A grammar of Jingulu, an Aboriginal language of the Northern Territory Pensalfini, R. A grammar of Jingulu, an Aboriginal language of the Northern Territory. PL-536, xix + 262 pages. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 2003. DOI:10.15144/PL-536.cover ©2003 Pacific Linguistics and/or the author(s). Online edition licensed 2015 CC BY-SA 4.0, with permission of PL. A sealang.net/CRCL initiative. Also in Pacific Linguistics John Bowden, 2001, Taba: description of a South Halmahera Austronesian language. Mark Harvey, 2001, A grammar of Limilngan: a language of the Mary River Region, Northern Territory, Allstralia. Margaret Mutu with Ben Telkitutoua, 2002, Ua Pou: aspects of a Marquesan dialect. Elisabeth Patz, 2002, A grammar of the Kukll Yalanji language of north Queensland. Angela Terrill, 2002, Dharumbal: the language of Rockhampton, Australia. Catharina Williams-van Klinken, John Hajek and Rachel Nordlinger, 2002, Tetlin Dili: a grammar of an East Timorese language. Pacific Linguistics is a publisher specialising in grammars and linguistic descriptions, dictionaries and other materials on languages of the Pacific, the Philippines, Indonesia, East Timor, southeast and south Asia, and Australia. Pacific Linguistics, established in 1963 through an initial grant from the Hunter Douglas Fund, is associated with the Research School of Pacific and Asian Shldies at the Australian National University. The Editorial Board of Pacific Linguistics is made up of the academic staff of the school's Department of Linguistics. The authors and editors of Pacific Linguistics publications are drawn from a wide range of institutions around the world. Publications are refereed by scholars with relevant expertise, who are usually not members of the editorial board. FOUNDING EDITOR: Stephen A. Wurm EDITORIAL BOARD: Managing Editors: Malcolm D. Ross, John Bowden, Darrell T. Tryon, I Wayan Arka, Andrew Pawley, Paul Sidwell, Jane Simpson and David Nash Pacific Linguistics 536 A grammar of Jingulu, an Aboriginal language of the Northern Terri tory Rob Pensalfini Pacific Linguistics Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies The Australian National University Published by Pacific Linguistics Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies The Australian National University Canberra ACT 0200 Australia Copyright in this edition is vested with Pacific Linguistics First published 2003 National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry: Pensalfini. Robert J. Jingulu grammar. an aboriginal language of the Northern Territory Bibliography ISBN 0 85883 558 4 1. Djingili language - Grammar. 2. Djingili language. I. Australian National University. Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies. Pacific Linguistics. II. Title. 499.15 Copyedited by Basil Wilson Typeset by Margaret Forster Cover design by Emily Brissenden Printed and bound by Ciril's Printers. Fyshwick. Canberra Dedication This work is dedicated to the Jingili people, and to the memory of my mother, Savina Pensalfini. Knrallll1gka lllrrbu wllrrurruku, dllrru bnyuwurmrruku. Table of contents List of maps, figures, and tables xiii Preface xv Acknow ledgmen ts xvi Abbreviations used xvii Chapter 1: The language and its speakers 1 1.1 History and current status 1 1.1.1 Territory, genealogy and surroundi11glanguages 1 1.1.2 Typological affiliation 5 1.1.3 Previous descriptions 6 1.1.4 Jingulu, Mudburra, Kuwarrangu, Kuwirrinji and Kriol - the languages of the Jingili 6 1.2 Status of the language 10 1.2.1 Number and age of speakers 10 1.2.2 Prospects for the language 11 1.3 Kinship and subsection system 11 Chapter 2: Phonology 20 2.1 Phoneme inventory 20 2.1.1 Vowels 20 2.1.2 Consonants and glides 23 2.1.2.1 Retroflex consonants 25 viii Ta ble of contents 2.1.2.2 The palato-velar stop: phoneme or cluster? 26 2.1.2.3 Neutralisation of [±lateral] in clusters 30 2.1.2.4 Initial glides and the special status of /ng/ 30 2.2 Phonotactics 31 2.3 Stress 36 2.3.1 Word stress 36 2.3.2 Stress and suffixes 38 2.4 Vowel harmony 40 2.4.1 Jingulu harmony described in terms of feature-spreading 41 2.4.2 Putting a finger on the trigger 43 2.4.2.1 Nominals 43 2.4.2.2 Verbs 44 2.5 Morphophonology 47 2.5.1 Linking vowels 48 2.5.2 Lexical alternations 50 2.5.2.1 Retroflex versus anterior coronals 50 2.5.2.2 Masculine suffixes 52 2.5.3 Reduplication 52 Chapter 3: Parts of speech and derivation 56 3.1 Parts of speech 56 3.1.1 Nominal 56 3.1.2 Verbal 58 3.1.3 Adverbial 65 3.1.4 Interjections and personal names 68 3.2 Derivation 70 3.2.1 Nominalisation 70 3.2.2 Adverbialisation 73 Table of contents ix 3.2.2.1/-kaji/ 73 3.2.2.2 / -nama/ 75 Chapter 4: Syntax 77 4.1 Simple sentences 77 4.1.1 Properties of simple sentences 77 4.1.2 Verb-less clauses 86 4.1.2.1 Adjectives and nouns as predicates 87 4.1.2.2 Possession 90 4.1.2.3 Adpositional predication 92 4.1.2.4 Adverbs as predicates 93 4.1.3 Adverb placement 95 4.1.4 Questions 98 4.1.4.1 Simple questions 98 4.1.4.2 Multiple interrogatives 100 4.1.5 Negation and quantification 101 4.1.5.1 Negation 101 4.1.5.2 Quantification 103 4.1.6 'Double object' and beneficiary constructions 105 4.1.7 Modality 109 4.2 Complex sentences 111 4.2.1 Coordinate structures 112 4.2.2 Subordinate structures 115 4.2.2.1 Cause-Effect 116 4.2.2.2 Purpose 117 4.2.2.3 Evitative 120 4.2.2.4 Relative clauses 121 4.2.2.5 Causatives 124 4.2.2.6 Switch reference 126 x Table of contents 4.2.3 Clausal arguments 128 Chapter 5: Nominal morphology 130 5.1 Demonstratives 130 5.1.1 This, that, and the other thing 130 5.1.2 The aforementioned and the newly introduced 137 5.1.3 Hither, thither, and this way 140 5.1.4 lnterrogatives 142 5.1.4.1 Who, what, when, where, why and how? 142 5.1. 4.1.1 Nyamba questions 142 5.1.4.1.2 (W)aja questions 143 5.1.4.1.3 (W)ani questions 145 5.1.4.2 When simple 'yes' or 'no' will do 147 5.2 Pronouns 148 5.2.1 Nominative pronouns 149 5.2.2 Ergative pronouns 150 5.2.3 Accusative and Genitive pronouns 152 5.3 Nominal features 159 5.3.1 Gender 160 5.3.1.1 Genders and gender morphology 160 5.3.1.2 Adjectival agreement 164 5.3.1.3 Gender disagreement and the gender feature structure 166 5.3.2 Number 169 5.3.2.1 Number morphology 169 5.3.2.2 Number feature structure 173 Table of contents xi 5.3.3 Case and role marking 175 5.3.3.1 Core, structural or grammatical case 177 5.3.3.1.1 The Ergative suffix /-rni/ 178 5.3.3.1.2 The Dative suffix I-rna / 179 5.3.3.2 Semantic or adpositional case 184 5.3.3.2.1 The locational suffixes 185 5.3.3.2.2 The Instrumental suffix /-(w)arndi/ 188 5.3.3.2.3 The Comitative suffix /-ngkujku/ 19 1 5.3.3.2.4 The Privative suffix /-jija/ 192 5.3.3.3 Pragmatic marking 193 5.3.3.3.1 The Focus suffixes 193 5.3.3.3.2 The Emphatic suffix/particle /ma/ 200 5.3.3.3.3 Vocative forms 201 5.3.3.4 Other uses of nominal case suffixes 201 5.3.4 (In)Definiteness 201 5.3.5 Structure of nominals - review 206 Chapter 6: The Verb complex 208 6.1 Argument marking 208 6.1.1 Subject agreement 208 6.1.2 Object agreement 212 6.1.3 Combined subject and object agreement 213 6.1.3.1 Filling nodes individually 214 6.1.3.2 Fused agreement forms 217 6.1.3.3 The Inverse construction 219 6.1.4 Reflexive and reciprocal constructions 222 6.1.5 'Disagreement' and absence of object agreement 224 6.1.6 Doubling of inflection 225 6.2 Light verbs 226 6.2.1 The three series of light verbs 226 6.2.2 Irrealis and Imperative moods 230 XIl Table of contents 6.2.3 Interpretation of tense 234 6.2.4 Verbs suffixed to nominals 234 6.3 The curious morpheme I -rral 239 Chapter 7: Sample texts 241 7.1 Warranganku (Beetaloo) 242 7.2 Jllrrkurlll1nbili (At the Creek) 245 7.3 Jakardini Julardi (Mother birds) 246 7.4 Burrmurumura (Hornets) 247 7.5 Environmental changes 247 7.6 Making implements 249 7.7 Translation of a Mudburra Hunting Story 251 7.8 Making a fire and cooking 253 7.9 Bring me food! 255 7.10 BunarnaNg irriki Ngu rruwardu (Hunting for Ashes) 256 7.11 Kamamurra Marluka (The Old Blind Man) 257 References 259 List of maps, fi gures and tables Maps 1 Jingulu and surrounding language groups 2 2 Jingili country 3 Figures 1.1 Jingulu kinship terms and subsection system 12 2.1 Approximate division of the vowel space into phonemes in Jingulu 21 2.2 Classification of Jingulu consonants by place and manner of articulation 23 2.3 Classification of Jingulu consonants by articulatory features 24 2.4 Articulatory feature geometry 25 2.5 Feature representation of putative morpheme /ky / 26 5.1 Nesting of genders in Jingulu 168 5.2 Hierarchy of gender features in Jingulu 169 5.3 Nesting of number in Jingulu 175 5.4 Hierarchy of number features in Jingulu 175 Tables 1.1 Percentage cognates on 100-item count (from Chadwick 1978) 4 1.2 Percentage cognates on 200-item count 4 2.1 Permissible consonant clusters 33 5.1 Demonstratives varying according to gender 133 xiv List of maps, figures and tables 5.2 Nominative pronOlms 149 5.3 Ergative pronouns 151 5.4 Accusative/Genitive stems 152 6.1 Combined subject and object agreement forms 213 6.2 Combinations of agreement morphemes 214 Preface This book is intended as a thorough description of the Jingulu language as spoken by the handful of speakers remaining in the Northern Territory during the mid to late 1990s.