Title: A description of the Emmi language of the Northern Territory of Australia /
Authors: Ford, Lysbeth Julie.
Year: 2013
Subjects: Ami language (Australia) Grammar.; Australian languages Australia Northern Territory.; Language - Linguistics - Grammar and syntax.; Language - Linguistics - Language elicitation - Translated.; Literature and stories.; Language - Vocabulary - Word lists.; Emmi / Ami Ami language (N15) (NT SD52-07); Menthe / Manda language (N6) (NT SD52-07); Belyuen / Delissaville (Cox Peninsula NT Top End SD52-04)
Abstract: Emmi, named after the word for 'what' in the language, is a highly endangered polysynthetic Australian language with only a handful of fluent speakers. A member of the Daly River sprachbund of the Northern Territory, Emmi is a head-marking language with vestigial noun class marking, but a highly developed system of verb classifiers and ordered nominal and propositional enclitics. Emmi noun incorporation is lexical and syntactic, and, as in other languages of the region, lexically incorporated body-parts function as metaphors and classifiers for entitties of similar shape to these body-parts. The syntax of Emmi simple and complex clauses involves serial constructions in which major intransitive verbs have been poly-grammaticised to provide aspectual information.
Contents: Map 1 : Emmiyangal and Menhdheyangal traditional territory -- Map 2: Emmiyangal and Menhdheyangal traditional territory from Tindale's 1974 map -- Map 3: The Daly Tribes Stanner 1933a -- Ch. 1: Emmi and the Emmiyangal: geographical and historical context : Name of language; Linguistic type and typological singularities; Emmiyangal traditional territory; Post-contact history; Speakers; Methodology of this work; Previous work on the language; Relationship with neighbouring languages -- Phonology : introduction; Segmental phoneme inventory; Phonotactics; Obstruent hierarchies; Rules -- Nominal morphology : the grammatical word; Word classes; Nouns; Pronouns; Adjectives; Nominal compounding; Deictics; Numeral qualifiers; Interrogatives -- Verb morphology: verb structure; Tense and status; Auxiliary verb paradigms; pronominal verbs prefixed analysed; Bound pronominal suffixes; Number marking on the VP -- Auxiliary (AUX) and coverb -- Nominals incorporated into the verb complex -- Propositional enclitics -- Eight syntactic constructions -- Appendices : Appendix A (i) - Basedow word-list; A (ii) Basedow's other vocabulary -- Appendix B: Capell word list -- Appendix C: Auxiliary verb paradigms -- Appendix D: Texts: Text 1: Wulgomen "Old woman" -- Text 2: Incest story -- Text 3: How the Rainbow Serpent stole fire -- Text 4: Kilakuy -- Text 5: :Sugarbag (honey) -- Text 10: Pebel, the girl who drowned -- Text 11: How to make baskets from merrepen.