Editing Dyirbal language

{{short description|Australian Aboriginal language}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2019}}
{{Use Australian English|date=March 2021}} 
{{Infobox language
| name             = Dyirbal
| nativename       = 
| region           = Northeast [[Queensland]]
| ethnicity        = [[Dyirbal people|Dyirbal]], [[Ngajanji]], [[Mamu people|Mamu]], [[Gulngai]], [[Djiru people|Djiru]], [[Girramay]]
| speakers         = 21
| date             = 2021 census
| ref              = <ref name="abs">{{Cite web|url=https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/people-and-communities/cultural-diversity-census/2021/|title=Cultural diversity: Census|author=Australian Bureau of Statistics|access-date=13 October 2022|date=2021}}</ref>
| familycolor      = Australian
| fam1             = [[Pama–Nyungan languages|Pama–Nyungan]]
| fam2             = [[Pama–Nyungan languages|Eastern Pama–Nyungan]]
| fam3             = [[Dyirbalic languages|Dyirbalic]]
| dia1             = Jirrbal
| dia2             = Mamu
| dia4             = [[Girramay]]
| dia5             = [[Gulngay]]
| dia6             = [[Djirru]]
| dia7             = [[Ngadjan]]
| dia8             = [[Walmalbarra]]<ref>{{cite book |last=Dixon |first=R. M. W. |author-link=R. M. W. Dixon |title=Australian Languages: Their Nature and Development |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2002 |url=http://www.cambridge.org/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=0521473780|page=xxxiii}}</ref>
| map2             = Lang Status 40-SE.svg
| mapcaption2      = {{center|{{small|Dyirbal is classified as Severely Endangered by the [[UNESCO]] ''[[Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger]]''}}}}
| iso3             = dbl
| glotto           = dyir1250
| glottorefname    = Dyirbal
| aiatsis          = Y123
| ELP2             = 5712
| ELPname2         = Girramay
| map              = Djirbalgan map.png
| mapcaption       = Area of historical use
| notice           = IPA
}}

'''Dyirbal''' {{IPAc-en|ˈ|dʒ|ɜr|b|əl}}<ref>Laurie Bauer, 2007, ''The Linguistics Student’s Handbook'', Edinburgh</ref> (also ''Djirubal'') is an [[Australian Aboriginal languages|Australian Aboriginal language]] spoken in northeast [[Queensland]] by the [[Dyirbal people]]. In 2016, the [[Australian Bureau of Statistics]] reported that there were 8 speakers of the language.<ref name="abs"></ref> It is a member of the small [[Dyirbalic languages|Dyirbalic]] branch of the [[Pama–Nyungan languages|Pama–Nyungan family]]. It possesses many outstanding features that have made it well known among [[linguistics|linguist]]s.

In the years since the Dyirbal grammar by [[Robert M. W. Dixon|Robert Dixon]] was published in 1972, Dyirbal has steadily moved closer to [[language death|extinction]] as younger community members have failed to learn it.<ref>{{cite book |last=Schmidt |first=A |title=Young People's Dyirbal: An Example of Language Death from Australia |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1985}}</ref>

==Dialects==
There are many different groups speaking dialects of Dyirbal language. Researcher Robert Dixon estimates that Dyirbal had, at its peak, 10 dialects.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Dixon|first=R. M. W.|date=1991|title=A Changing Language Situation: The Decline of Dyirbal, 1963-1989|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4168229|journal=Language in Society|volume=20|issue=2|pages=183–200|doi=10.1017/S0047404500016262|jstor=4168229|s2cid=145363699 |issn=0047-4045|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

Dialects include:<ref name=":1"/><ref name=":32"/>

* Dyirbal (or Jirrbal<ref name=":32">{{Cite book|last=Dixon |first=Robert M. W. |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/70724682|title=Australian Languages: Their Nature and Development|date=2002|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=0-521-47378-0|location=Cambridge, U.K.|oclc=70724682}}</ref>) spoken by the Dyirbalŋan<ref name=":1">{{Citation|date=1972|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/dyirbal-language-of-north-queensland/dyirbal-the-language-and-its-speakers/62D8D9F83D08FA8877D86EA1E7C1A487|work=The Dyirbal Language of North Queensland|pages=22–38|editor-last=Dixon|editor-first=R. M. W.|series=Cambridge Studies in Linguistics|place=Cambridge|publisher=Cambridge University Press|doi=10.1017/cbo9781139084987.003|isbn=978-0-521-09748-2|access-date=2020-12-09|title=Dyirbal: The Language and ITS Speakers|url-access=subscription}}</ref>
* Mamu, spoken by the Waɽibara, Dulgubara, Bagiɽgabara, Dyiɽibara, and Mandubara<ref name=":1" /> (There are also different types of Mamu spoken by individual groups, such as Warribara Mamu, and Dulgubara Mamu<ref name=":32" />)
* [[Giramay]] (Or Girramay<ref name=":32" />), spoken by the Giramaygan<ref name=":1" />
* [[Gulŋay]] (or Gulngay<ref name=":32" />), spoken by the  Malanbara<ref name=":1" />
* [[Dyiru]] (or Djirru<ref name=":32" />), spoken by the Dyirubagala<ref name=":1" />
* [[Ngadyan]] (or Ngadjan<ref name=":32" />), spoken by the Ngadyiandyi<ref name=":1" />
* [[Walmalbarra]]<ref name=":32" />

The speakers of these dialects largely regard their dialects as different languages. They were classified as dialects by researcher Robert Dixon, who classified them as such based on linguistic criteria and their similarities, some dialects sharing as much as 90% of their vocabularies. Since the dialects were viewed by speakers as different languages, the language had no formal name, so Dixon assigned the language the name Dyirbal, naming it after Jirrbal, which was the dialect with the largest number of speakers at the time he was studying it.<ref name=":0"/>

== Neighbouring languages ==
Languages neighbouring the many Dyirbal dialects include:<ref name=":0"/>

* [[Ngaygungu]]
* [[Mbabaram language|Mbabaram]]
* [[Muluriji]]
* [[Yidiny language|Yidiny]]
* [[Warrongo language|Warungu]]
* [[Warrgamay]]
* [[Nyawaygi]]

==Phonology==
===Consonants===
Dyirbal has only four [[Place of articulation|places of articulation]] for the [[stop consonant|stop]] and [[nasal consonant|nasals]], whereas most other Australian Aboriginal languages have five or six. This is because Dyirbal lacks the [[Dental consonant|dental]]/[[alveolar consonant|alveolar]]/[[retroflex consonant|retroflex]] split typically found in these languages. Like the majority of Australian languages, it does not make a distinction between voiced consonants ({{angbr|b, d, g}}, etc.) and voiceless consonants (the corresponding {{angbr|p, t, k}}, etc.), respectively. Like [[Pinyin language|Pinyin]], standard Dyirbal [[orthography]] uses voiced consonants, which seem to be preferred by speakers of most Australian languages since the sounds (which can often be semi-voiced) are closer to English semi-voiced {{angbr|b, d, g}} than aspirated {{angbr|p, t, k}}.

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
!rowspan=2|
!colspan=2| [[Peripheral consonant|Peripheral]]
! [[Laminal consonant|Laminal]]
! colspan="2" |[[Apical consonant|Apical]]
|-
! [[bilabial consonant|Bilabial]]
! [[velar consonant|Velar]]
! [[palatal consonant|Palatal]]
! [[alveolar consonant|Alveolar]]
! [[Retroflex consonant|Retroflex]]
|-
! [[Plosive]]
| {{IPAlink|p}} || {{IPAlink|k}} || {{IPAlink|c}} || {{IPAlink|t}}
|
|-
! [[Nasal consonant|Nasal]]
| {{IPAlink|m}} || {{IPAlink|ŋ}} || {{IPAlink|ɲ}} || {{IPAlink|n}}
|
|-
! [[Trill consonant|Trill]]
|colspan="2"| || || {{IPAlink|r}}
|
|-
! [[Approximant]]
|colspan="2"| {{IPAlink|w}} || {{IPAlink|j}} || {{IPAlink|l}} || {{IPAlink|ɻ}}
|}

===Vowels===
The Dyirbal [[vowel]] system is typical of Australia, with three vowels: {{IPA|/i/}}, {{IPA|/a/}} and {{IPA|/u/}}, though {{IPA|/u/}} is realised as {{IPA|[o]}} in certain environments and {{IPA|/a/}} can be realised as {{IPA|[e]}}, also depending on the environment in which the [[phoneme]] appears.{{elucidate|If we know which environments these are, we should give them.|date=February 2015}} Thus the actual inventory of sounds is greater than the inventory of phonemes would suggest. Stress always falls on the first syllable of a word and usually on subsequent odd-numbered syllables except the [[Ultima (linguistics)|ultima]], which is always unstressed. The result of this is that consecutive stressed syllables do not occur.

==Grammar==
The language is best known for its system of [[noun class]]es, numbering four in total. They tend to be divided among the following [[semantic]] lines:

* I – most animate objects, men
* II – women, [[water]], [[fire]], [[violence]], and exceptional [[animal]]s<ref>{{Cite book |author-link=George Lakoff |last=Lakoff |first=George |year=1990 |title=[[Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things]] |publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]] |page=5 }}</ref>
* III – edible [[fruit]] and [[vegetable]]s
* IV – miscellaneous (includes things not classifiable in the first three)

The class usually labelled "feminine" (II) inspired the title of [[George Lakoff]]'s book ''[[Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things]]''. Some [[Linguistics|linguists]] distinguish between such systems of classification and the [[grammatical gender|gendered division]] of items into the categories of "feminine", "masculine" and (sometimes) "neuter" that is found in, for example, many [[Indo-European languages]].

Dyirbal shows a [[split ergativity|split-ergative]] system. Sentences with a first or second person pronoun have their [[verb argument]]s marked for [[Case (linguistics)|case]] in a pattern that mimics [[nominative–accusative language]]s. That is, the first or second person pronoun appears in the least marked case when it is the subject (regardless of the [[Transitivity (grammar)|transitivity]] of the verb), and in the most marked case when it is the direct object. Thus Dyirbal is [[morphology (linguistics)|morphologically]] accusative in the first and second persons, but morphologically ergative elsewhere; and it is still always [[syntax|syntactically]] ergative.

==Taboo==
There used to be in place a highly complex ''[[taboo]]'' system in Dyirbal culture. A speaker was completely forbidden from speaking with his/her mother-in-law, child-in-law, father's sister's child or mother's brother's child, and from approaching or looking directly at these people.<ref name="Dixon1972">{{cite book |last=Dixon |first=R. M. W. |year=1972 |title=The Dyirbal language of north Queensland |location=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press}}</ref> Speakers were forbidden from speaking with their [[cross-cousin]]s of the opposite sex due to the fact that those relatives were of the section from which an individual must marry, but were too close of kin to choose as a spouse so the avoidance might have been on the grounds of indicating anyone sexually unavailable.<ref name="Dixon1972"/>

Furthermore, because marriage typically took place a generation above or below, the cross-cousin of the opposite sex often is a potential mother-in-law or father-in-law.<ref name="Dixon, R. M. W. 1989">{{cite journal |last=Dixon |first=R. M. W. |year=1989 |title=The Dyirbal kinship system |journal=Oceania |volume=59 |issue=4 |pages=245–268}}</ref> In addition, when within hearing range of taboo relatives a person was required to use a specialized and complex form of the language with essentially the same [[phonemes]] and [[grammar]], but with a [[lexicon]] that shared no words with the standard language except for four lexical items referring to grandparents on the mother and father's side.<ref name="Dixon, R. M. W. 1990">{{cite journal |last=Dixon |first=R. M. W. |year=1990 |title=The origin of "mother-in-law vocabulary" in two Australian languages |journal=Anthropological Linguistics |volume=32 |issue=1-2 |pages=1–56}}</ref>

The taboo relationship was reciprocal. Thus, an individual was not allowed to speak with one's own mother-in-law and it was equally taboo for the mother-in-law to speak to her son-in-law.<ref name="Dixon1972"/> This relationship also prevailed among both genders such that a daughter-in-law was forbidden to speak to directly or approach her father-in-law and vice versa. This taboo existed, but less strongly enforced, between members of the same sex such that a male individual ought to have used the respectful style of speech in the presence of his father-in-law, but the father-in-law could decide whether or not to use the everyday style of speech or the respectful style in the presence of his son-in-law.<ref name="Dixon1972"/>

The specialized and complex form of the language, the Dyalŋuy, was used in the presence of the taboo relatives whereas a form referred to in most dialects as Guwal was used in all other circumstances.<ref name="Dixon1972"/> The Dyalŋuy had one quarter of the amount of lexical items as the everyday language which reduced the semantic content in actual communication in the presence of a taboo relative.<ref>{{cite book |last=Silverstein |first=M. |year=1976 |chapter=Shifters, linguistic categories, and cultural description |editor-first1=K. H. |editor-last1=Basso |editor-first2=H. A. |editor-last2=Selby |title=Meaning in Anthropology |pages=11–55 |location=Albuquerque |publisher=University of New Mexico Press}}</ref> For example, in Dyalŋuy the verb 'to ask' is {{lang|dbl|baŋarrmba-l}}. In Guwal, 'to ask' is {{lang|dbl|ŋanba-l}}, 'to invite someone over' is {{lang|dbl|yumba-l}}, 'to invite someone to accompany one' is {{lang|dbl|bunma-l}} and 'to keep asking after having already been told' is {{lang|dbl|gunji-y}}. There are no correspondences to the other 3 verbs of Guwal in Dyalŋuy.<ref name="Dixon, R. M. W. 1990"/>

To get around this limitation, Dyirbal speakers use many syntactic and semantic tricks to make do with a minimal vocabulary which reveals a lot to linguists about the semantic nature of Dyirbal. For example, Guwal makes use of lexical [[causative]]s, such as {{lang|dbl|bana-}} {{gloss|break.{{gcl|TR}}}} and {{lang|dbl|gaynyja-}} {{gloss|break.{{gcl|NTR}}}}. This is similar to English "He broke the glass" (transitive) vs. "The glass broke." (intransitive). Since Dyirbal has fewer lexemes, a morpheme {{lang|dbl|-rri-}} is used as an intransitive derivational suffix. Thus the Dyalŋuy equivalents of the two words above were transitive {{lang|dbl|yuwa}} and intransitive {{lang|dbl|yuwa-rri-}}.<ref>{{cite book |last=Dixon |first=R. M. W. |year=2000 |chapter=A Typology of Causatives: Form, Syntax, and Meaning |editor-first1=Dixon |editor-last1=R. M. W. |editor-last2=Aikhenvald |editor-first2=Alexendra Y. |title=Changing Valency: Case Studies in Transitivity |publisher=Cambridge University Press |pages=39–40}}</ref>

The lexical items found in Dyalŋuy were mainly derived from three sources: "borrowings from the everyday register of neighbouring dialects or languages, the creation of new [Dyalŋuy] forms by phonological deformation of lexemes from the language's own everyday style, and the borrowing of terms that were already in the [Dyalŋuy] style of a neighboring language or dialect".<ref>{{cite journal |last=Evans |first=N. |year=2003 |title=Context, culture, and structuration in the languages of Australia |journal=Annual Review of Anthropology |volume=32 |pages=13–40}}</ref>

An example of borrowing between dialects is the word for sun in the Yidin and Ngadyan dialects. In Yidin, the Guwal style word for sun is [buŋan], and this same word was also the Dyalŋuy style of the word for sun in the Ngadyan dialect.<ref name="Dixon1972"/> It is hypothesized that children of Dyirbal tribes were expected to acquire the Dyalŋuy speech style years following their acquisition of the everyday speech style from their cross cousins who would speak in Dyalŋuy in their presence. By the onset of puberty, the child probably spoke Dyalŋuy fluently and was able to use it in the appropriate contexts.<ref name="Dixon, R. M. W. 1989"/> This phenomenon, commonly called [[mother-in-law languages]], was common in indigenous Australian languages. It existed until about 1930, when the taboo system fell out of use.

== Young Dyirbal ==
In the 1970s, speakers of Dyirbal and Giramay dialects purchased land in the Murray Upper, with the assistance of the Australian federal government and formed a community. Within this community  shift in language began to occur, and with it came the emergence of  new form of Dyirbal, dubbed by researcher Annette Schmidt "Young Dyirbal" or "YD". This language stands in contrast to "Traditional Dyirbal" or "TD".<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal|last=Schmidt|first=Annette|date=1985|title=The Fate of Ergativity in Dying Dyirbal|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/414150|journal=Language|volume=61|issue=2|pages=378–396|doi=10.2307/414150|jstor=414150|issn=0097-8507|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

Young Dyirbal is grammatically distinct from Traditional Dyirbal, in some cases being more similar to English, such as the gradual loss of ergative inflection, as is found in Traditional Dyirbal, in favour of a style of inflection more similar to the one found in English.<ref name=":2" />

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==References==
* {{cite book|last=Dixon|first=Robert M. W.|author-link=Robert M. W. Dixon|title=The Dyirbal Language of North Queensland|url=https://archive.org/details/dyirballanguageo00dixo|url-access=registration|year=1972|publisher=CUP Archive|isbn=978-0-521-08510-6}}

==External links==
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20021227140334/http://www.hku.hk/linguist/program/world8.html Lecture notes on Dyirbal illustrating mother-in-law language]
*[http://aiatsis.gov.au/sites/default/files/docs/collections/language_bibs/dyirbal_djirbal_jirrabul.pdf Bibliography of Dyirbal people and language resources] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150528105526/http://aiatsis.gov.au/sites/default/files/docs/collections/language_bibs/dyirbal_djirbal_jirrabul.pdf |date=28 May 2015 }}, at the [[Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies]]
*[http://aiatsis.gov.au/sites/default/files/docs/collections/language_bibs/girramay.pdf Bibliography of Girramay people and language resources] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150529070819/http://aiatsis.gov.au/sites/default/files/docs/collections/language_bibs/girramay.pdf |date=29 May 2015 }}, at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
*[http://aiatsis.gov.au/sites/default/files/malanbarra_gulngay_0.pdf Bibliography of the Gulngay people and language resources]{{Dead link|date=February 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}, at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
*[https://archive.org/stream/rosettaproject_dbl_swadesh-1/dbl.txt Rosetta Project: Dyirbal Swadesh List]
*[https://onesearch.slq.qld.gov.au/permalink/61SLQ_INST/11l3i0/alma99183677620202061 Jirrbal Language Recordings], [[State Library of Queensland]]

{{Pama–Nyungan languages|East}}

[[Category:Dyirbalic languages]]
[[Category:Endangered indigenous Australian languages in Queensland]]
[[Category:Severely endangered languages]]