Wambaya language

Last updated
Wambaya
McArthur River
Native to Australia
Region Barkly Tableland, Northern Territory
Ethnicity Wambaya, Gudanji, Binbinga
Native speakers
43 (2021 census) [1]
(24 Wambaya; 19 Gudanji)
Mirndi
Dialects
  • Wambaya
  • Gudanji
  • Binbinka
Language codes
ISO 639-3 Either:
wmb  – Wambaya
nji  – Gudanji
Glottolog wamb1258
AIATSIS [2] C19  Wambaya, C26  Gurdanji, N138  Binbinga
ELP Wambaya
  Binbinka

Wambaya is a Non-Pama-Nyungan West Barkly Australian language of the Mirndi language group [3] that is spoken in the Barkly Tableland of the Northern Territory, Australia. [4] Wambaya and the other members of the West Barkly languages are somewhat unusual in that they are suffixing languages, unlike most Non-Pama-Nyungan languages which are prefixing. [3]

Contents

The language was reported to have 12 speakers in 1981, and some reports indicate that the language went extinct as a first language. [5] However, in the 2011 Australian census 56 people stated that they speak Wambaya at home. [6] That number increased to 61 in the 2016 Census. [7]

Rachel Nordlinger notes that the speech of the Wambaya, Gudanji and Binbinka people "are clearly dialects" of a single language, which she calls "McArthur", while Ngarnga is closely related but is "probably best considered a language of its own". [8]

Phonology

Consonants

Peripheral Laminal Apical
Labial Velar Palatal Alveolar Retroflex
Stop bɡɟdɖ
Nasal mŋɲnɳ
Lateral ʎlɭ
Rhotic ɾ ~ rɻ
Approximant wj

Vowels

Front Back
High ɪ, iːʊ, uː
Low a, aː

References

  1. ↑ Australian Bureau of Statistics (2021). "Cultural diversity: Census" . Retrieved 13 October 2022.
  2. ↑ C19 Wambaya at the Australian Indigenous Languages Database, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies   (see the info box for additional links)
  3. 1 2 Nordlinger, Rachel. (1998), A Grammar Of Wambaya, Northern Territory (Australia), p. 1.
  4. ↑ Ethnologue
  5. ↑ Bender, Emily M. (2008), Evaluating a Crosslinguistic Grammar Resource: A Case Study of Wambaya, p. 2
  6. ↑ "2011 Census QuickStats: Tennant Creek". Archived from the original on 10 May 2018. Retrieved 21 October 2012.
  7. ↑ "2016 Census: Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander Peoples QuickStats - Tennant Creek". www.censusdata.abs.gov.au. Archived from the original on 10 May 2018. Retrieved 9 May 2018.
  8. ↑ Nordlinger, Rachel (1998). A Grammar of Wambaya, Northern Territory (Australia) (PDF). Pacific Linguistics. pp. 2–3.
  9. ↑ Nordlinger, Rachel (1998). A Grammar Of Wambaya, Northern Territory (Australia). Pacific Linguistics. pp. 17–22.
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