Nyulnyul language

Nyulnyul is an extinct Australian Aboriginal language, formerly spoken by the Nyulnyul people of Western Australia.

Nyulnyul
Region	Western Australia
Ethnicity	Nyulnyul people
Extinct	1999, with the death of Carmel Charles
Language family	Nyulnyulan Western Nyulnyul
Writing system	Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3	nyv
Glottolog	nyul1247
AIATSIS[1]	K13
ELP	Nyulnyul

Mary Carmel Charles is documented as the last fluent speaker of the Nyulnyul language of Western Australia.^[2]

Phonology

Consonants

Nyulnyul has seventeen consonant phonemes, with five distinct places of articulation. yulnyul is a morphologically complex language with both prefixing and suffixing.^[3]

Consonant phonemes

	Bilabial	Apico-alveolar	Apico-post-alveolar	Lamino-palatal	Dorso-velar
Stops	b ⟨b⟩	d ⟨d⟩	ɖ ⟨rd⟩	c ⟨j⟩	g ⟨g⟩
Nasals	m ⟨m⟩	n ⟨n⟩	ɳ ⟨rn⟩	ɲ ⟨ny⟩	ŋ ⟨ng⟩
Laterals		l ⟨l⟩	ɭ ⟨rl⟩	ʎ ⟨ly⟩
Taps		r ⟨rr⟩
Glides	w ⟨w⟩		ɻ ⟨r⟩	j ⟨y⟩

Vowels

Nyulnyul uses a three vowel system, with contrastive length for all vowels.^[4]

Vowel phonemes

	Front	Back
Close	i [i], ii [iː]	u [u], uu [uː]
Open	a [a], a [aː]

Classification

Nyulnyul is very closely related to and was possibly mutually intelligible with Bardi, Jawi, Jabirrjabirr and Nimanburru. These are all members of the Western Nyulnyulan subgroup of Nyulnyulan, a non-Pama-Nyungan family of northern Australia. It is possible that Ngumbarl also belongs to this group, although Bowern makes arguments from the Daisy Bates/Billingee records that Ngumbarl is an Eastern Nyulnyulan language.^[5] Speakers consider these all to be distinct.

Grammar

Nyulnyul is a morphologically complex language with both prefixing and suffixing.^[6]: 43 The language has an ergative alignment system. Nouns do not have classes, but case on phrases is marked through bound postpositions. Verbs roots are inflected for person and number of its subject, tense, mood and voice through prefixes. A number of suffixes with different meanings can also optionally be used.^[6]: 44 Verbs are also used in compound verb constructions where a non-inflecting preverb is used together with an inflected verb. The language also has a number of adverbs and particles.

Clauses can also be constructed without the use of verbs when presentative, attributive or identifying. The word order is free.^[6]: 45