Nyawaygi language

{{Short description|Extinct Australian Aboriginal language}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2019}}

{{Distinguish|text=Bindal language, also called Nyawaygi}}{{Infobox language

| name = Nyawaygi

| states = Australia

| region = Queensland

| ethnicity = Nyawaygi

| extinct = 2009, with the death of Willie Seaton

| ref = {{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L4zytHZWB4QC&pg=PA160 | title=I Am a Linguist: With a Foreword by Peter Matthews| isbn=978-9004192355| last1=Dixon| first1=R. M. W.| date=10 December 2010| publisher=BRILL}}

| familycolor = Australian

| fam1 = Pama–Nyungan

| fam2 = Dyirbalic

| fam3 = Nyawaygic

| iso3 = nyt

| glotto = nyaw1247

| glottorefname = Nyawaygi

| aiatsis = Y129

| nativename = Nywaigi, Geugagi, Njawigi, Nyawigi, Nawagi

}}

The Nyawaygi language, also spelt Nywaigi, Geugagi, Njawigi, Nyawigi or Nawagi, is an extinct Australian Aboriginal language that was spoken by the Nyawaygi people in North Queensland, on the east coast of Australia. The Nyawaygi language region includes the landscape within the Hinchinbrook Regional Council, Halifax Bay, and Rollingstone.{{SLQ-CC-BY|url=https://maps.slq.qld.gov.au/iyil/view/123?embed=true|title=Nyawaygi|publisher=State Library of Queensland|website=Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages map|url-status=live|accessdate=30 May 2022}}{{Cite web |last=Crump |first=Des |date=2020-11-30 |title=Language of the Week: Week Twenty-Seven - Nywaigi |url=https://www.slq.qld.gov.au/blog/language-week-week-twenty-seven-nywaigi |access-date=2023-11-30 |website=State Library Of Queensland |language=en}}

Nyawaygi has the smallest number of consonants, 12, of any Australian language. It has 7 conjugations,{{what|date=February 2019}} 3 open and 4 closed, the latter including monosyllabic roots, and, in this regard, conserved a feature of proto-Pama–Nyungan lost from contiguous languages.{{Cite book| chapter = Nyawagyi

| last = Dixon | first = R. M. W.

| author-link = Robert M. W. Dixon

| year = 1983

| title = Handbook of Australian Languages

| editor1-last = Dixon | editor1-first = Robert M. W. | editor1-link = Robert M. W. Dixon

| editor2-last = Blake | editor2-first = Barry J. | editor2-link = Barry Blake

| volume = 3 | pages = 431–523

| publisher = John Benjamins Publishing

| chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=YU5EE52Vy-8C&pg=PA432

| isbn = 978-9-027-27353-6

}}