Maung language explained

Maung
Nativename:Gun-Marung
States:Australia
Region:Goulburn Island, Arnhem Land
Ethnicity:Maung people
Speakers:360
Date:2021 census
Ref:[1]
Familycolor:Australian
Fam1:Iwaidjan
Fam2:Iwaidjic
Dia1:Manangkari
Iso3:mph
Glotto:maun1240
Glottorefname:Mawng
Aiatsis:N64

Maung (Mawung, Mawng, Gun-marung) is an Australian aboriginal language spoken by the Maung people on the Goulburn Islands, off the north coast of Arnhem Land, in the Northern Territory of Australia. Maung is closely related to Iwaidja language which occupies the northwestern corner of the opposite mainland. This is a language that belongs to the Iwaidjan language family of Non-Pama–Nyungan languages.[2] As of 2021, there were around 360 speakers of the language.[3]

Study of Maung has developed to the point where a dictionary, grammar and portions of the Bible are available.[4] Maung is taught in local schools alongside English and other languages such as Iwaidja or Kunwinjku. Children are still acquiring it as a first language,[4] making it somewhat healthier than most other aboriginal languages.

Phonology

!colspan=2
PeripheralLaminalApical
BilabialVelarPostalveolarAlveolarRetroflex
Plosivespronounced as /ink/ pronounced as /ink/ pronounced as /ink/ pronounced as /ink/ pronounced as /ink/
Nasalspronounced as /ink/ pronounced as /ink/ pronounced as /ink/ pronounced as /ink/ pronounced as /ink/
Lateralspronounced as /ink/ pronounced as /ink/
Flapspronounced as /ink/ pronounced as /ink/
Approximantspronounced as /ink/ pronounced as /ink/ pronounced as /ink/ pronounced as /ink/
Vowel inventory
FrontCentralBack
Highpronounced as /ink/ pronounced as /ink/
Midpronounced as /ink/ pronounced as /ink/
Lowpronounced as /ink/

The phonemic inventories provided here are from Capell's well-known 1970 work on Maung.[2] More recent papers (Singer 2006;[5] Teo 2007[6]) have only two rhotics to Capell's three. Teo lacks the alveolar flap, and Singer the retroflex flap. (In a minor difference, both describe the approximant as retroflex, whereas Capell describes it as alveolar.)

Grammar

Maung has five grammatical genders: masculine, feminine, vegetation, land, and edible.[7]

Alternative names

References

  1. Web site: SBS Australian Census Explorer. 9 Jan 2023.
  2. Capell, A. & Hinch, H. E. 1970 Maung grammar; texts and vocabulary / A. Capell and H.E. Hinch Mouton, The Hague :
  3. Web site: SBS Australian Census Explorer. 9 Jan 2023.
  4. Web site: Maung . Ethnologue . https://web.archive.org/web/20190412164452/https://www.ethnologue.com/language/mph . 12 April 2019 . en . dead.
  5. Singer, R. 2006 Agreement in Mawng: Productive and lexicalised uses of agreement in an Australian language: The University of Melbourne Melbourne :
  6. Teo, A. 2007 Breaking up is hard to do: teasing apart morphological complexity in Iwaidja and Maung:
  7. Book: Audring . Jenny . Corbett . Greville G. . Fedden . Sebastian . Non-Canonical Gender Systems . 2018 . Oxford University Press . 978-0198795438 . 103–109.
  8. Web site: Garde . Murray . kunmarung . Bininj Kunwok online dictionary . Bininj Kunwok Regional Language Centre . 16 June 2019.