Nunggubuyu (Wubuy), Ngandi, Anindilyakwa, Ngalakan back to Australian languages
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Nunggubuyu is most closely related genetically to Ngandi in the interior, and to Anindilyakwa on Groote Eylandt in the Gulf. Together they form a genetic branch of the large group of languages in central and western north Australia known by the unfortunate names “non-Pama-Nyungan” or, in earlier times, “prefixing” languages. Superficially (e.g. lexically), Ngandi appears closer to Rembarrnga, Ngalakan, and other non-PN languages of the zone, but its genetic subgrouping with Nunggubuyu and Anindilyakwa is brought out by detailed study of historical morphology.
My publications and unpublished MSS on these languages, excluding historical linguistic and ethnobiological articles (see separate sections), are given below.
AIAS/AIATSIS reverted copyright to me on the books on Nunggubuyu and Ngandi when they went out of print. I have always owned copyright on the book on language contact, which was my PhD dissertation (published without change). All of them may be copied and disseminated without restriction. They are accessible online from Language Description Heritage (LDH) Library (Max Planck Gesellschaft) and from Deep Blue (University of Michigan libraries). Additional materials may be archived eventually on Deep Blue (written documents) or Deep Blue Data (other media).
http://ldh.clld.org
https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/documents
https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/data
Additional unpublished manuscripts along with the original audio tapes are archived at the AIATSIS library in Canberra:
http://catalogue.aiatsis.gov.au/client/en_AU/external/search/results?qu=Jeffrey+Heath&te=ILS
Nunggubuyu (Wubuy)
The grammar, dictionary, and texts volumes were always designed to be used together. The grammar contains few sentence examples; instead, it gives thousands of cross-references to the texts in forms like 143.6.2 (i.e. text 143, segment 6, line 2). In this way, exhaustive lists of textual occurrences of a given form or construction, not just an example or two, can be presented in the grammar. The dictionary likewise has many cross-references to the texts. Unfortunately, the books did not long remain in print, and for decades it has been difficult or impossible for end-users to have simultaneous access to the three volumes. Now electronic publication makes it much easier to use the three volumes together, on a desktop computer. Given the status of Nunggubuyu as the archetypal nonconfigurational language, these volumes deserve to be rediscovered.
Previous work on Nunggubuyu, primarily textual and lexical, was by the CMS missionary Earl Hughes. Rolf Noyer has reformated my analysis of the pronominal-prefix combinations in a distributed morphology model in a 2001 article. There is recent fieldwork-based research on “Wubuy” by Brett Baker and Rachel Nordlinger. See Glottolog for bibliographical references.
books:
1984 Functional grammar of Nunggubuyu. Canberra: AIAS.
http://ldh.clld.org/1984/01/01/escidoc2049474/
http://hdl.handle.net/2027.42/117638
1982 Nunggubuyu dictionary. Canberra: AIAS.
http://ldh.clld.org/1982/01/01/escidoc2049478/
http://hdl.handle.net/2027.42/117639
1980b Nunggubuyu myths and ethnographic texts. Canberra: AIAS.
http://ldh.clld.org/1982/01/01/escidoc2049483/
http://hdl.handle.net/2027.42/117640
articles:
*1986a Syntactic and lexical aspects of nonconfigurationality in Nunggubuyu (Australia). Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 4:375‑408.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF00133375
1983b Referential tracking in Nunggubuyu (Australia). In: John Haiman & Pamela Munro (eds.), Switch reference and universal grammar, 129‑49. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
1981d Aspectual 'skewing' in two Australian languages (Mara, Nunggubuyu). In: P. Tedeschi & A. Zaenen (eds.), Tense and aspect. (Syntax and Semantics, 14), 91‑102. New York: Academic.
1980c Nunggubuyu deixis, anaphora, and culture. In: J. Kreiman & A. Ojeda (eds.), Papers from the Parasession on Pronouns and Anaphora, 151‑65. Chicago: Chicago Linguistic Society.
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~jheath/Heath_articles_pdf/Heath_nunggubuyu_deixis_CLS_1980.pdf
1978d Linguistic approaches to Nunggubuyu ethnobotany and ethnozoology. In: L. Hiatt, ed., Australian Aboriginal concepts, 40‑55. Canberra: Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies.
1976i Ergative, locative, and instrumental case inflections: Nunggubuyu. In: R. M. W. Dixon, ed., Grammatical categories in Australian languages, 408‑11. Canberra: Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies.
1976j The bivalent suffix ‑ku: Nunggubuyu and Ritharngu. In: R. M. W. Dixon, ed., Grammatical categories in Australian languages, 444‑50. Canberra: Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies.
Ngandi
I worked on this language for a total of 2-3 months at Ngukurr (Roper River) mission
book:
1978a Ngandi grammar, texts, and dictionary. Canberra: AIAS.
http://ldh.clld.org/1978/01/01/escidoc2049468/
http://hdl.handle.net/2027.42/117641
article:
1985a Discourse in the field: Clause structure in Ngandi (Australia). In: Johanna Nichols & Anthony Woodbury (eds.), Grammar inside and outside the clause, 89‑110. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press.
Anindilyakwa
I did brief unpublished work on this language with stray informants in Numbulwar. Velma Leeding, an SIL-affiliated linguist, was working on it on Groote Eylandt at the time. Her dissertation on the phonology and morphology was finished much later in 1989. Marie-Elaine van Egmond did a 2012 dissertation on its phonology, morphology, and genetic position. Others who have worked on it over the years include Judith Stokes and Julie Waddy. See the AIATSIS catalog and the Glottolog bibliography for references.
[last update Nov 2017]