Diyari or Dieri is an extinct Australian Aboriginal language of South Australia. Emblems: Hairy Nosed Wombat (faunal); Leafy Seadragon (marine); Piping Shrike (bird: unofficial); Sturts Desert Pea (floral); Opal (gemstone) Motto: United for the Common Wealth Slogan or Nickname: Festival State Other Australian states and territories Capital Adelaide Government Const. ... An extinct language (also called a dead language) is a language which no longer has any native speakers. ... Current distribution of Human Language Families Most languages are known to belong to language families. ... The Pama-Nyungan languages are the most widespread family of Australian languages. ... Writing Systems of the World today A Specimen of typeset fonts and languages, by William Caslon, letter founder; from the 1728 Cyclopaedia. ... The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world today. ... ISO 639-1 is the first part of the ISO 639 international-standard language-code family. ... ISO 639-2:1998 Codes for the representation of names of languages — Part 2: Alpha-3 code Twenty-two of the languages have two three-letter codes: a code for bibliographic use (ISO 639-2/B) a code for terminological use (ISO 639-2/T). ... ISO 639-3 is in process of development as an international standard for language codes. ... For information on how to read IPA transcriptions of English words see here. ... Phonetics (from the Greek word φωνή, phone = sound/voice) is the study of sounds (voice). ... Because of technical limitations, some web browsers may not display some special characters in this article. ... This is a concise version of the International Phonetic Alphabet for English sounds. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... The Australian Aboriginal languages comprise several language families and isolates native to Australia and a few nearby islands, but by convention excluding Tasmania. ... Emblems: Hairy Nosed Wombat (faunal); Leafy Seadragon (marine); Piping Shrike (bird: unofficial); Sturts Desert Pea (floral); Opal (gemstone) Motto: United for the Common Wealth Slogan or Nickname: Festival State Other Australian states and territories Capital Adelaide Government Const. ...

Phonology

Vowels

Vowels Near-close Close-mid Mid Open-mid Near-open Open Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a rounded vowel. ... A back vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. ... A close vowel is a type of vowel sound used in many spoken languages. ... An open vowel is a vowel sound of a type used in most spoken languages. ...

Consonants

The voiced alveolar stop [d] may have trilled release [dʳ] depending on dialect. Peter Austin (1988) suggests that this is due to Yandruwanhdha influence. In Australian linguistics, the peripheral consonants are a natural class encompassing consonants articulated at the extremes of the mouth: bilabials and velars. ... A laminal consonant is a phone produced by obstructing the air passage with the blade of the tongue, which is the flat top front surface just behind the tip of the tongue. ... An apical consonant is a phone produced by obstructing the air passage with the apex of the tongue (i. ... In phonetics, a bilabial consonant is a consonant articulated with both lips. ... Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue (the dorsum) against the soft palate (the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum). ... Palatal consonants are consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the hard palate (the middle part of the roof of the mouth). ... Dentals are consonants such as t, d, n, and l articulated with either the lower or the upper teeth, or both, rather than with the gum ridge as in English. ... Alveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli (the sockets) of the superior teeth. ... Sub-apical retroflex plosive In phonetics, retroflex consonants are consonant sounds used in some languages. ... A stop, plosive, or occlusive is a consonant sound produced by stopping the airflow in the vocal tract. ... In phonetics, a voiceless consonant is a consonant that does not have voicing. ... A voiced consonant is a sound made as the vocal cords vibrate, as opposed to a voiceless consonant, where the vocal cords are relaxed. ... A nasal consonant is produced when the velum—that fleshy part of the palate near the back—is lowered, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. ... Laterals are L-like consonants pronounced with an occlusion made somewhere along the axis of the tongue, while air from the lungs escapes at one side or both sides of the tongue. ... In phonetics, a trill is a consonantal sound produced by vibrations between the articulator and the place of articulation. ... In phonetics, a flap or tap is a type of consonantal sound, which is produced with a single contraction of the muscles so that one articulator (such as the tongue) is thrown against another. ... Approximants are speech sounds that could be regarded as intermediate between vowels and typical consonants. ...

The voiced retroflex stop /ɖ/ often becomes a tap [ɽ] between vowels. In phonetics, a flap or tap is a type of consonantal sound, which is produced with a single contraction of the muscles so that one articulator is thrown against another. ...

The stop [d]~[dʳ] is complementary distribution with both the trill [r] and the flap [ɾ]. Austin (1981) analysed the trill [r] as being the intervocalic allophone of /d/~/dʳ/, with the flap /ɾ/ being a separate phoneme. R. M. W. Dixon (2002) suggests that [ɾ] could be considered the intervocalic allophone of /d/~/dʳ/, so then /r/ would be a separate phoneme. Having /d/ realized as [ɾ] would parallel the realization of /ɖ/ as [ɽ], and having /r/ rather than /ɾ/ as a phoneme matches most other Australian languages. Complementary distribution in linguistics refers to the relationship between two elements where one element can be found only in a particular environment and the other element can be found only in the opposite environment. ... In phonetics, an allophone is one of several similar phones that belong to the same phoneme. ... In human language, a phoneme is a set of phones (speech sounds or sign elements) that are cognitively equivalent. ... Robert Malcolm Ward DIXON is Professor of Linguistics at Latrobe University, in Melbourne Australia. ...

Grammar

Diyari has three different morphosyntactic alignments: In linguistics, morphosyntactic alignment is the system used to distinguish between the arguments of transitive verbs and intransitive verbs. ...

• Singular common nouns and male personal names follow an absolutive-ergative system.
• Plural first and second person pronouns follow a nominative-accusative system.
• Plural common nouns, female personal names and other pronouns follow a tripartite system.

This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... A tripartite language is one that marks the agent, experiencer, and patient verb arguments each in different ways. ...

References

• Austin, Peter K. (1981). A grammar of Diyari, South Australia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Austin, Peter K. (1988). "Trill-released stops and language change in Central Australian languages". Australian Journal of Linguistics 8: 218–245.
• Dixon, R. M. W. (2002). Australian Languages: Their Nature and Development. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Trefry, David (1970). “The phonological word in Dieri”, Laycock, D. C. Linguistic trends in Australia. Canberra: Australian Institute for Aboriginal Studies, 65–73.

Robert Malcolm Ward DIXON is Professor of Linguistics at Latrobe University, in Melbourne Australia. ...

External links

• Ethnologue report for language code:dif