Dalabon language

Dalabon has no official status. Local schools spent years to hold sporadic programs teaching Dalabon, but these operations didn't receive enough governmental support. Therefore, the condition of programs is still vulnerable.

Given the limited number of Dalabon speakers, the study of dialects has become challenging to investigate. Speakers recall a distinction between two different types of speech, dalabon-djurrkdjurrk ("fast", "lively") and dalabon-murduk ("articulate"). However, no significant difference has been found between the two speeches.

There are 22 or 23 phonemic consonants in Dalabon, depending on the phonemic status of /h/. A table containing the consonant phonemes is given below with their orthographic representation (in angle brackets).

There are 6 vowels in Dalabon. A table containing the vowel phonemes is given below with their orthographic representation (in angle brackets).

Dalabon restricts the trilled [r] and long stops to only occur word-internally. Constraints regarding the edges of a phonological word also limit the glottal stop [ʔ] from occurring word-initially.

The syllable structure of Dalabon is CV(C)(C)(C), or more specifically:

CV(L)(N)(h) or CV(L)(S)

where:

• L is a liquid consonant (lateral or rhotic)
• N is a nasal consonant
• S is a peripheral consonant
• h is a glottal consonant.

Such complex codas are not unusual, and all combinations are enumerated as follows (words and translations taken from the dictionary[5]).

Dalabon has a pattern of eliding unstressed vowels and unstressed syllables. For example, the word /'cabale/ 'shoulder blade' is often realized as ['cable].[6]

The location of phrasal stress in Dalabon appears one or two peaks with an initial rise into the first peak at the left edge of the constituent and a final fall at the right edge of the constituent.[7]

The structure of Dalabon verbs:[15]

SEQ: sequential ‘and then’

CAUS: ‘because’

misc: various adverbial type prefixes

BEN: benefactive applicative

gin: ‘generic’ incorporated nouns

bpin: ‘body part’ incorporated nouns

num: ‘number’ prefixes

COM: comitative applicative

RR: Reflexive/reciprocal

TAM: tense/aspect mood

The diminutive enclitic =wurd is derived from noun wurd 'woman's child', its reduplication wurdurd means 'child'. wurd can attach to most word classes and functions in 3 ways of meaning: to denote small objects, to add emotional connotations and to serve as pragmatic functions (especially for interactional softening). The examples are shown below.[16]

1. to denote small objects

Bad-dulum-no=wurd kanidjah ka-h-di.

stone-hill-fill=dim there 3sg-r-stand/be.prs

'There is a small stone hill there.'

2. to add emotional connotations

Wa:h ka-h-rakka-ng=wurd.

interj 3sg-r-fall-pfv=dim

'Oh, he fell over poor fellow.'

Dalabon is a head-marking language. Dalabon has limited use of subordinate clauses, but it has a distinctive subordination strategy, which is to attach pronominal prefixes to the verb, and marked verbs are used for subordinate clause functions[17]

subordinate1: the unmarked form of prefixes to show subordinate status, used when the status is overt by other means.

subordinate2: used when prefixes are the only way to show subordination.

dis: disharmonic, meaning odd-numbered generations.

Examples are shown below:

(1)bala-buh-ngong+boyenj-ni-nj mahkih

3pl-because-mob+big-be-PP because

‘..because there were so many of them.’

(2)yila-h-yang-wona-wona-n yale-yu-yu.

1pl/3-R-voice-REDUP-hear-PRES 1pl.SURB2-REDUP-sleepP

‘we heard his(dingo's) voice as we were sleeping.’

(3) karrkkany ka-h-ngun kaye-do-n.

hawk.sp. 3/3l-P-eatPRES 3SURB2-die-PRES

‘the hawk eats animals that die.’