Dhudhuroa language

Dhudhuroa is an extinct Australian Aboriginal language of north-eastern Victoria. As it is no longer spoken, Dhudhuroa is primarily known today from written material collected by R. H. Mathews from Neddy Wheeler. It has gone by numerous names, including Dhudhuroa, the Victorian Alpine language, Dyinningmiddhang, Djilamatang, Theddora, Theddoramittung, Balangamida, and Tharamirttong. Yaitmathang (Jaitmathang), or Jandangara (Gundanora), was spoken in the same area, but was a dialect of Ngarigu.

Dhudhuroa
Victorian Alpine
Region	North-eastern Victoria, Australia
Ethnicity	Dhudhuroa, Djilamatang, ?Minjambuta
Extinct	early 20th century
Revival	2010s
Language family	Pama–Nyungan Gippsland Dhudhuroa
Language codes
ISO 639-3	ddr
Glottolog	dhud1236
AIATSIS	S44

The Dhudhuroa language is currently undergoing a revival, and is being taught at Bright Secondary College and Wooragee Primary School.

Phonology

Consonants

	Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar
Plosive	b	d̪ ⟨dh⟩	d	(ɖ ⟨rd⟩)	ɟ ⟨dj⟩	ɡ
Nasal	m	n̪ ⟨nh⟩	n	(ɳ ⟨rn⟩)	ɲ ⟨ny⟩	ŋ ⟨ng⟩
Lateral			l
Rhotic			r ⟨rr⟩
Approximant	w				j ⟨y⟩

Blake and Reid (2002) suggest that there were possibly two retroflex consonants, but there is not enough evidence for them.

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i      iː		u      uː
Open		a      aː

Grammar

Nouns are inflected for number, gender and case.

There are three numbers, the singular, dual and plural.

Sources

• Blake, Barry J.; Reid, Julie (2002). "The Dhudhuroa language of northeastern Victoria: a description based on historical sources" (PDF). Aboriginal History. 26: 177–210. JSTOR 24046052.
• Mathews, R. H. (1909). "The Dhudhuroa language of Victoria". American Anthropologist. 11 (2): 278–284. doi:10.1525/aa.1909.11.2.02a00100.

Further reading

• Bibliography of Dhuduroa people and language resources Archived 28 May 2015 at the Wayback Machine, at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies