Nauo_language

Nauo language

Nauo language

Extinct Australian Aboriginal language

The Nauo language, also commonly written Nawu, is an extinct and little-recorded Australian Aboriginal language that was spoken by the Nauo people on the southern part of the Eyre Peninsula, South Australia. However, work on the reconstruction of the language by the Mobile Language Team at Adelaide University is proceeding.

Quick Facts Region, Ethnicity ...

Classification

The Nauo language may have been related to the languages of its regional neighbours on the Eyre Peninsula, such as Barngarla or Wirangu.

Alternative names

Apart from Nawu, other variant spellings have been recorded as Nhawu, Nawo, Njao, Gnowoo, Growoo, and variant names include Battara, Hilleri, Kadu, Kartwongulta, and Wiljaru. It has also been treated as a variant of the Wirangu language.[1]

Status

The language was deemed to be extinct Norman Tindale, based on linguistic investigations done to determine Nauo's status in the 1930s, and no speakers have been recorded since 1975.[1]

However, Mobile Language Team (MLT) from the University of Adelaide has started work on the reconstruction of the language, based on the 10 words recorded by German missionary C. W. Schürmann, increasing the wordlist to 300 words. MLT is preparing a website for online learning site of the language.[3]

References

  1. [1]
    L2 Nauo at the Australian Indigenous Languages Database, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
  2. [2]
    Tribal boundaries, after Tindale (1974), adapted from Hercus (1999).
  3. [3]
    "Nauo/Nhawu". Mobile Language Team. University of Adelaide. Retrieved 13 December 2020.
  • Hercus, Luise; Simpson, Jane (2001). "The tragedy of Nauo". Forty years on: Ken Hale and Australian languages. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. pp. 263–290.


Stub icon

This Australian Aboriginal languages-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
Share this article:

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Nauo_language, and is written by contributors. Text is available under a CC BY-SA 4.0 International License; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.