Amurdak language
{{Short description|Endangered Iwaidjan language of Australia's Northern Territory}}
{{Expand language|topic=|langcode=ru|otherarticle=Амуртак|date=April 2024}}
{{Use Australian English|date=August 2018}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2018}}
{{Infobox language
| name = Amurdak
| region = Oenpelli, Goulburn Island, Northern Territory
| ethnicity = Amurdak
| speakers2 = See Status{{Cite web|url=https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/people-and-communities/cultural-diversity-census/2021/|title=Cultural diversity: Census|author=Australian Bureau of Statistics|access-date=13 October 2022|date=2021}}
| familycolor = Australian
| fam1 = Iwaidjan
| dia1 = Urrirk
| dia2 = Gidjurra
| iso3 = amg
| aiatsis = N47
| glotto = amar1271
| glottorefname = Amurdak
| speakers = 1
| date = 2020
| map = File:Iwaidjan_languages_(closeup).png
| mapcaption = {{legend|#efe3af|Amurdak}}
| states = Australia
}}
Amurdak, also rendered Amurdag, Amurdak, Amurag, Amarag and Wureidbug, is an Aboriginal Australian language historically spoken in an area around the eastern coast of Van Diemen Gulf, in the Northern Territory of Australia. No speakers were recorded in 2021, so it may be extinct.
Status
According to a report by the National Geographic Society and the Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages, it is an endangered language. The last living speaker, Charlie Mungulda, worked with Australian linguists Nick Evans, Robert Handelsmann and others, over several decades to record his language.[http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,297260,00.html Scientists: Many World Languages Are Dying] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071005212328/http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,297260,00.html |date=5 October 2007 }}, Associated Press via Fox News, 18 September 2007. Accessed 19 September 2007.{{cite web|url=https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/as-languages-die-away-so-do-pieces-of-history/| website=The Seattle Times|title=As languages die away, so do pieces of history|date= 19 September 2007 |first=Randolph E. | last=Schmid}}
The Amurdak language and Charlie Mungulda were featured in Language Matters with Bob Holman, a 2015 PBS documentary about endangered languages.{{cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/program/language-matters/ |title=Language Matters with Bob Holman: A film by David Grubin|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190709185800/http://www.pbs.org:80/program/language-matters/|archive-date=9 July 2019|publisher= PBS|date= 10 Jan 2015| access-date=28 Jan 2015}}{{cite web | title=10 people who are the last speakers of endangered languages | website=Gazette Review | date=27 August 2016 | url=https://gazettereview.com/2016/08/10-people-last-speakers-endangered-languages/ | access-date=14 March 2021}}
According to the 2016 Australian census, there were no speakers of Amurdak in 2016;{{Cite web|url=http://stat.data.abs.gov.au/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=ABS_C16_T09_SA|title=Census 2016, Language spoken at home by Sex (SA2+)|website=ABS|language=en-au|access-date=2017-10-30|archive-date=26 December 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181226044803/http://stat.data.abs.gov.au/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=ABS_C16_T09_SA|url-status=dead}} however, {{as of|March 2021|lc=yes}} Mungulda's death has not been reported,{{cite web | title=Language Hotspots | website=Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages | url=https://livingtongues.org/language-hotspots/ | access-date=14 March 2021}} and he co-authored a paper published in May 2020.{{cite journal |last1=May |first1=Sally K. |last2=Taylor |first2=Luke |last3=Frieman |first3=Catherine |last4=Taçon |first4=Paul S.C. |last5=Wesley |first5=Daryl |last6=Jones |first6=Tristen |last7=Goldhahn |first7=Joakim |last8=Mungulda |first8=Charlie |date=1 August 2020 |title=Survival, social cohesion and rock art: the painted hands of Western Arnhem Land, Australia |url=https://research-repository.uwa.edu.au/en/publications/survival-social-cohesion-and-rock-art-the-painted-hands-of-wester |journal=Cambridge Archaeological Journal |publication-date=1 May 2020 |volume=30 |issue=3 |pages=491–510 |doi=10.1017/S0959774320000104 |issn=0959-7743 |access-date=14 March 2021 |doi-access=free |hdl-access=free |hdl=2440/134685}}
Phonology
=Consonants=
| class="wikitable"
!rowspan=2| !colspan=2| Peripheral ! Laminal !colspan=2| Apical | ||||
| Bilabial
! Velar ! Palatal ! Alveolar | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| style="text-align: center;"
! Plosive | {{IPA link|p}} | {{IPA link|k}} | {{IPA link|c}} | {{IPA link|t}} | {{IPA link|ʈ}} |
| style="text-align: center;"
! Nasal | {{IPA link|m}} | {{IPA link|ŋ}} | {{IPA link|ɲ}} | {{IPA link|n}} | {{IPA link|ɳ}} |
| style="text-align: center;"
| {{IPA link|w}} | {{IPA link|ɣ}} | {{IPA link|j}} | {{IPA link|ɻ}} | |
| style="text-align: center;"
! Trill | | {{IPA link|r}} | |||
| style="text-align: center;"
! Flap | | {{IPA link|ɽ}} | |||
| style="text-align: center;"
! Lateral |colspan=2| | ({{IPA link|ʎ}}) | {{IPA link|l}} | {{IPA link|ɭ}} | |
| style="text-align: center;"
|colspan=2| | {{IPA link|ɺ}} {{angle bracket|ld}} | {{IPA link|𝼈}} {{angle bracket|rld}} |
Evans but not Mailhammer identifies a palatal lateral {{IPA|/ʎ/}} in Amurdag.
=Vowels=
Mailhammer (2009) does not provide a vowel inventory but Evans (1998) briefly discusses vowels in his paper, noting that Iwaidjan languages including Amurdak have a three vowel (/a/, /i/, /u/) system.
| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center" |
| !Front
!Back |
|---|
| High
|{{IPA link|i}} |{{IPA link|u}} |
| Low
|colspan=2|{{IPA link|a}} |
References
{{Reflist}}
Further reading
- Evans, Nicholas (1998). "Iwaidja mutation and its origins". In Anna Siewierska & Jae Jung Song. Case, Typology and Grammar: In honor of Barry J. Blake. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company. pp. 115–149.
- Handelsmann, R. (1991). Towards a description of Amurdak: a language of northern Australia. Honours thesis, University of Melbourne,
- Mailhammer, R. (2009) 'Towards an Aspect-Based Analysis of the Verb Categories of Amurdak', Australian Journal of Linguistics, vol. 29, no. 3, pp. 349–391.
- Neidjie, B., Mulurinj, N., Mailhammer, R., & Handelsmann, R. (2009). Amurdak inyman: Six stories in Amurdak.
{{Australian Aboriginal languages}}
Category:Endangered indigenous Australian languages in the Northern Territory