Barranbinja language
{{short description|Extinct Australian Aboriginal language}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2019}}
{{Infobox language
| name = Barranbinja
| altname = Barranbinya
| region = New South Wales
| states = Australia
| ethnicity = Barranbinya
| extinct = 1979, with the death of Emily Margaret Horneville
| familycolor = Australian
| fam1 = Pama–Nyungan
| fam2 = Southeastern?
| fam3 = Central New South Wales?
| fam4 = Muruwaric
| iso3 = none
| aiatsis = D26
| glotto = barr1252
| glottorefname = Barranbinya
| map = Barranbinja language.png
| mapcaption = Barranbinja (green) among other Pama–Nyungan languages (tan)
}}
Barranbinja or Barrabinya is an extinct Australian Aboriginal language of New South Wales.{{cite book |last=Dixon |first=R. M. W. |author-link=R. M. W. Dixon |title=Australian Languages: Their Nature and Development |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2002 |url=http://www.cambridge.org/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=0521473780|page=xxxv}} The last speaker was probably Emily Margaret Horneville (d. 1979), who was recorded by Lynette Oates who then published a short description of it.{{cite journal | first = Lynette | last = Oates | title = Barranbinya: Fragments of a N.S.W. Aboriginal language | journal = Papers in Australian Linguistics | volume = 17 | pages = 185–204 | year=1988}} It had also been recorded by R.H. Mathews along with Muruwari,{{cite journal | first = Robert Hamilton | last = Mathews | year = 1903 | title = The Burranbinya language | journal = Proceedings and Transactions of the Royal Geographic Society of Australia, Queensland | volume = 18 | issue = 57 }} though not all items in his wordlist were recognised by Horneville. Both Mathews and Oates conclude that Barranbinya and Muruwari were in a dialect relation.
Classification
Lynette Oates' work on Muruwari and Barranbinya gives a cognate count of 44% between the two varieties, concluding that both were likely in a dialect relation. R.H. Mathews (1903), who recorded both Muruwari and Barranbinya, also commented that besides vocabulary differences, the grammar of both Muruwari and Barranbinya were essentially the same.{{cite journal | first = Robert Hamilton | last = Mathews | year = 1903 | title = The Burranbinya language | journal = Proceedings and Transactions of the Royal Geographic Society of Australia, Queensland | volume = 18 | issue = 57 }}
Together, Muruwari and Barranbinya form an isolate group within the Pama-Nyungan language family, and were very different in many respects from their geographic neighbours (which belong to many different Pama-Nyungan subgroups). For more information, see the description for Muruwari.
Phonology
=Phonemic inventory=
The phonemic inventory is very similar to Muruwari, although the relative paucity of data means that the status of many phonemes is not clear (in round brackets).
| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
! rowspan="2" | ! colspan="2" |Peripheral ! colspan="2" |Apical ! colspan="2" |Laminal |
| Velar
! Labial ! Alveolar ! Palatal ! Dental |
|---|
| Stops
| {{grapheme|g}} {{IPAslink|k}} | {{grapheme|b}} {{IPAslink|p}} | style="background: #eee;"| {{grapheme|rd}}* {{IPAslink|ʈ}} | {{grapheme|d}} {{IPAslink|t}} | style="background: #eee;"| {{grapheme|dy}}* {{IPAslink|c}} | {{grapheme|dh}} {{IPAslink|t̪}} |
| Nasals
| {{grapheme|ng}} {{IPAslink|ŋ}} | {{grapheme|m}} {{IPAslink|m}} | style="background: #eee;"| {{grapheme|rn}}* {{IPAslink|ɳ}} | {{grapheme|n}} {{IPAslink|n}} | style="background: #eee;"| {{grapheme|ny}}* {{IPAslink|ɲ}} | {{grapheme|nh}} {{IPAslink|n̪}} |
| Laterals
| | | style="background: #eee;"| ({{grapheme|rl}}* {{IPAslink|ɭ}}) | style="background: #eee;"| {{grapheme|l}}* {{IPAslink|l}} | style="background: #eee;"| ({{grapheme|ly}}* {{IPAslink|ʎ}}) | style="background: #eee;"| ({{grapheme|lh}}* {{IPAslink|l̪}}) |
| rowspan="2"| Rhotics
| rowspan="2"| | rowspan="2"| | rowspan="2" style="background: #eee;"| {{grapheme|r}}* {{IPAslink|ɻ}} | style="background: #eee;"| ({{grapheme|R}}* {{IPAslink|ɾ}}) | rowspan="2"| | rowspan="2"| |
| style="background: #eee;"| {{grapheme|rr}}* {{IPAslink|r}} |
| Semivowels
| | {{grapheme|w}} {{IPAslink|w}} | | | {{grapheme|y}} {{IPAslink|j}} | |
All phonemes except those with a star (*) may be word-initial.
| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
! ! Front ! Central ! Back |
| High
| {{grapheme|i}} {{IPAslink|i}}, | | {{grapheme|u}} {{IPAslink|u}}, |
|---|
| Low
| | {{grapheme|a}} {{IPAslink|a}}, | |
=Phonotactics=
Nearly all words end in a vowel, though there are some rare occurrences of word-final -ny and -n, which is in stark contrast with neighbouring Muruwari and Ngiyambaa, where word-final nasals and approximants are very common. Oates speculates that this may be the result of influence from Paakantyi and other western languages, which also display a preference for word-final vowels.
References
{{Reflist}}
{{Pama–Nyungan languages|Central}}
{{Australian Aboriginal languages}}
Category:Central New South Wales languages
Category:Extinct languages of New South Wales