The Kartu languages are a group of
Indigenous Australian
Indigenous Australians are people with familial heritage from, or recognised membership of, the various ethnic groups living within the territory of contemporary Australia prior to History of Australia (1788–1850), British colonisation. The ...
languages spoken in the
Murchison and
Gascoyne
The Gascoyne region is one of the nine regions of Western Australia. It is located in the northwest of Western Australia, and consists of the local government areas of Carnarvon, Exmouth, Shark Bay and Upper Gascoyne. The Gascoyne has about of ...
regions of
Western Australia
Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...
. They are thought to be closely related and to form a low-level genealogical group.
The languages usually considered to be members of the Kartu group are, from north to south:
*
Yinggarda
*
Malgana
*?
Nhanda (possibly also
Nhanhagardi)
*
Wajarri
*
Badimaya
The inclusion of
Nhanda is dubious. It was excluded in Bowern & Koch (2004),
[Bowern & Koch (2004) ''Australian Languages: Classification and the Comparative Method''] but retained in Bowern (2011).
[Bowern, Claire. 2011. ]
How Many Languages Were Spoken in Australia?
' Thaagurda was apparently also a Kartu language.
The name ''kartu'' comes from the word for 'man' in one of the languages. In some earlier work the word 'kardu' was spelled.
The Kartu languages form a branch of the
Pama–Nyungan family.
[
]
References
External links
''Handbook of WA Aboriginal Languages south of the Kimberley'' -- family tree
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