A description of Ngiyamba:, the language of the Wana:ybuwan people of central western New South Wales

Abstract

In the opinion of the remaining speakers of rigiyamba: this study was undertaken at least twenty years too late. Its central aim is to be as detailed and comprehensive as is now possible. Discussion of the phonology concentrates on those areas which posed most difficulties for orthographic representation. Some of this discussion is of wider interest, providing fuel for theoretical argument (the interpretation of diphthongs and certain long vowels as deriving from underlying vowel-glide-vowel sequences) , and supplying precise exemplification of a feature common to the phonological systems of many Australian languages (severely restricted contrast among laminal consonants). The organisation of the remainder of the study is mainly morphological, except for Chapter 8, which consists largely of cross references drawing together in a syntactic perspective material introduced elsewhere. The linguistic description is exhaustive in the limited sense that some account is given of every bound morpheme encountered, not only of its formal properties out also of its semantic and/or syntactic function, A close investigation is made of the role of various features met with in other Australian languages, such as the enclitic pronoun system and the complex array of 'aspectual' and other verbal suffixes.Some topics are given special attention, notably compound verbs, which occur in apposition to other verbs and act as verb-classifiers; particles, both free and enclitic, whose functions are fully illustrated in discourse; and finite subordinate clauses. Grammatical points are frequently illustrated by reference to the texts and songs in the appendices, which have been chosen not only for this purpose but for their intrinsic interest. The morpheme-by-morpheme analysis of texts and other examples is complete, and any difficulties readers experience in their interpretation should be clarified by reference to sections of the grammar indicated by the interlinear glosses.