Gaagudju language

Gaagudju
Gaagudju
Kakadu
Native to	Australia
Region	Northern Territory
Ethnicity	Gaagudju, Watta
Extinct	May 2002, with the death of Big Bill Neidjie
Language family	Macro-Gunwinyguan?; Arnhem Land? Gaagudju;
Dialects	Wada;
Language codes
ISO 639-3	gbu
Glottolog	gaga1251
AIATSIS	N50
ELP	Gagudju
	; Gaagudju
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Gaagudju (also spelt Gagadu, Gaguju, and Kakadu) is an extinct Australian Aboriginal language formerly spoken in the environs of Kakadu National Park, in Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, Australia.

Country and status

Explorer Baldwin Spencer incorrectly ascribed the name "Kakadu tribe" to all of the people living in the Alligator Rivers area,^[2]^[3] but Gaagudju was confined to the plains South and East Alligator Rivers.^[1]

The language is classed as extinct, since its last fluent speaker, Big Bill Neidjie, died on 23 May 2002;^[4]^[5] AUSTLANG's sources recorded no speakers between 1975 and 2016.^[1]

Classification

Gaagudju has traditionally been classified with the Gunwinyguan languages. However, in 1997 Nicholas Evans proposed an Arnhem Land family that includes Gaagudju.

Phonology

Vowels

	Front	Back
High	i iː	u uː
Mid	e eː	o oː
Low	a aː

Consonants

	Peripheral		Laminal	Apical
	Bilabial	Velar	Palatal	Alveolar	Retroflex
Stop	p	k	c	t	ʈ
Nasal	m	ŋ	ɲ	n	ɳ
Lateral			ʎ	l	𝼈
Rhotic				r	ɻ
Semivowel	w		j

Vocabulary

Capell (1942) lists the following basic vocabulary items:^[6]

gloss	Gagadu
man	djereiŋi
woman	djireːwan
head	ŋaːṙi
eye	bɔːrɔ
nose	geːni
mouth	djaːbul
tongue	ŋaːndjil
stomach	mabulu
bone	benaːgăra
blood	maneŋul
kangaroo	baːgu
opossum	mɔɳɔ
emu	gabaṙɛːbi
crow	mawaːga
fly	ŋɔrmul
sun	gobolbara
moon	maɖba
fire	gudjäli
smoke	uŋari
water	gaṙu