Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
The Anatomy of Avoidance: A Full Study of Jalnguy, the Dyirbal 'Mother-In-Law Language'

The Anatomy of Avoidance: A Full Study of Jalnguy, the Dyirbal 'Mother-In-Law Language'

Dixon, R. M. W.

Hardcover

Series: Anthropological Linguistics [Al], Book 11

Miscellaneous LanguagesLinguisticsAnthropology

ISBN10: 3111463052
ISBN13: 9783111463056
Publisher: de Gruyter Mouton
Published: May 19 2025
Pages: 396
Weight: 1.62
Height: 1.00 Width: 6.14 Depth: 9.21
Language: English

Speakers of Dyirbal in North Queensland, Australia, have an everyday language style which has been well described. They also have an avoidance style, called Jalnguy, which must be used in the presence of certain 'tabooed kin' such as the mother-in-law. Jalnguy has the same grammar and phonology as the everyday style, but the vocabularies are entirely different. Jalnguy has only about one-sixth as many lexemes as the everyday style, with various techniques used to create a Jalnguy correspondent for each everyday style word. The underlying semantic system of Dyirbal is thus realised at two levels of generality and is revealed through detailed study of the correspondences between them. This monograph is the first comprehensive study of this in-law avoidance language, providing fascinating new insights into register variation and the complexities of kinship in Australian languages.

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Anthropology

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