Bunuba language

Bunuba (Bunaba, Punuba, Punapa) is an Australian Aboriginal language spoken by some 160 older Bunuba adults, most of whom live in Junjuwa, an Aboriginal community in Fitzroy Crossing in Western Australia. Bunuba is not related to the Pama-Nyungan language family that spans the majority of Australia, though it is a relative of Guniyandi.[3]

Bunuba
RegionWestern Australia
EthnicityBunuba
Native speakers
40 (2005) to 110 (2006 census)[1]
Bunuban
  • Bunuba
Language codes
ISO 639-3bck
Glottologbuna1275
AIATSIS[1]K5
ELPBunuba[2]

Due to the growing concern of their language becoming extinct, the elders make an effort by passing on stories to their younger people around the campfires at night. This is a way the Bunuba elders prevent the extinction of their language, passing it down through generations.[4]

Phonology

Bunuba has only three basic vowel phonemes: /i, a, u/. /a/ is the only vowel demonstrating contrastive vowel length.[5]

Consonants
Peripheral Laminal Apical
Labial Velar Palatal Dental Alveolar Retroflex
Stop b ɡ ɟ t̪ d ɖ
Nasal m ŋ ɲ n̪ n ɳ
Rhotic r ɽ
Lateral ʎ l ɭ
Approximant w j ð̞

References
  1. K5 Bunuba at the Australian Indigenous Languages Database, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
  2. Endangered Languages Project data for Bunuba.
  3. Knight, Emily (2008). "7. Hyperpolysemy in Bunuba, a Polysynthetic Language of the Kimberley, Western Australia". In Goddard, Cliff (ed.). Cross-Linguistic Semantics. Amsterdam, Netherlands: John Benjamins Publishing Company. pp. 206. ISBN 9789027205698.
  4. Language: Bunuba, Australia, retrieved 29 June 2019
  5. Knight, Emily (2004). Aspects of Bunuba grammar and semantics. Armidale: University of New England.


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