Kaddikkaddik ka-wokdjanganj 'Kaddikkaddik spoke': language and music of the Kun-barlang Kaddikkaddik songs from Western Arnhem Land

Kaddikkaddik ‘oyster catcher’ songs are an endangered set of individually owned, didjeridu-accompanied songs, sung predominantly in Kun-barlang, a Gunwinjguan language from Western Arnhem Land. Performances of Kaddikkaddik ‘oyster catcher’ songs display considerable textual and musical variation. Berndt suggests that despite this variation there is a distinctive ‘sound’ that allows listeners to identify the songs, but admits that further musicological analysis is needed. In this paper I seek to address this need, and to evaluate the idea of a distinctive sound, by providing a musical and linguistic analysis of recorded Kaddikkaddik song performances. I outline variations that occur in the songs and note features of the songs that are distinctive within the wider musical and linguistic context of Western Arnhem Land.