Definition & Meaning | English word GUNWINYGUAN

Definitions of GUNWINYGUAN

1. A family of non-Pama-Nyungan Australian Aboriginal prefixing languages spoken in Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory.

Examples of Using GUNWINYGUAN in a Sentence

• Similar contrasts are found in other Gunwinyguan languages, such as Bininj Kunwok, Jawoyn, Dalabon, Rembarrnga, Ngandi, as well as in the neighboring Yolngu languages.
• In the book edited by Evans, The non-Pama-Nyungan languages of northern Australia: comparative studies of the continent's most linguistically complex region, Evans refers to Hale's Pama–Nyungan classification, and claims that out of the dozen other families concentrated along Northern Australia, Gunwinyguan, Tangkic and Garrwan are three non-Pama-Nyungan language families that do in fact have a close relation to the Pama–Nyungan language family, and should therefore be classified under one large Macro-Pama Nyungan language family.
• Once considered a family level isolate, Van Egmond (2012) has demonstrated Anindilyakwa to be part of the Eastern branch of the Gunwinyguan family, relating it to Nunggubuyu and (more distantly) Ngandi, using correspondences between core vocabulary, verbal morphological forms, phonemes, and verbal inflectional paradigms.
• However, Evans (2003) believes that the similarities are shared retentions rather than shared innovations, and that Nunggubuyu is closest to the eastern Gunwinyguan languages.
• His research is based on more than ten years of fieldwork: first on Australian languages (1970s; primarily in Arnhem Land on Gunwinyguan and Yolŋu languages), then on Muslim and Jewish vernaculars of Maghrebi Arabic (1980s), and since 1990 on languages of Mali in West Africa: Tamashek (Tuareg, Berber family), five Songhay languages, and since 2004 several of the Dogon languages (with Brian Cansler, Vadim Dyachkov, Abbie Hantgan, Laura McPherson, Steven Moran, Kirill Prokhorov, and the late Stephan Elders) including Jamsay.
• Warndarang and Mara, together with Alawa and Yugul, form what used to be known as the "Mara-Alawic family" and today is considered a subgrouping of the Gunwinyguan family.

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