Dalabon language
Dalabon is a Gunwinyguan language of Arnhem Land, Australia. It is a severely endangered language, with perhaps as few as three fluent speakers remaining as of 2018.
Dalabon is also known as Dangbon, Ngalkbun, and Buwan.
Classification
Dalabon belongs to the Gunwinyguan languages branch of the Australian languages, its nearest relatives are Kunwinjku, Kune, Mayali and Kunbarlang. Its next closest relatives are Rembarrnga, and other languages within the Gunwinyguan family, including Jawoyn, Ngalakgan, Ngandi, Wubuy, and Enindhilyakwa.Official status
Dalabon has no official status. Local schools spent years to hold sporadic programs teaching Dalabon, but these operations didn't receive enough governmental support. Therefore, the condition of programs is still vulnerable.Dialect/Varieties
Given the limited number of Dalabon speakers, the study of dialects has become challenging to investigate. Speakers recall a distinction between two different types of speech, dalabon-djurrkdjurrk and dalabon-murduk. However, no significant difference has been found between the two speeches.Phonology and Orthography
Consonants
There are 22 or 23 phonemic consonants in Dalabon, depending on the phonemic status of /h/. A table containing the consonant phonemes is given below with their orthographic representation.Vowels
There are 6 vowels in Dalabon. A table containing the vowel phonemes is given below with their orthographic representation.Phonotactics
Dalabon restricts the trilled and long stops to only occur word-internally. Constraints regarding the edges of a phonological word also limit the glottal stop from occurring word-initially.The syllable structure of Dalabon is CV, or more specifically:
CV or CV
where:
- L is a liquid consonant
- N is a nasal consonant
- S is a peripheral consonant
- h is a glottal consonant.
Complex coda of two consonants
| _k | _b | _ng | _h | |
| l_ | yalkngalk /jalk.ŋalk/ "native bee sp." | kolb /kolp/ "sound of spear slotting into spearthrower" | kalngbuy /kalŋ.buj/ "initiation ritual" | kolh-no /kolʔ.no/ "liquid, water" |
| rl_ | borlkmû /boɭk.mɨ/ " fall out" | borlbmû /boɭp.mɨ/ " be accustomed to" | lurlh /luɭʔ/ "hop of a riverine wallaby" | |
| rr_ | kerrkban /kerk.ban/ " dodge" | yang-warrbmû /jaŋ.warp.mɨ/ " tell lies" | marrngkidj /marŋ.kic/ "sorcerer, clever man" | bukarrh /bu.karʔ/ "top " |
| r_ | berk /beɻk/ "deaf adder" | wirbmang /wiɻp.maŋ/ " pull out from flesh" | kerng-no /keɻŋ.no/ "jaw" | warhdû /waɻʔ.dɨ/ "devil, white person" |
| ng_ | wanjingh /wa.ɳiŋʔ/ "one" | |||
| m_ | njimhmû /ɳimʔ.mɨ/ " wink" | |||
| n_ | kanh /kanʔ/ "this " | |||
| rn_ | nornhnornh /noɳʔnoɳʔ/ "stone axe" | |||
| nj_ | keninjhbi /ke.niɲʔ.bi/ "whatsit, whosit" |
Complex coda of three consonants
Phonological processes
Dalabon has a pattern of eliding unstressed vowels and unstressed syllables. For example, the word /'cabale/ 'shoulder blade' is often realized as .Prosody
The location of phrasal stress in Dalabon appears one or two peaks with an initial rise into the first peak at the left edge of the constituent and a final fall at the right edge of the constituent.Grammar
Although there is no complete grammatical description of the language, a number of aspects of Dalabon grammar have been described, including its bound pronominal system, polysynthetic word structure, verb conjugations, the use of subordination strategies, nominal subclasses, the demonstrative system, and the use of optional ergativity.Morphology
The structure of Dalabon verbs:| -12 | -11 | -10 | -9 | -8 | -7 | -6 | -5 | -4 | -3 | -2 | -1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| Obj pron | Subj pron | SURB | SEQ | CAUS | MISC | BEN/INST | MISC | GIN | BPIN | NUM | COM | STEM | RR | TAM | Case |
SEQ: sequential ‘and then’
CAUS: ‘because’
misc: various adverbial type prefixes
BEN: benefactive applicative
gin: ‘generic’ incorporated nouns
bpin: ‘body part’ incorporated nouns
num: ‘number’ prefixes
COM: comitative applicative
RR: Reflexive/reciprocal
TAM: tense/aspect mood
The diminutive enclitic =wurd is derived from noun wurd 'woman's child', its reduplication wurdurd means 'child'.
wurd can attach to most word classes and functions in 3 ways of meaning: to denote small objects, to add emotional connotations and to serve as pragmatic functions. The examples are shown below.
Syntax
Dalabon is a head-marking language. Dalabon has limited use of subordinate clauses, but it has a distinctive subordination strategy, which is to attach pronominal prefixes to the verb, and marked verbs are used for subordinate clause functions| Pronominal Prefixes | Subordinate1 | Subordinate2 |
| 1sg | nga- | ngaye- |
| 2sg | dja- | djaya- |
| 3sg | ka- | kaye- |
| 1dis | nge- | ngey- |
| 3dis | ke- | key- |
| 3du | barra- | barre- |
| 3pl | bala- | bale- |
subordinate1: the unmarked form of prefixes to show subordinate status, used when the status is overt by other means.
subordinate2: used when prefixes are the only way to show subordination.
dis: disharmonic, meaning odd-numbered generations.
Examples are shown below: