Australian language
The languages of Australia are the major historic and current languages used in Australia and its offshore islands. Over 250 Australian Aboriginal languages are thought to have existed at the time of first European contact. English is the majo ...
of the Mirndi language groupNordlinger, Rachel. (1998), ''A Grammar Of Wambaya, Northern Territory (Australia),'' p. 1. that is spoken in the
Barkly Tableland
The Barkly Tableland is a region in the Central East of the Northern Territory, extending into Western Queensland. The region was named after Sir Henry Barkly. The epithet "Tableland" is inaccurate, since the region is neither elevated relative ...
of the
Northern Territory
The Northern Territory (abbreviated as NT; known formally as the Northern Territory of Australia and informally as the Territory) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian internal territory in the central and central-northern regi ...
,
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...
.Ethnologue /ref> Wambaya and the other members of the
West Barkly languages
The Ngurlun languages, also known as Eastern Mirndi, are a branch of the Mirndi languages spoken around in the Barkly Tableland of Northern Territory, Australia. The branch consists of two to four languages, depending on what is considered a dia ...
are somewhat unusual in that they are
suffix
In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns and adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can ca ...
ing languages, unlike most
Non-Pama-Nyungan 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 ...
which are
prefix
A prefix is an affix which is placed before the stem of a word. Particularly in the study of languages, a prefix is also called a preformative, because it alters the form of the word to which it is affixed.
Prefixes, like other affixes, can b ...
ing.
The language was reported to have 12 speakers in 1981, and some reports indicate that the language went
extinct
Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...
as a first language. However, in the 2011 Australian census 56 people stated that they speak Wambaya at home. That number increased to 61 in the 2016 Census.
Rachel Nordlinger
Rachel Nordlinger is an Australian linguist and a professor at The University of Melbourne.
Education
After completing a master's degree at The University of Melbourne, she received her PhD in linguistics in 1997 from Stanford University.
Resea ...
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".
Phonology
Consonants
* Sounds /É¡, Å‹/ are heard as palatalized ¡Ê², ŋʲwhen before front vowels.
* /ɾ/ is heard as a trill when in pre-consonantal position.
Vowels
* /a/ can be heard as ¦when after palatal sounds /ÉŸ, ɲ/ and before /j/.
* /ɪ/ is heard as when before /j/.
Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
The Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS), established as the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies (AIAS) in 1964, is an independent Australian Government statutory authority. It is a collecting, ...
Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
The Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS), established as the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies (AIAS) in 1964, is an independent Australian Government statutory authority. It is a collecting, ...