Yolà Âu Matha (), meaning "the Yolà Âu tongue", is a linguistic family that includes the languages of the Yolà Âu clans, who are Aboriginal peoples of northeast Arnhem Land in northern Australia.
The family of languages includes the Dhangu-Djangu; Nhangu; Dhuwal; Ritharngu; Djinang; and Djinba languages.
Yolà Âu Matha consists of about six languages, some mutually intelligible, divided into about thirty clan varieties and perhaps twelve different dialects, each with its own Yolà Âu name. Put together, in 2002 there were about 4600 speakers of Yolà Âu Matha languages. Exogamy has often meant that mothers and fathers speak different languages, so that children traditionally grew up at least bilingual, and in many cases polylingual, meaning that communication was facilitated by mastery of multiple languages and dialects of Yolà Âu Matha.
The linguistic situation is very complicated, given that each of the 30 or so clans also has a named language variety. Dixon (2002) distinguishes the following:
Bowern (2011) adds the varieties in parentheses as distinct languages.
The consonant inventory is basically the same across Yolà Âu varieties, although some varieties show minor differences.
Yolà Âu languages have a fortisâÂÂlenis contrast in plosive consonants. Lenis/short plosives have weak contact and intermittent voicing, while fortis/long plosives have full closure, a more powerful release burst, and no voicing.
A three-way vowel distinction is shared between Yolà Âu varieties, though not all Yolà Âu varieties have a contrast in vowel length. In the varieties that do have a length contrast, long vowels occur only in the initial syllable of words.
The 1963 Yirrkala bark petitions, a significant political statement asserting their rights to land, were written by elders of various Yolngu clans at Yirrkala mission and submitted to the Parliament of Australia, were written in a standardised Yolngu script developed by the missionary Beulah Lowe, based on Yolngu Matha languages, together with an English translation. One source suggests that it was based on the Gupapuyngu language
The films Ten Canoes (2006) and Charlie's Country (2013), both directed by Rolf de Heer and featuring actor David Gulpilil, feature dialogue in Yolà Âu Matha. Ten Canoes was the first feature film to be shot entirely in Australian indigenous languages, with the dialogue largely in the Ganalbià Âu variety of Yolà Âu Matha.
Dr. G. Yunupingu was a popular Australian singer who sang in the Gumatj dialect of Yolà Âu Matha, as did the Aboriginal rock group Yothu Yindi.
Baker Boy, from the community of Milingimbi in North Eastern Arnhem Land, released the song "Cloud 9" in 2017, in which he raps in Yolà Âu Matha. As Young Australian of the Year in 2019, the International Year of Indigenous Languages, and with two of his songs in the 2019 Triple J Hottest 100, he raised the profile of Yolà Âu Matha in mainstream media as well as giving people at home pride in their language.
Dictionaries have been produced by Beulah Lowe, David Zorc and Michael Christie. A free, web-based searchable dictionary created by John Greatorex was launched in February 2015 by Charles Darwin University.
There are also several grammars of Yolà Âu languages by Jeffrey Heath, Frances Morphy, Melanie Wilkinson and others.
A graduate certificate in Yolà Âu studies is offered at Charles Darwin University, teaching Yolà Âu kinship, law and the Gupapuyà Âu language variety.
ABC Indigenous News Radio broadcasts a news program in Yolngu Matha and also in Warlpiri on weekdays. The Aboriginal Resource and Development Services (ARDS) broadcast live radio in northeast Arnhem Land, Darwin and Palmerston and provide recordings of past programs on the internet.
Like other languages of the Top End, Yolà Âu-Matha contains many loanwords from Austronesian languages due to abundant contact with seafaring peoples from the Indonesian archipelago. Walker and Zorc have identified 179 Yolà Âu-Matha words that are clearly of Austronesian origin, and have identified a further 70 possible Austronesian loanwords requiring further study.
Capell (1942) lists the following basic vocabulary items:
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