Sydney language
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Sydney | ||
|---|---|---|
| Dharug, Iyora | ||
| Spoken in | New South Wales | |
| Language extinction | Late 19th/early 20th century | |
| Language family | Pama-Nyungan
|
|
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639-1 | None | |
| ISO 639-2 | aus | |
| ISO 639-3 | – | |
| Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. | ||
The Sydney language, also referred to as Dharug or Iyora, is an extinct Australian Aboriginal language that was spoken in the region of Sydney, New South Wales.
Its last speakers died in the late 19th or early 20th century, their population having been diminished due to the effects of colonisation.[1] It is known today only from written records.
During the 1990's and the new millennium some descendants of the Darug clans in Western Sydney have been making considerable efforts to revive Darug as a spoken language. Today some modern Darug speakers have given speeches in the Darug language and younger members of the community visit schools and give demonstrations of spoken Darug.
Contents |
[edit] Name
The speakers' own name for their language is unknown. The coastal dialect has been referred to as Iyora (also spelt Iora, Eora), which simply means "people", while the inland dialect has been referred to as Dharug (also spelt Darug, Dharuk, Dharruk), a term of unknown origin or meaning. Both names are also used to refer to all dialects of the language collectively.[2]
[edit] Phonology
[edit] Consonants
| Peripheral | Laminal | Apical | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bilabial | Velar | Palatal | Dental | Alveolar | Retroflex | |
| Stop | b | k | c | t̪ | t | |
| Nasal | m | ŋ | ɲ | n̪ | n | |
| Lateral | ʎ | l | ||||
| Rhotic | r | ɻ | ||||
| Semivowel | w | j | ||||
[edit] Vowels
| Front | Back | |
|---|---|---|
| High | i | u |
| Low | a | |
The language may have had a distinction of vowel length, but this is difficult to determine from the extant data.[3]
[edit] Words surviving in English
Examples of Dharuk words that have survived in English are:
- Names of animals: dingo, koala and wallaby
- Trees and plants: burrawang, kurrajong and waratah
- The tools boomerang, a word from the Turuwal sub-group, and woomera (spear-thrower)[4]
- Place names including Mulgoa, Toongabbie and Winmalee
[edit] Revival
Although Sydney is classified as extinct, efforts have been made to revive the language and the language had acquired current living speakers by the efforts of Chifley College's Dunheved campus in Sydney.[5]
[edit] Notes
[edit] References
- Troy, Jakelin (1994). The Sydney Language. Canberra: Panther. ISBN 0 646 110152.
 |
This Indigenous Australian languages-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
