Bininj Kunwok

Kunwinjku
Gunwinygu
Native to	Australien
Region	Northern Territory
Native speakers	1410
Language family	Gunwinyguan Gunwinyguan proper Gunwinggic Kunwinjku
Language codes
ISO 639-3	gup
ELP	Bininj Gun-wok

Kunwinjku (also spelt Gunwingu, Gunwingku) is the variety of Bininj Gun-wok spoken in the largest population centre, Kunbarlanja (formerly Oenpelli) and therefore the most widespread. This dialect had a population of speakers around 700 as of 2003 according to Evans, almost all of whom speak Kunwinjku inspite of increasing exposure to English.

Note: As discussed above according to Evans 2003, Kunwinjku refers to a dialect of Bininj Gun-Wok (Bininj Gun-Wok being a term he introduced). However, some linguists such as Dixon (2002) uses this term as a language name, that is, an equivalent of Bininj Gun-wok.

Phonology

Consonant inventory

	Peripheral-Bilabial	Peripheral-Velar	Apico-Alveolar	Apico-retroflex	Lamino-palatal	Glottal
Short stop	p	k	t	ʈ	ƫ	ʔ
Long stop	pː	kː	tː	ʈː	ƫː
Nasal	m	ŋ	n	ɳ	ɲ
Lateral			l	ɭ
Rhotics			ɹ	r
Semi vowels	w				y

• Notes on the consonant inventory
• Evans (2003) uses the symbol "r" for the apico-alveolar rhotic and the symbol "ɹ" for the apico-retroflex rhotic. As this is potentially confusing, I have used the standard IPA symbols in the chart above according to the description of place and manner of articulation provided by Evans(2003).
• Moreover, Evans (2003) uses exactly the same symbol for the apico-alveolar short stop and apico-alveolar retroflex stop. To avoid confusion I have used the standard IPA symbol "ʈ" for the apico-retroflex short stop.

Vowel inventory

	Front	Central	Zurück
Hoch	i		u
Mid	e		o
Niedrig		a

Further reading

Evans, Nicholas. 2003. Bininj Gun-Wok: a pan-dialectal grammar of Mayali, Kunwinjku and Kune: Pacific Linguistics 541, Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. Carroll, Peter. 1976. Kunwinjku: a language of Western Arnhem Land, Australian National University: MA.

Link to OZBIB library on this language.