Kuuk Thaayorre (Thayore) is a Paman language spoken in the settlement Pormpuraaw on the western part of the Cape York Peninsula , Queensland in Australia by the Thaayorre people . As of 2006, 250 of the 350 ethnic Thaayorre spoke the language. It is in a robust position compared to many indigenous Australian languages , as it is still being acquired by children and used in daily interaction.
14-578: It is closely related to the Ogh-Undjan and more distantly related to the Uw languages , Uw Olkola . Kuuk Yak is either a dialect or closely related. Speakers of the Kuuk Thaayorre language are able to recall the names of a couple of dialects , such as Kuuk Thaayunth , Kuuk Thayem and Kuuk Thanon , but today there is only little dialectal difference and the language has become more uniform as
28-431: A correspondingly greater skill in navigational ability than speakers of languages like English, and always know the exact direction of their facing. When asked to arrange a sequence of pictures in temporal order, speakers consistently arrange them so that time runs east to west, regardless of their own bodily orientation. They are also able to point to cardinal directions with very high accuracy. This has been used to support
42-453: A predicate subcategorises for can be omitted. Predicating constituents include verbs , adjectives , nouns , demonstrative pronouns , and locative adverbs . Kuuk Thaayorre is on the whole a nonconfigurational language at the level of the clause , although for complex clauses there are constraints on the ordering of the main clause and the dependent clause . Within a clause noun phrases have intricate structure. The irregular form of
56-475: A spear." Udnga-nhdh spear- INSTR yanganyunyja-rr spear- PST ay I Udnga-nhdh yanganyunyja-rr ay spear- INSTR spear-PST I "I speared it with a spear." Kunjen has 5 vowels : There is a lexical vowel harmony constraint in Kunjen: Close and mid vowels do not co-occur in a word. Kunjen has 27 consonants : The Uw Olkola word for the freshwater crocodile , ogakor ,
70-553: A subset (these are found in many IE languages, e.g. German Wit Scilling 1.du Sc. "Sc. and I"). One of these is a set of single-word inclusory pronouns encoding both superset and subset. Kuuk Thaayorre is similar to most Australian languages for its thoroughgoing use of absolute cardinal directions instead of words with relative senses ( ahead , left , etc.) as is familiar in European languages. There are sixteen words for directions in Kuuk Thaayorre. Speakers of Kuuk Thaayorre show
84-448: Is highly notable. As in many other Australian languages , such as Dyirbal , Kunjen also has a respect register , which is a polite way of speaking with a potential mother-in-law and is called Olkel-Ilmbanhthi . Most of the vocabulary is replaced, while affixes and function words are kept. Alka-nhdh spear- INSTR idu-rr spear- PST ay I Alka-nhdh idu-rr ay spear- INSTR spear-PST I "I speared it with
98-574: Is noteworthy for the profound phonological changes which have affected some of its descendants. Various classifications of the Paman languages exist. The one outlined below is that of R. M. W. Dixon , though he does not accept that these branches are necessarily related to each other. Geographically, running down the east coast, they are: Down the west coast, they are: In the interior, south of Wik, they are: The name Gugu Mini means 'good speech', and has been applied to several languages in
112-781: The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis . Ogh-Undjan language Kunjen , or Uw , is a Paman language spoken on the Cape York Peninsula of Queensland , Australia, by the Uw Oykangand , Olkola , and related Aboriginal Australian peoples. It is closely related to Kuuk Thaayorre , and perhaps Kuuk Yak . Two of its dialects, Uw Olkola (Olgolo) and Uw Oykangand (Koko Wanggara), are very close, being mutually intelligible and sharing 97% of their core vocabulary . Another two, Ogh-Undjan and Kawarrangg , are also close, but somewhat more distant from
126-441: The ergative morpheme makes it a clear suffix , rather than an enclitic ; however, it is borne on the last nominal in the noun phrase. This makes Kuuk Thaayorre an example of a language displaying affixation to phrases. Ergative marking has the pragmatic function of displaying the degree of expectedness of the subject. There are multiple inclusory constructions, i.e. those referring to a superset while simultaneously focussing on
140-633: The first pair. Kokinj (Kokiny) is a subdialect of Ogh-Undjan. A fifth variety, Athima , is poorly attested. Below is a table showing the mutual intelligibility in vocabulary between the Kunjen dialects, based on a list of 100 basic words. A small dictionary of Kunjen has been compiled by Philip Hamilton. A great majority of words begin with a vowel (>96%), similar to the situation in distantly-related Arrernte . Exceptions include kinship terms and loanwords. Syllable onsets are thought to be present in all languages , so their absence in native lexicon
154-426: The language itself, kuuk meaning 'language' and Thaayorre being their ethnonym . Other names include Kuuk Thaayoore , Kuktayor , Kukudayore , Gugudayor , Koko Daiyuri , Koko Taiyor , Kokkotaijari , Kokotaiyari , Thayorre , Thaayore , Thayore , Tayore , Taior , Taiol , Da:jor and Behran . Kuuk Thaayorre has five vowels : All of the vowels above have a long counterpart . In addition, one of
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#1732765915501168-502: The number of speakers has gone down. The so-called Kuuk Yak language may be a dialect of Kuuk Thaayorre, but may be a closely related language as well. Barry Alpher is currently trying to document the language in order to understand its genetic affiliation. As with many other Australian languages , there is a long list of alternative spellings of Kuuk Thaayorre . The name itself, Kuuk Thaayorre , means 'the Thaayorre language' in
182-425: The rhotics may be syllabic. Kuuk Thaayorre has 16 consonants : The maximal syllable structure is CVCCC, and four-consonant clusters are not uncommon. Unusually, sequences of consecutive /r/ and /ɻ/ are valid. Unlike in many Australian languages, monosyllables of all word classes are frequent in Kuuk Thaayorre. A clause in Kuuk Thaayorre can be as small as a single predicate constituent . Any arguments that
196-484: Was used as the name of a tribe on the second season of the American reality television series, Survivor in 2001. This Australian Aboriginal languages -related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Paman languages The Paman / ˈ p æ m ən / languages are an Australian language family spoken on Cape York Peninsula , Queensland . First noted by Kenneth Hale , Paman
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