Bininj Kunwok

Bininj Kunwok is an Arnhem language spoken mainly in western Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory of the Australia. According to the 2016 census, about 2,130 people speak Bininj Kunwok, and the largest concentration of speakers is in the township of Gunbalanya.

Dialects of Bininj Kunwok include Kunwinjku, Kuninjku, Kundjeyhmi, Kundedjnjenghmi, Kune and Mayali, which are all more or less mutually intelligible. The most spoken dialect is Kunwinjku, which is also known as Gunwinggu, and which had 1,760 speakers in 2016. The name Bininj Kunwok / Bininj Gunwok was introduced by Nicholas Evans, a linguist, to refer to all of the dialects.

A spelling system for Bininj Kunwok was developed in the 1960s by linguists in consultation with native speakers of the language. This was adopted as the standard way to write all Bininj Kunwok dialects in 2015.

Bininj Kunwok alphabet and pronunciation

Bininj Kunwok alphabet and pronunciation

Notes

k is pronunced [ɡ] at the beginning of a syllable, and [k] at the end of a syllable

Download an alphabet chart for Bininj Kunwok

Sample text

Kun-wok ngadberre, Kunwinjku, minj ngarri-djare kun-wok ngadberre ka-yakmen. Ngarri-djare wurdurd ngadberre kabirri-djordmerren wanjh bedmanwali kabindi-bukkan birri-kerrnge ba kun-wok ngadberre ka-djale munguyh-munguyh.

Translation

We don't want our Kunwinjku language to ever disappear. We want our children to grow up and then in turn teach it to the new generations so that our language will continue on forever.

Source: https://bininjkunwok.org.au/

Sample videos in Bininj Kunwok / Kunwinjku

Information about Bininj Gun-Wok | Tower of babel

Links

Information about Bininj Kunwok
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bininj_Kunwok_language
https://www.ethnologue.com/language/gup
https://kunwok.org/wiki/Main_Page
https://bininjkunwok.org.au
https://www.njamed.com/

Arnhem languages

Anindilyakwa, Bininj Kunwok, Burarra, Nunggubuyu

Languages written with the Latin alphabet

Page last modified: 23.04.21

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