DYIRBAL: A Unique Language from North-Eastern Australia
LINGUAFILES
Written by Anthony Burger
Published April 8, 2024
This article is also available in: Deutsch.
The remarkable story of an Australian language with only around 30 speakers remaining, showcasing a unique linguistic system on the brink of extinction and challenging our perceptions of how rapidly a language can transform.
Members of the Jirrbal community engaged in a language documentation project. Phyllis Grant, Robert Grant, Mary Muriata, and Francis (surname undisclosed), with Chris Kennedy (not pictured) leading the filming initiative. This image captures the community members on location in the Tully region, contributing to the creation of educational language videos. The effort is part of the North Queensland Regional Aboriginal Corporation Language Centre’s larger language revitalization program.
(North Queensland Regional Aboriginal Corporation Languages Centre, edited by Marvin Nauendorff, used under Australian fair-use law.)
DYIRBAL
Name of the language in English: Dyirbal
Native Name: Jirrbal, Giramay, Mamu (varies by dialect)
Location: Queensland, Australia
Family: Pama-Nyungan
Related Languages: Mbabaram, other Pama-Nyungan languages (the majority of indigenous Australian languages belong to this family).
Number of Speakers: ~30 speakers in 2021
Official Status: Dyirbal has no official status in Australia, where there is an English-speaking majority
UNESCO Classification: Critically Endangered
Writing System: Modified Latin alphabet
UNIQUE FEATURES OF DYIRBAL
The highlighted area showcases the historical distribution of the Dyirbalic language family in Queensland, Australia. This includes the indigenous languages of Dyirbal, Warrgamay, Nyawaygi, Wulguru, and Nyawagic.
(Created by Marvin Nauendorff)
Dyirbal is a mother-in-law language. It used to be taboo for speakers of Dyirbal to talk to certain family members, including parents-in-law of the opposite sex as well as certain other family members. When these specific family members were within earshot, both parties had to use a specific register of Dyirbal that used an entirely different set of words (of course, not with each other – they were not even allowed to approach or look directly at each other). This taboo register of Dyirbal is called Dyalŋuy, whereas the everyday Dyirbal language is called Guwal. The mother-in-law language system broke down after around 1930.
Dyirbal pronunciation originally included the fewest distinct sounds (phonemes) of any Australian language, but in recent years it has been significantly influenced by English.
Dyirbal, as it was originally recorded in the 60s (“Traditional Dyirbal”), had four noun classes. Class I broadly included living beings and masculine things, Class II was used for feminine things, water, fire, and fighting, Class III contained edible vegetables and fruit, and Class IV dealt with anything left over. These classes were divided based on cultural associations, including myths. For instance, most birds fell under Class II because they were believed to be the souls of deceased women. The cultural legends and beliefs behind these noun classes tied them uniquely to the tribes that spoke Dyirbal.
THE SWIFT DECLINE OF DYIRBAL
“The language has died at a faster rate than I could record it.”
Dyirbal is a fascinating example of linguistic diversity. The rich complexity of the language, especially its taboo system and its noun classes, broadens our understanding of what form a language can take. Beyond that, Dyirbal has shown us just how fast a language can change – in under 50 years, the linguistic systems of Dyirbal and the cultural ties they held were altered drastically.
Around 1895: A gathering of men and boys on the Atherton Tableland, possibly members of the Djirrbal tribe. This image reflects the cultural lineage of the Djirrbal and Ngadjonji tribes, integral to the Djirrbalngan language area spanning today's Atherton Tablelands, Innisfail, and Tully regions.
(Alfred Atkinson, State Library of Queensland, used under Australian fair-use law)
The largest contributing factor to this change, tragically, was language death, as more and more of the Dyirbal community came to rely on English and lost connection with the traditions underlying Dyirbal’s structure. The influence of English changed the previously free word order to a fixed subject-verb object order as the language lost its inflectional endings, the noun class system collapsed into just three (male/animate, female, inanimate) that no longer relied on tribal traditions to explain categorization, and even the sounds used in the language were altered significantly by their contact with English.
Professor Robert Dixon, the linguist who first studied and recorded Dyirbal, stated, "The language has died at a faster rate than I could record it.” Dyirbal has been gradually abandoned over the years as the tribal culture associated with it collapsed, and has been increasingly replaced by English. The language had only 6 remaining native speakers in 2001, although recent census reports show an increasing number of speakers (around 30 in 2021).
Written by
Imagery
Alfred Atkinson
Marvin Nauendorff
North Queensland Regional Aboriginal Corporation Language Centre
State Library of Queensland
Edited by
Alice Pol, Aline Vitaly & Marvin Nauendorff
Acknowledgements
Professor Robert Dixon
Phyllis Grant
Robert Grant
Mary Muriata
Francis
Cite This Article
Burger, Anthony. 2024. "Dyirbal: A Unique Language from North-Eastern Australia." Linguaphile Magazine. https://www.linguaphilemagazine.org/editorial/linguafiles-dyirbal.
Further Reading
How Fast Do Languages Evolve? - Dyirbal glottochronology 1 of 2, YouTube.
How long can a language last before it's unrecognizable? - Dyirbal Glottochronology 2 of 2, YouTube.
Dyirbal: A Language Feature, by Stephanie Kiang on Los Angeles Times High School Insider.
Bibliography
Dixon, R. M. W. 1972. The Dyirbal Language of North Queensland. Cambridge Studies in Linguistics 9. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/catalog/2575463.
Dixon, R. M. W. 2011. "Dyirbal: The Language and Its Speakers." In Dyirbal Language of North Queensland, Cambridge Core. Accessed April 6, 2024. https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/dyirbal-language-of-north-queensland/dyirbal-the-language-and-its-speakers/62D8D9F83D08FA8877D86EA1E7C1A487.
Lyovin, Anatole, Brett Kessler, and William Ronald Leben. 1997. An Introduction to the Languages of the World. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://global.oup.com/academic/product/an-introduction-to-the-languages-of-the-world-9780195081169?cc=de&lang=en&.
NativLang. 2017a. "How Fast Do Languages Evolve? - Dyirbal Glottochronology 1 of 2." YouTube video. Posted August 25. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evJ_E7k1pvY.
NativLang. 2017b. "How Long Can a Language Last Before It's Unrecognizable? - Dyirbal Glottochronology 2 of 2." YouTube video. Posted September 15.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akVBtIPOnNI.Plaster, Keith, and Maria Polinsky. 2007. "Women are not dangerous things: Gender and categorization." Harvard Working Papers in Linguistics 12. Accessed April 6, 2024.
http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:3209556.UNESCO. 2010. "Atlas of the world's languages in danger." Accessed April 6, 2024.
https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000187026.