Tiwi

About

Tiwi is an Australian Aboriginal language spoken by the Tiwi people on the Tiwi Islands, within sight of the coast of northern Australia. It is one of about 10% of Australian languages still being learned by children. Traditional Tiwi, spoken by people over the age of fifty by 2005, is a polysynthetic language. However, this grammatical complexity has been lost among younger generations. Tiwi has around one hundred nominals that can be incorporated into verbs, most of them quite different from the corresponding free forms.

Grammar

Nouns Nouns form the plural with the separate plural words: Plural Particle before the noun: ɭpenn - ḷpenn muṇ /ɭpenn muɳ/ dogs Articles Definite Indefinite Singular o /o/ the ni /ni/ a Plural mpenk /mpenk/ the lin /lin/ some Uses of definite article that differ from English: Used for personal names in third person: ‘The Maria has left for school’ Used with place names: ‘The London’ Uses of indefinite article that differ from English: Not used for non-specific countable nouns: non-specific means ‘I am looking for a (any) girl in a red dress’, whereas specific means ‘I am looking for a (particular) girl in a red dress’ Not used for non-specific mass (uncountable) nouns: non-specific means ‘Would you like some (any) tea?’ whereas specific means ‘Some tea (a specific amount) fell off the truck’ Pronouns 1st singular n̪i /n̪i/ I, me, mine 2nd singular wir̊ /wiɻ/ you, yours 3rd singular masc no /no/ he, him, his, it, its 3rd singular fem ḷa /ɭa/ she, her, hers, it, its 1st plural t̠ut̪ /t̠ut̪/ we, us, ours 2nd plural pen /pen/ you all, yours (pl) 3rd plural lat̠ /lat̠/ they, them, theirs Possessive determiners 1st singular n̪i /n̪i/ my 2nd singular wir̊ /wiɻ/ your 3rd singular masc no /no/ his 3rd singular fem ḷa /ɭa/ her 1st plural t̠ut̪ /t̠ut̪/ our 2nd plural pen /pen/ your (pl) 3rd plural lat̠ /lat̠/ their Verbs Present No affix chyaysut /ˈcajsut/ learn Past Prefix n̪i- n̪ichyaysut /n̪iˈcajsut/ learned Morrin̪ian uses a standalone particle word for future tense: Future Particle before the verb: sarl - sarl chyaysut /sarl ˈcajsut/ will learn Derivational morphology Adjective → adverb = Prefix u- Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix m- Else: Prefix mpen- Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix m- Else: Prefix mu- Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix r- Else: Prefix ri- Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = If starts with vowel:…