Gubbi Gubbi language

Gubbi Gubbi, also spelt Kabi Kabi, is a language of Queensland in Australia, formerly spoken by the Kabi Kabi people of South-east Queensland. The main dialect, Gubbi Gubbi, is extinct, but there are still 24 people with knowledge of the Butchulla dialect (also spelt Batjala, Batyala, Badjala, and variants), a language spoken by the Butchulla people of K'gari (Fraser Island).

Gubbi Gubbi
Kabi Kabi, Kabi
Region	Queensland
Ethnicity	Kabi Kabi (Kabi), Butchulla (incl. Ngulungbara)
Native speakers	24 (2016 census, Batjala dialect)[1]
Language family	Pama–Nyungan Waka–Kabic Than Gubbi Gubbi
Dialects	Kabi Kabi (Dippil) † Butchulla (Batjala, Batyala, Badjala)
Official status
Official language in	Aboriginal Shire of Cherbourg
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Either: gbw – Kabi-Kabi xby – Batyala
Glottolog	kabi1260
AIATSIS[2]	E29 Gubbi Gubbi, E30 Butchulla
ELP	Gubbi Gubbi
	Batyala[3]
Map of traditional lands of Aboriginal Australians around Brisbane; Gubbi Gubbi in   yellow and Butchulla in   light grey.
Badjala is classified as Critically Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger

Language status

The main dialect is extinct, but there were still 24 people with knowledge of the Batjala dialect (a language spoken by the Butchulla people of K'gari formerly known as Fraser Island) as of the 2016 Australian census.^[1]

Phonology

The following is in the Badjala/Butchulla dialect:

Consonants

		Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Retroflex/ Palatal	Velar
Stop	plain	b	d̪	d	(ɟ)	ɡ
	tense	pː	d̪ː			kː
Nasal		m	n̪	n	(ɲ)	ŋ
Lateral				l
Rhotic				r	ɻ
Approximant		w			j

• /n̪/ is always heard as palatal [ɲ] when preceding /i/, and in word-final position.
• /d̪/ can be heard in free variation with palatal [ɟ].
• /b d̪ ɡ/ can have lenited allophones [β ð ɣ] in intervocalic positions.
• /ɻ/ has a lateral allophone of [ɭ] when preceding /b/.
• /ɡ/ is often slightly palatalised as [ɡʲ] before /i/.

Vowels

	Front	Back
High	i iː	u uː
Mid	ɛ ɛː
Low	a aː

• /aː/ can sometimes be heard as [æː] before /l/.
• /u/ can be heard as [ɔ] when preceding an intervocalic /ɻ/.^[4]

Lexicon

According to Norman Tindale (1974), the word Kabi (['kabi]), means "no".^[2]

Wunya ngulum means "Welcome, everyone" in Kabi Kabi/Gubbi Gubbi.^[5]