Kayardild language

Kayardild is a moribund Tangkic language spoken by 43 of the Kaiadilt on the South Wellesley Islands, north west Queensland, Australia. Other members of the family include Yangkaal (spoken by the Yangkaal people), Lardil, and Yukulta (Ganggalidda).

Kayardild
Kaiadilt
Region	South Wellesley Islands, north west Queensland, Australia
Ethnicity	Kaiadilt, Yanggal
Native speakers	43 (2021 census)[1]
Language family	Macro-Pama–Nyungan? Tangkic Kayardild
Dialects	Kayardild Yangkaal †[2]
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Either: gyd – Kayardild nny – Yangkaal/Nyangga (two different languages)
Glottolog	kaya1318
AIATSIS[1]	G35 Kayardild, G37 Yangkaal
ELP	Kayardild
	Yangkaal[3]
Kayardild Traditional area
Kayardild is classified as Critically Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger

Kayardild is a critically endangered language, considered near-extinct.^[4] In 1981, there were around fifty native speakers of Kayardild. The number of speakers of Kayardild significantly reduced since the 1940s as a result of the stolen generations.^[5] By 1981, there were fifty known native speakers.^[5] In the 2016 census, there were eight,^[6] and this number increased to 43 in 2021.^[1]

Phonology

Kayardild consonant phonemes^[7]

	Peripheral		Laminal		Apical
	Bilabial	Velar	Palatal	Dental	Alveolar	Retroflex
Plosive	p	k	c	t̪	t	ʈ
Nasal	m	ŋ	ɲ	n̪	n	ɳ
Trill					r
Lateral					l
Approximant	w		j		ɻ

Kayardild vowel phonemes^[7]

	Front	Back
Close	i iː	u uː
Open	a aː

Grammar

Kayardild is known for its many unusual case phenomena, including case stacking of up to four levels, the use of clause-level case to signal interclausal relations and pragmatic factors, and another set of 'verbal case' endings which convert their hosts from nouns into verbs morphologically. It is also well-known for only allowing subordination one level deep. Kayardild is the only known spoken language where tense markers appear on both nouns and verbs.^[8]

Speakers tend to have a preference for subject–object–verb word order.^[9]