The Murinypata language of North-West Australia

Abstract

This study presents a synchronic description of the main dialect of the Murinypata language of North-West Australia. It is divided into six chapters. The first is introductory placing Murinypata in the context of Australian languages, giving some background to the area in which the language is spoken and assessing previous work on this group. The second chapter provides a phonological description and an account of morphophonological change. The segmental phonology is presented in a distinctive feature format. Some tentative rules are advanced to account for stress. The third chapter establishes the word classes of Murinypata, briefly discussing their defining characteristics. A preliminary discussion on noun classification is embarked upon which is given a fuller semantic basis in chapter six. Chapter four presents the morphological facts of the language: data which assist the description of verbal morphology are presented in Appendices 2 and 3. Chapter five provides a preliminary discussion of Murinypata syntax. A brief account of the semantics of the language is given in chapter six, with particular emphasis on noun-classification. Three sample texts are provided in Appendix 4. The bulk of the text is concerned with synchronic description of the phonology and morphology of the language. Their unusual complexity demand lengthy discussion with a more detailed account of the syntax and semantics being reserved for a later study.