Handbook of Australian Languages

HIONSHICS

. The jfeonemic system of Waljbiri is as follows:
t d do d g

1 Ij 1

(¥)

(vO

r 3 w

u
o

a

lol^l,

This sjrston is extremely smple, and noticeable for its omissions
rather oh^^for v;hat it contaijaso It y^oll "be seen that /e/ is not present, al-
though /o/ IS found, and thus an unbalanoed vavrel system results • The occurrence
of /o/ is not common, "but quite definite in those cases where it has been recorded,
eogc,/^ologo/ ♦simev;*, ♦string'; /'dori/ 'ankle*; /godjaburadoa'ria/ 'turn round';
/^odu/ 'louse'; /'mola/ *egg';/'Hiclju/ 'nose'; /'mcfwa/ 'darkness'* This is not
to say that other sounds vnLll not be heard, but orJLy that they are not phonemic »
Thus ^e '■ is hoard, but m one v/ord only: ^'merc/'j, an expression for 'I don't
knor/'e The standard sound of /a/ is the central vowel approaching th^at of 'but'
in Ea^^Lish, but the open sound as in ^^father" being heard only in long stressed
syllables 6 There is an interchange between tense and lax ^ja ^and fo] under sim-
ilar conditions to those mentioned in Ch« 1, § 2 as generally prevailing in Aus-
tralia o flowever, there does not appear to be as mnch tendency to lower Ti j to
/e} or L*^ I to fo I as is usually found in Australia •

lo3o stress and Intonation

l«3rlft Stress in Waljbiri never occurs on a final syllable, and tends to
fall as near the beginning of the word as possible — and it is definitely a word
stress rather than a phrase stress* Bie rales are:

(i) In d syllabic words the first syllable receives the stress: /*djara/ 'lang-
age*; /*lawa/ ^nothing**
(ii) In trisyllabic words stress may fall on the first or second syllables:

/ba'gani/ ^cut (wood)'; /'mab^alba*gulu/ 'medicine man'; /'muduna/ 'a very
old woman 'o It is difficult to assign rules govextiing each case. A com-
pound such as /'milgari/ 'blind in one eye' carries the stress on the first
syllable because it is compounded of /'milba/ 'eye' and the f oimative -gari,
but such an explanation cannot always be given, e»go, /'ma23gudu/ 'cloudy

19

sky*^ /'marilbi/ ^oon^ It is, however, safe to say that Waljbiri falls
into line with most Australian languages and prefers to stress the initicJL
syllable, and that it is rather shift of -the^ stress to the seoond syll- '
ahle that needs explanation*

(iii) Words of more than three syllables tend to have a rhythmic pattern in
which the primary stress is on the last syllable but one, and secondary
stresses are found on alternate syllables, working backv^^rdso Reduplic-
ations such as /^mururu-'rururu/ Vasp* are exceptions*
It should be added that suffixes do not cause the advancement of the stress
by one 'or more syllables. The exception is the emphatic suffix -dju- -dji (3o.7 e

O 9^1 O J

i

OCEANIA LINGUISTIC MONOGRAPHS

GENERAL EDITOR: Professor A. P. ELKIN
EDITORS: A. CAPELL and S. WURM

No. 7

OCEANIA LINGUISTIC MONOGMHi NO. 7

SOME LINGUISTIC TYPES IN AUSTRALIA

[Handbook of Australian Languages, Part 2]

LJF::=->APY

JAM ai 1963

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA

by

A. Capell

TIC' 7
A-A/TH-feto

LI 5

SOl-ffi LINGUISTIC TYHIS TT AUSTRALIA
(Handbook of Australian Languages, Part 2)

A. CAEELL , M.A., Hi.D

Published by the University of Sydney, Australia.

PRICE: One Pound

1962

Riblished "by the University of Sydney, Australia
1962