Alawa language

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, by 2021, the number of people speaking it at home had dropped to 5.

Phonology Consonants 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.

+Consonant phonemes Alveolar Palatal Peripheral Alveolar Retroflex Alveo-palatal Velar Bilabial Prenasalised Stop Devoiced Stop Nasals Laterals Vibrants Glide

Note: there are no standardised IPA symbols for alveopalatal stops.

Vowels 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/.

+Vowel phonemes Front Central Back High i u Mid e Low a

There are no rounding contrasts or length contrasts in this language.

Vocabulary Capell (1942) lists the following basic vocabulary items:Capell, Arthur. 1941–1942, 1942–1943. Languages of Arnhem Land, North Australia. Oceania 12: 364–392, 13: 24–51.

{| class="wikitable sortable" ! 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

Alawa language

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