Jawi[2] or Djawi[1][3][4] or Djaui,[2] is a nearly extinct dialect of the Bardi language of Western Australia, the traditional language of the Jawi people. There are no longer any known fluent speakers, but there may be some partial speakers.[5]
The name has also been spelt Chowie, Djaoi, Djau, Dyao, and Dyawi.
Classification
Jawi is a Non-Pama–Nyungan language of the Nyulnyulan family, most closely related to Bardi.[5] Bowern discusses how Jawi and Bardi may have converged within the last hundred years.[6] Jawi people were hit hard by influenza[7] in the early years of the 20th century. Their traditional lands are Sunday Island and the islands of the Buccaneer Archipelago to the northeast.
Bird, W. (1910). "Some remarks on the grammatical construction of the Chowie language, as spoken by the Buccaneer Islanders, North-Western Australia". Anthropos. 5: 454–456.
Bird, W. (1915). "A short vocabulary of the Chowie-language of the Buccaneer Islanders (Sunday Islanders) north western Australia". Anthropos. 10: 180–186.
Bowen, Claire (2002). "History of research on Bardi and Jawi". Academia.edu. Rice University. revised and expanded version of a talk given at the Fourth International Workshop on Australian Languages at University of Aarhus, June 2002
