Dhuwal language

Dhuwal
Dhay'yi
Native to	Australia
Region	Northern Territory
Ethnicity	Daii, Dhuwal, Dhuwala, Makarrwanhalmirr
Native speakers	4,200 (2021 census)
Language family	Pama–Nyungan Yolŋu languages Southern (Dhuwal) Dhuwal
Standard forms	Dhuwaya
Dialects	Gupapuyngu Gumatj Djambarrpuyngu Djapu Liyagalawumirr Guyamirlili Dhalwangu [Dhay'yi] Djarrwark [Dhay'yi]
Signed forms	Yolŋu Sign Language
Official status
Official language in	Northern Territory (as lingua franca for Aboriginal people)
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Variously: dwu – Dhuwal djr – Djambarrpuyngu gnn – Gumatj guf – Gupapuyngu dax – Dayi (Dhay'yi) dwy – Dhuwaya
Glottolog	dhuw1248  Dhuwal-Dhuwala dayi1244  Dayi
AIATSIS	N198 Dhuwal, N199 Dhuwala, N118 Dhay'yi
ELP
	Liyagalawumirr
	Liyagawumirr
	Dhay'yi

Dhuwal (also Dual, Duala) is one of the Yolŋu languages spoken by Aboriginal Australians in the Northern Territory, Australia. Although all Yolŋu languages are mutually intelligible to some extent, Dhuwal represents a distinct dialect continuum of eight separate varieties. In 2019, Djambarrpuyŋu became the first Indigenous language to be spoken in an Australian parliament, when Yolŋu man and member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly Yingiya Guyula gave a speech in his native tongue.

Dialects

According to linguist Robert M. W. Dixon,

• Dialects of the Yirritja moiety are (a) Gupapuyngu and Gumatj;
• Dialects of the Dhuwa moiety are (b) Djambarrpuyngu, Djapu, Liyagalawumirr, and Guyamirlili (Gwijamil).
• In addition, it would appear that the Dhay'yi (Dayi) dialects, (a) Dhalwangu and (b) Djarrwark, are part of the same language.

Ethnologue divides Dhuwal into four languages, plus Dayi and the contact variety Dhuwaya (numbers are from the 2006 census.):

• Dhuwal proper, Datiwuy, Dhuwaya, Liyagawumirr, Marrangu, and Djapu: 600 speakers
• Djampbarrpuyŋu, 2,760 speakers
• Gumatj, 240 speakers
• Gupapuyngu, 330 speakers
• Dhay'yi (Dayi) and Dhalwangu, 170 speakers

Dhuwaya is a stigmatised contact variant used by the younger generation in informal contexts, and is the form taught in schools, having replaced Gumatj ca. 1990.

Phonology

Consonants

		Peripheral		Laminal		Apical		Glottal
		Labial	Velar	Dental	Palatal	Alveolar	Retroflex
Plosive	Fortis	p	k	t̪	c	t	ʈ	ʔ
	Lenis	b	g	d̪	ɟ	d	ɖ
Nasal		m	ŋ	n̪	ɲ	n	ɳ
Tap						ɾ
Lateral						l	ɭ
Glide			w		j		ɻ

Vowels

	Front	Back
High	i iː	u uː
Low	a aː

Vowel length is contrastive in first syllable only.

Orthography

Main article: Transcription of Australian Aboriginal languages

Probably every Australian language with speakers remaining has had an orthography developed for it, in each case in the Latin script. Sounds not found in English are usually represented by digraphs, or more rarely by diacritics, such as underlines, or extra symbols, sometimes borrowed from the International Phonetic Alphabet. Some examples are shown in the following table.

Language	Example	Translation	Type
Pitjantjatjara dialect of the Western Desert language	paṉa	'earth, dirt, ground; land'	diacritic (underline) indicates the retroflex nasal ([ɳ])
Wajarri	nhanha	'this, this one'	digraph indicating the dental nasal ([n̪])
Yolŋu languages	yolŋu	'person, man'	⟨ŋ⟩ represents the velar nasal (borrowed from the International Phonetic Alphabet)