| Alawa | |
| States: | Australia |
| Region: | Northern Territory
|
| Ethnicity: | Alawa |
| Speakers: | 5 |
| Date: | 2021 census |
| Ref: | [1] |
| Familycolor: | Australian |
| Fam1: | Macro-Pama-Nyungan? |
| Fam2: | Macro-Gunwinyguan |
| Fam3: | Marran? |
| Iso3: | alh |
| Aiatsis: | N92 |
| Glotto: | alaw1244 |
| Glottorefname: | Alawa |
| Notice: | IPA |
Alawa (Galawa) is a moribund Indigenous Australian language spoken by the Alawa people of the Northern Territory. In 1991, there were reportedly 18 remaining speakers and 4 semi-speakers.[2]
Alawa has a typical consonant inventory for an Indigenous Australian language, with five contrastive places of articulation, multiple lateral consonants, and no voicing contrast among the stops.
| Alveolar | Palatal | Peripheral | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alveolar | Retroflex | Alveo-palatal | Velar | Bilabial | ||
| Prenasalised Stop | pronounced as /ⁿd/ | pronounced as /ⁿɖ/ | pronounced as /ⁿd̠ʲ/ | pronounced as /ᵑɡ/ | pronounced as /ᵐb/ | |
| Devoiced Stop | pronounced as /t/ | pronounced as /ʈ/ | pronounced as /t̠ʲ/ | pronounced as /k/ | pronounced as /p/ | |
| Nasals | pronounced as /n/ | pronounced as /ɳ/ | pronounced as /n̠ʲ/ | pronounced as /ŋ/ | pronounced as /m/ | |
| Laterals | pronounced as /l/ | pronounced as /ɭ/ | pronounced as /l̠ʲ/ | |||
| Vibrants | pronounced as /r/ | |||||
| Glide | pronounced as /ɹ/ | pronounced as /j/ | pronounced as /w/ | |||
Note: there are no standardised IPA symbols for alveopalatal stops.
The vowel system of Alawa is made up of four vowel phonemes: the high front vowel /i/, the high back vowel /u/, the mid front vowel /e/, and the low central vowel /a/.[3]
There are no rounding contrasts or length contrasts in this language.
Capell (1942) lists the following basic vocabulary items:[4]
| gloss | Alawa | |
|---|---|---|
| man | lilmi | |
| woman | girija | |
| head | guɽuguɽu | |
| eye | gulur | |
| nose | gujumur | |
| mouth | ŋaːndal | |
| tongue | djeːjälŋ | |
| stomach | gundjäl | |
| bone | galawa | |
| blood | ŋulidji | |
| kangaroo | girimbọ | |
| opossum | gudjaɳi | |
| emu | djinaliri | |
| crow | waŋgunaji | |
| fly | wuɳɖil | |
| sun | marawaɭbaɭ | |
| moon | aɖaŋari | |
| fire | wubu | |
| smoke | guŋuŋu | |
| water | ŋọgọ |