Ebook: Anindilyakwa Phonology and Morphology

Publisher: University of Sidney
Date: 1989
Pages: 567Anindilyakwa [enintilyakwa] is the language spoken by over 1,000 Warn1nd1lyakwa Aborigines on Groote Eylandt, Northern Territory. In the Australian language fami lies, it is placed in the Groote Eylandt Fami 1 у (Oates 1970:15) or the Andilyaugwan Fami 1 у (Wurm 1972:117). As Yallop (1982:40) reports, Anindilyakwa and Nunggubuyu "are similar in grammar and possibly share the distinction of being the most grammatically complex Australian languages. They are diverse in basic vocabulary, however, and are therefore allocated to separate families". My research bears this out but "here are many more cognates than previously recognised. The Warnindilyakwa refer to the Nunggubuyu and their language as the Yingkwira. The root of this name refers to the north-west monsoonal trade winds (the direction in which they live), and the prefix indicates a personified masculine being from the Dreamtime. In the traditional story about Yantarrnga or Central Hill (see Text) and other stories, the journeys begin on the mainland to the northwest.