Language name and location: Tiwi, Tiwi Island, Australia [Refer to Ethnologue]

言名称和分布地区: 蒂维语, 澳大利亚北部地区

 

1. yati / yati / ( masculine), nyatinga /ɲatiŋa/,  natinga /natiŋa/ * (feminine)

2. yirrara / yiraɽa/ ( masculine), jara /tʃaɽa/ (feminine ),

    yuwurrara /yuwuraɽa/ (human )

3. yirrajirrima /yiratʃirima/ (masculine), jajirrima /tʃatʃirima / (feminine ),

   yuwurrajirrima /yuwuratʃirima/ (human)

4. yatapinti / yatapinti/,  yatawulingirri / yatawuliŋiri/, yukurri /yukuri/

5. pinginingita /piŋiŋita/

6. kiringarra /kiɽiŋara/

7. kiringarra yati ( masculine ) ( 6 + 1 ), walimani /walimani/

8. kiringarra yirrara ( 6 + 2 ),  pinginingita yirrajirrima ( 5 + 3 ),
    punyipunyinga /punyipuŋiŋ/
9. kiringarra yatawulingirri  ( 6 + 2 ), punyipunyinga yati / natinga ( 8 + 1 )
10. wumutirrara

 

Linguist providing data and dateː Dr. Jenny Lee, Summer Institute of Linguistics, Australian Aboriginal and Islander Branch, October 30, 2012.

供资料的语言学家: Dr. Jenny Lee. 2012 年 10 月 30 日.

ɲ

Other comments:  Tiwi is an Australian Aboriginal language spoken by the Tiwi people on the Tiwi Islands, within sight of the coast of northern Australia. It is one of about 10% of Australian languages still being learned by children. I think that traditionally the Tiwi numbers were basically ‘1, 2, 3’ but I couldn’t swear to this. Some of the names of larger numbers are definitely related to post-contact concepts, such as walimani ‘seven’ as the prime meaning of this word is ‘axe’, similarly punyipunyinga ‘eight’ has the prime meaning of ‘brain’.

nyatinga  is the Traditional Tiwi term and natinga the Modern Tiwi term.

* In Traditional Tiwi kiringarra meant 'five' ('one hand'), now meaning 'six', kiringarra yati meant 'six' ('five one') now means 'seven', kiringarra yirrara meant seven' ('five two') now means 'eight' etc

Tiwi sounds   

Compiler:     Jenny Lee

Copyright:    © 2011 Australian Society for Indigenous Languages

Publication:   AuSIL Interactive Dictionary Series A-4

Series Editor:          Charles E. Grimes

Editor:                   Maarten Lecompte (for interactive version)

Contact:       ausil@sil.org

 

Tiwi has  17 consonants and 4 vowels. The vowels are:

 

 

front

central

back

high

i

 

u

low

 

a

o

 

 

 

 

Tiwi consonants are presented below. The symbols used in the practical orthography in the Tiwi Interactive Dictionary are presented first in dark red, with IPA symbols in square brackets for special sounds.

 

 

lips

tongue tip forward

tongue tip curled back

middle of tongue

back of tongue

bilabial

apico-alveolar

apico-retroflex-alveolar

lamino-palatal

velar

stops

p

t

rt [ʈ]

j [ʧ]

k

nasals

m

n

rn [ɳ]

ny [ɲ]

ng [ŋ]

glides

w

 

 

y

g [ɣ]*

lateral

 

l [l]

rl [ɭ]

 

 

lateral flap

 

rr [r]

r [ɽ]

 

 

 

*  This is a velar fricative which, while not strictly a glide, fits into this slot, completing a pattern with w and y.

 There are also pre-nasalised stops, (written as mp, nt, rnt, nj, nk) which have been interpreted as single phonemes, since there are no other consonant clusters in Tiwi. The pre-nasalised stops mainly alternate with their corresponding stops in some words. There are also labialised stops and nasals (which are written as pw, kw, ngw), and a few cases of pre-nasalised labialised stops.


Language name and location: Tiwi, Australia [Refer to Ethnologue]

言名称和分布地区蒂维语, 澳大利亚北部地区

 

1. yati ( masculine), nathinga (feminine, non-human )

2. yirrara ( masculine), jara (feminine ), yuwurrara (plural )

3. yirrajirrima ( masculine), jajirrima (feminine ), yuwurrajirrima (plural )

4. yatapinti / yatawulingirri / yukurri

5. pinginingita

6. kiringarra

7. kiringarra yati ( masculine ) ( 6 + 1 ), walimani

8. kiringarra yirrara ( 6 + 2 ),  pinginingita yirrajirrima ( 5 + 3 ), punyipunyinga
9. kiringarra yatawulingirri  ( 6 + 2 ), punyipunyinga yati / natinga ( 8 + 1 )
10. wumutirrara

 

Linguist providing data and dateː Ms. Eirlys Richards, Summer Institute of Linguistics, Australian Aboriginal and Islander Branch, Australia, January 25, 1988.
供资料的语言学家: Ms. Eirlys Richards, 1989 年 1 月 16 日.

 

Other comments: Tiwi can count numerals up to ten.


 

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