The Worrorran (Wororan) languages are a small

family Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...

Australian Aboriginal languages The Indigenous languages of Australia number in the hundreds, the precise number being quite uncertain, although there is a range of estimates from a minimum of around 250 (using the technical definition of 'language' as non-mutually intellig ...

spoken in northern

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to t ...

. The Worrorran languages fall into three

dialect cluster A dialect continuum or dialect chain is a series of language varieties spoken across some geographical area such that neighboring varieties are mutually intelligible, but the differences accumulate over distance so that widely separated vari ...

s: *the Northern Worrorran group, known as Wunambal and related dialects *the Eastern Worrorran group, known as

Ngarinyin The Ngarinyin or Ngarinjin are an Aboriginal Australian people of the Kimberley region of Western Australia. Their language, Ngarinyin, is also known as Ungarinyin. When referring to their traditional lands, they refer to themselves as Wilinggi ...

, Ungarinyin, and related dialects *the Western Worrorran group, known as

Worrorra The Worrorra, also written Worora, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the Kimberley area of north-western Australia. The term is sometimes used to describe speakers of the (Western) Worrorra language, and sometimes groups whose traditiona ...

, and related dialects In addition, Gulunggulu is unattested but presumably a Worrorran

lect In sociolinguistics, a variety, also called an isolect or lect, is a specific form of a language or language cluster. This may include languages, dialects, registers, styles, or other forms of language, as well as a standard variety.Meecham ...

Validity

left, Worrorran languages (purple), among other non-Pama-Nyungan languages (grey) There has been debate over whether the Worrorran languages are demonstrably related to one another, or constitute a geographical language group. Dixon (2002) considers them to be

language isolate Language isolates are languages that cannot be classified into larger language families. Korean and Basque are two of the most common examples. Other language isolates include Ainu in Asia, Sandawe in Africa, and Haida in North America. The nu ...

s with no demonstrable relationship other than that of a ''

Sprachbund A sprachbund (, lit. "language federation"), also known as a linguistic area, area of linguistic convergence, or diffusion area, is a group of languages that share areal features resulting from geographical proximity and language contact. The lan ...

''. However, more recent literature differs from Dixon: * Rumsey and McGregor (2009) demonstrate the cohesiveness of the family and its reconstructibility, and; * Bowern (2011) accepts the Worroorran languages as a family.

Vocabulary

Capell (1940) lists the following basic vocabulary items for the Worrorran languages:Capell, Arthur. 1940
The Classification of Languages in North and North-West Australia
''Oceania'' 10(3): 241-272, 404-433. :

References

* *

Validity

Vocabulary

References

Further reading