Native speakers 2 (2005) | ||
Language family Pama–NyunganPamanSouthwesternUpperKunjen Dialects Uw OykangandUw OlkolaOgh-UndjanKawarrang ISO 639-3 Either:kjn – Oykangandolk – Olkol | ||
Kunjen, or Uw, is a Paman language spoken on the Cape York Peninsula of Queensland, Australia, by the Uw Oykangand people, Uw Olkola, and related peoples. It is closely related to Kuuk Thaayorre, and perhaps Kuuk Yak.
Contents
Two of its dialects, Uw Olkola (Olgolo) and Uw Oykangand (Koko Wanggara), are very close, being mutually intelligible and sharing 97% of their core vocabulary. Another two, Ogh-Undjan and Kawarrangg, are also close, but somewhat more distant from the first pair. Kokinj (Kokiny) is a subdialect of Ogh-Undjan. Glottolog reports a variety Athima, but this is not documented at AIATSIS.
Below is a table showing the mutual intelligibility in vocabulary between the Kunjen dialects, based on a list of 100 basic words.
A small dictionary of Kunjen has been compiled by Philip Hamilton.
Respect register
As in many other Australian languages, such as Dyirbal, Kunjen also has a respect register, which is a polite way of speaking with a potential mother-in-law and is called Olkel-Ilmbanhthi. Most of the vocabulary is replaced, while affixes and function words are kept.
The sentence below is in normal Uw Oykangand:
Alka-nhdh idu-rr ayspear-instr spear-pst I"I speared it with a spear"The equivalent in Olkel-Ilmbanhthi is:
Udnga-nhdh yanganyunyja-rr ayspear-instr spear-pst I"I speared it with a spear"Vowels
Kunjen has 5 vowels:
There is a lexical vowel harmony constraint in Kunjen: Close and mid vowels do not co-occur in a word.
Consonants
Kunjen has 27 consonants: