Nyigina language

Nyikina (also Nyigina, Njigina) is an Australian Aboriginal language of Western Australia, spoken by the Nyigina people.

Nyikina
Region	Lower Fitzroy River, Western Australia
Ethnicity	Nyigina
Native speakers	61 (2016 census)[1]
Language family	Nyulnyulan Eastern Nyikina
Writing system	Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3	nyh
Glottolog	nyig1240
AIATSIS[2]	K3
ELP	Nyikina

Warrwa may have been a dialect.

Classification

R. M. W. Dixon (2002) regards Nyikina, Warrwa, Yawuru and Jukun as a single language.

Nyikina is placed in the Nyulnyulan family of non-Pama–Nyungan languages.

Traditional lands of Australian Aboriginal tribes around Derby, Western Australia^[3]

Phonology

Consonants

	Peripheral		Laminal	Apical
	Labial	Velar	Palatal	Alveolar	Retroflex
Plosive	b	ɡ	ɟ	d	ɖ
Nasal	m	ŋ	ɲ	n	ɳ
Lateral			ʎ	l	ɭ
Tap				ɾ
Approximant	w		j		ɻ

• Sounds /ɟ, ɡ/, when following /l/ or in intervocalic positions, can be heard as [j, ɣ].
• /ɾ/ can also occasionally occur as a trill [r].^[4]

Vowels

	Front	Back
High	i	u
Low	a

Phoneme	Allophones
/i/	[i], [ɪ]
/a/	[ä], [ɑ], [ʌ], [æ]
/u/	[u], [ʊ]

See also

• Belinda Dann
• Loongkoonan
• Butcher Joe Nangan