Alawa language
Australian Aboriginal language
title: "Alawa language" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["endangered-indigenous-australian-languages-in-the-northern-territory", "mangarrayi–maran-languages"] description: "Australian Aboriginal language" topic_path: "linguistics" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alawa_language" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary Australian Aboriginal language ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox language"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Alawa |
| states | Australia |
| region | Northern Territory; Arnhem Land, Roper River. |
| ethnicity | Alawa |
| speakers | 5 |
| date | 2021 census |
| ref | |
| familycolor | Australian |
| fam1 | Macro-Pama-Nyungan? |
| fam2 | Macro-Gunwinyguan |
| fam3 | Marran? |
| iso3 | alh |
| aiatsis | N92 |
| glotto | alaw1244 |
| glottorefname | Alawa |
| notice | IPA |
| :: |
::callout[type=note] the Australian language ::
|name=Alawa |states=Australia |region=Northern Territory; Arnhem Land, Roper River. |ethnicity=Alawa |speakers=5 |date=2021 census |ref= |familycolor=Australian |fam1=Macro-Pama-Nyungan? |fam2=Macro-Gunwinyguan |fam3=Marran? |iso3=alh |aiatsis=N92 |glotto=alaw1244 |glottorefname=Alawa |notice=IPA
Alawa (Galawa) is a moribund Indigenous Australian language spoken by the Alawa people of the Northern Territory. In 1991, there were reportedly 18 remaining speakers and 4 semi-speakers.
Phonology
Consonants
Alawa has a typical consonant inventory for an Indigenous Australian language, with five contrastive places of articulation, multiple lateral consonants, and no voicing contrast among the stops.
::data[format=table title="Consonant phonemes"]
| Alveolar | Palatal | Peripheral | Alveolar | Retroflex | Alveo-palatal | Velar | Bilabial | Prenasalised Stop | Devoiced Stop | Nasals | Laterals | Vibrants | Glide |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| :: |
Note: there are no standardised IPA symbols for alveopalatal stops.
Vowels
The vowel system of Alawa is made up of four vowel phonemes: the high front vowel /i/, the high back vowel /u/, the mid front vowel /e/, and the low central vowel /a/.
::data[format=table title="Vowel phonemes"]
| Front | Central | Back | High | Mid | Low |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| i | u | ||||
| e | |||||
| a | |||||
| :: |
There are no rounding contrasts or length contrasts in this language.
Vocabulary
Capell (1942) lists the following basic vocabulary items:
:{| class="wikitable sortable" ! gloss !! Alawa |- | man || lilmi |- | woman || girija |- | head || guɽuguɽu |- | eye || gulur |- | nose || gujumur |- | mouth || ŋaːndal |- | tongue || djeːjälŋ |- | stomach || gundjäl |- | bone || galawa |- | blood || ŋulidji |- | kangaroo || girimbọ |- | opossum || gudjaɳi |- | emu || djinaliri |- | crow || waŋgunaji |- | fly || wuɳɖil |- | sun || marawaɭbaɭ |- | moon || aɖaŋari |- | fire || wubu |- | smoke || guŋuŋu |- | water || ŋọgọ |}
References
References
- Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2021). "Cultural diversity: Census".
- "Ethnologue: Alawa". Ethnologue.
- Sharpe, Margaret C. (1972). "Alawa Phonology and Grammar". Australian Institute for Aboriginal Studies.
- Capell, Arthur. 1941–1942, 1942–1943. [https://glottolog.org/resource/reference/id/104191 Languages of Arnhem Land, North Australia]. ''Oceania'' 12: 364–392, 13: 24–51.
::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::