Last Updated: 2020-06-29
Note: Roughly 30% of Crúbadán is not transcribed - possibly due to loanwords or phonetic adaptation of the orthography
Background
Language Family: Australian / Pama-Nyungan / Yalandyic
- This language has a number of different names, including Gugu-Yalanji and Guugu Yalandji.
- Kuku-Yalanji is spoken in the Queensland state of Northern Australia.
- Kuku-Yalanji contains many English loanwords. According to Patz (1982), in recent decades, these loanwords have ceased being adapted to native phonology (p. 49).
Phonology
Consonants
- Kuku-Yalanji does not have a phonemic voicing distinction for stops (Patz 1982, 34). The voiced and voiceless allophones vary freely; however, stops tend to be voiced in intervocalic positions and in some consonant clusters, and voiceless elsewhere.
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Place of Articulation
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Manner of Articulation
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Labial
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Alveolar
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Retroflex
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Palatal
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Velar
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Stops
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p
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t
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c
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k
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Nasals
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m
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n
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ɲ
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ŋ
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Trills
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r
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Approximants
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w
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l
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ɻ
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j
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Vowels
- Kuku-Yalanji vowels do not have contrastive length, and do not form diphthongs (Patz 1982, 36).
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Front
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Central
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Back
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High
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i
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u
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Low
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a
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Alphabet
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Grapheme
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Phoneme
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a
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/a/
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b
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/p/
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d
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/t/
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i
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/i/
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j
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/c/
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k
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/k/
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l
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/l/
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m
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/m/
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n
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/n/
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r
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/ɻ/
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u
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/u/
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w
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/w/
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y
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/j/
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Diphthong
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ng
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/ŋ/
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ny
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/ɲ/
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rr
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/r/
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Syllable Structure
- Kuku-Yalanji has a (C)CV(C) syllable structure (Oates 1964, 23).
Lenition Rules
- Stops tend to be voiced intervocalically and in consonant clusters following /l/, /ɻ/, and the nasals (Patz 1982, 34).
- Intervocalic /t/ often taps to [ɾ] (Patz 1982, 32).
- /c/ is typically realized as an affricate (Patz 1982, 33).
- Intervocalic /r/ typically taps to [ɾ] (Patz 1982, 34).
Misc. Rules
- /r/ is often realized as a tap in normal speech (Patz 1982, 34).
- /l/ tends to velarize after /a/ or /u/ (ibid.).
- Word-initial /j/ can be dropped before /i/ or /a/; word-initial /w/ can be dropped before /u/ (Patz 1982, 36).
References
Oates, Lynette. 1964. “Distribution of Phonemes and Syllables in Gugu-Yalanji.” Anthropological Linguistics 6: 23–26.
Patz, Elisabeth. 1982. “A Grammar of the Kuku Yalanji Language of North Queensland.” PhD thesis, Australian National University.