Kunwinjku : a language of Western Arnhem Land

Abstract

Kunwinjku is a prefixing language with noun classification, spoken at Oenpelli and known in other areas of Western Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory of Australia. Its traditional territory is adjacent to other prefixing languages such as Maung, Gunbalang, Dangbon, Djeibmi and Mengerr. Not all of these languages have noun classification. Kunwinjku has an extensive prefixing system in a complex verb morphology. Suffixes also occur with the verb to indicate tense, mood and aspect. A few local cases, but none of the major syntactic cases, occur with nominals. One part of the pronominal system differentiates four persons and three numbers, while the other part only differentiates three persons and two numbers. This thesis is designed to supplement and correct (in part) the published grammar (Oates 1964). There are two main parts, Phonology and Syntax. Morphology, which was the main section in Oates, is considered in passing when it is pertinent to matters being discussed in the two main sections. Aspects of the morphology can be seen in different sections of the thesis - pronominal system (section 5.1.4), verbal morphology (sections 5.1, 5.2, 7 and Appendix A), nominal prefixing (sections 5.1.2, 8.3.3) and nominal suffixes (section 8.3.5). The phonemic system proposed has one less phoneme than that of Oates (no laminal lateral) and is justified by minimal and near minimal contrasts (section 3). The phonemic status of glottal stop is considered (section 2.9). Natural classes are established by distribution patterns of the phonemes. Prefixing and suffixing alternations are discussed and a distinctive feature classification is proposed. Principles proposed by Ladefoged (1971) are followed and some of the features proposed have a phonetic rather than a classificatory basis. A multivalued feature of vowel height is shown to be more adequate to describe the vowel raising that occurs in some verb suffixes. The syntactic discussion is basically a presentation of surface structure with concentration on the constituents of a simple sentence and their order. It is proposed that the underlying order is that found in the prefixing system which differs from the most frequent surface order. A short section indicates some of the ways in which one simple sentence may be subordinated to another. The appendixes contain a paper on Kunwinjku verb suffixation and two texts with translations.