Alawa language

This article is about the Australian language. For the Cushitic language, see Alawa language (Tanzania).

Alawa (Galawa) is a moribund Indigenous Australian language spoken by the Alawa people of the Northern Territory. In 1991, there were reportedly 18 remaining speakers and 4 semi-speakers.^[3]

Alawa
Native to	Australia
Region	Northern Territory; Arnhem Land, Roper River.
Ethnicity	Alawa
Native speakers	5 (2021 census)[1]
Language family	Macro-Pama-Nyungan? Macro-Gunwinyguan Marran? Alawa
Language codes
ISO 639-3	alh
Glottolog	alaw1244
AIATSIS[2]	N92
ELP	Alawa
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Phonology

Consonants

Alawa has a typical consonant inventory for an Indigenous Australian language, with five contrastive places of articulation, multiple lateral consonants, and no voicing contrast among the stops.^[4]

Consonant phonemes

	Alveolar		Palatal	Peripheral
	Alveolar	Retroflex	Alveo-palatal	Velar	Bilabial
Prenasalised Stop	ⁿd	ⁿɖ	ⁿd̠ʲ	ᵑɡ	ᵐb
Devoiced Stop	t	ʈ	t̠ʲ	k	p
Nasals	n	ɳ	n̠ʲ	ŋ	m
Laterals	l	ɭ	l̠ʲ
Vibrants	r
Glide	ɹ		j	w

Note: there are no standardised IPA symbols for alveopalatal stops.

Vowels

The vowel system of Alawa is made up of four vowel phonemes: the high front vowel /i/, the high back vowel /u/, the mid front vowel /e/, and the low central vowel /a/.^[4]

Vowel phonemes

	Front	Central	Back
High	i		u
Mid	e
Low		a

There are no rounding contrasts or length contrasts in this language.^[4]

Vocabulary

Capell (1942) lists the following basic vocabulary items:^[5]

gloss	Alawa
man	lilmi
woman	girija
head	guɽuguɽu
eye	gulur
nose	gujumur
mouth	ŋaːndal
tongue	djeːjälŋ
stomach	gundjäl
bone	galawa
blood	ŋulidji
kangaroo	girimbọ
opossum	gudjaɳi
emu	djinaliri
crow	waŋgunaji
fly	wuɳɖil
sun	marawaɭbaɭ
moon	aɖaŋari
fire	wubu
smoke	guŋuŋu
water	ŋọgọ

See also

• Glenn M. Wightman (1991), Alawa ethnobotany: Aboriginal plant use from Minyerri, northern Australia, vol. 11, Conservation Commission of the Northern Territory, Wikidata Q109466390