) Glottolog anin1240 | ISO 639-3 aoi AIATSIS N151 | |
Region Groote Eylandt in the Gulf of Carpentaria, Northern Territory, Australia Language family Arnhem?
East Arnhem?
Enindhilyagwa | ||
Enindhilyagwa (also Anindilyakwa and several other names; see below) is an Australian Aboriginal language spoken by the Warnindhilyagwa people on Groote Eylandt in the Gulf of Carpentaria in the Northern Territory of Australia. A 2001 Australian government study identified more than 1000 speakers of the language, although there are reports of as many as three thousand. In 2008, it was cited in a study on whether humans had an innate ability to count without having words for numbers. While the language traditionally had terms for numbers up to 20, they are no longer known to younger speakers.
Contents
Enindhilyagwa may be most closely related to Nunggubuyu, on the adjacent mainland, but that is yet to be confirmed.
Names
Spellings of the name include:
It also known as Groote Eylandt, after its location. Another name is Ingura or Yingguru.
Classification
Once left as a language isolate, Enindhilyagwa has been linked with the Arnhem languages of the mainland.
Vowels
The analysis of Enindhilyagwa's vowels is open to interpretation. Stokes analyses it as having four phonemic vowels, /i e a u/. Leeding analyses it as having just two, /ɨ a/.
Phonotactics
All Enindhilyagwa words end in a vowel. Clusters of up to three consonants can occur within words.
Noun classes
Enindhilyagwa has five noun classes, or genders, each marked by a prefix:
For bound pronouns, instead of "human male" and "non-human male" classes there is a single "male" class.
All native nouns carry a class prefix, but some loanwords may lack them.
Numerals
According to Stokes the language traditionally had numerals up to twenty but since the introduction of English, English words are now used almost exclusively for numbers above five.
Example
This song is a translation of the church song "This is the day", sung by the local churchgoers in the community of Angurugu. The spelling and translation requires confirmation.