Yawuru language facts for kids

Yawuru is an Aboriginal language spoken by the Yawuru people in Western Australia. It is part of the Nyulnyulan language family. You can find the Yawuru people and their language along the coast, just south of the town of Broome.

What is the Yawuru Language?

Yawuru is a language with its own unique sounds and rules. Like many languages, it has vowels and consonants. It also has a flexible word order, which means the order of words in a sentence can change without changing the meaning too much.

Keeping Yawuru Alive

By the late 1990s, only a few people could speak Yawuru fluently. This was a worry, as languages can disappear if no one learns them. But some younger people decided to help. They worked hard to learn Yawuru. Now, they are teaching the language in schools and to adults in Broome. This helps keep the Yawuru language strong for future generations.

How Yawuru Sounds

Yawuru has both short and long vowel sounds. For example, the sound "a" can be short, or it can be long, like "aa". It also has many consonant sounds, some of which are similar to English, and some are different.

Writing Yawuru Sounds

The Yawuru language has a way of writing down its sounds using letters. This is called its orthography.

Vowel Sounds

• a - sounds like the 'a' in "father"
• i - sounds like the 'i' in "sit"
• u - sounds like the 'u' in "put"
• aa - a longer 'a' sound
• ii - a longer 'i' sound
• uu - a longer 'u' sound

Consonant Sounds

• b - like 'b' in "bat"
• d - like 'd' in "dog"
• dy - a 'd' sound with the tongue touching the roof of the mouth
• g - like 'g' in "go"
• j - like 'j' in "jump"
• k - like 'k' in "cat"
• l - like 'l' in "lap"
• ly - an 'l' sound with the tongue touching the roof of the mouth
• m - like 'm' in "mat"
• n - like 'n' in "nap"
• ny - an 'n' sound with the tongue touching the roof of the mouth
• ng - like 'ng' in "sing"
• p - like 'p' in "pat"
• r - a quick 'r' sound, like the 'tt' in "butter"
• rd - a 'd' sound made by curling the tongue back
• rl - an 'l' sound made by curling the tongue back
• rn - an 'n' sound made by curling the tongue back
• rr - a rolling 'r' sound
• rry - a rolling 'r' sound with the tongue touching the roof of the mouth
• t - like 't' in "top"
• ty - a 't' sound with the tongue touching the roof of the mouth
• w - like 'w' in "wet"
• y - like 'y' in "yes"
• ' - a short stop sound, like the break in "uh-oh"

How Yawuru Works

In Yawuru, words can change their form to show different meanings. For example, verbs (action words) change to show who is doing the action, how many people are involved, when it happened (past, present, future), and the mood of the action.

Word Building Blocks

Words in Yawuru can have small parts added to them. These parts can be placed at the beginning, end, or even attached to the word to change its meaning. For example, they can show who is speaking or who is being spoken to. Yawuru has four "person" categories:

• First person: "I" or "we" (including the speaker)
• Second person: "you"
• Third person: "he," "she," "it," or "they"
• Fourth person: "we" (including the speaker and the person being spoken to)

Putting Words Together

The order of words in a Yawuru sentence is quite flexible. This means you can often arrange words in different ways and the sentence will still make sense. Sometimes, the verb (the action word) comes before the subject (who or what is doing the action).

Yawuru Words

Yawuru has many words that have been borrowed from other nearby Aboriginal languages. The language is especially rich in words that describe the environment. This shows how important the land and nature are to the Yawuru culture.