The Wunambal language, also known as Northern Worrorran, Gambera or Gaambera, is a

moribund Moribund refers to a literal or figurative state near death. Moribund may refer to: * ''Moribund'' (album), a 2006 album by the Norwegian black metal band Koldbrann * " Le Moribond", a song by Jacques Brel known in English as "Seasons in the Sun ...

Australian Aboriginal language 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 ...

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 ...

. It has several dialects, including Yiiji, Gunin, Miwa, and Wilawila (with Gaambera and Wunambal also distinguished as separate). It is spoken by the

Wunambal The Wunambal (Unambal), also known as Wunambal Gaambera, Uunguu (referring to their lands), and other names, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the northern Kimberley region of Western Australia. People The Wunambal were, according to Norma ...

people. Wunambal is one of three

Worrorran languages The Worrorran (Wororan) languages are a small family of Australian Aboriginal languages spoken in northern Western Australia. The Worrorran languages fall into three dialect clusters: * Worrorran ** the Northern Worrorran group, known as Wu ...

, the others being (Western) Worrorra and Ngarinyin (Eastern Worrorra, or Ungarinjin). , "Wunambal Gaambera" is part of a

language revival Language revitalization, also referred to as language revival or reversing language shift, is an attempt to halt or reverse the decline of a language or to revive an extinct one. Those involved can include linguists, cultural or community group ...

project.

Classification

Wunambal is a noun-classifying language that is part of the family of Northern Kimberley languages spoken by the Worrorra people of the north-west

Kimberleys The Kimberley is the northernmost of the nine regions of Western Australia. It is bordered on the west by the Indian Ocean, on the north by the Timor Sea, on the south by the Great Sandy and Tanami deserts in the region of the Pilbara, and on ...

in Australia, an area home to remnant groups of

Aboriginal Australians Aboriginal Australians are the various indigenous peoples of the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland and many of its islands, excluding the ethnically distinct people of the Torres Strait Islands. Humans first migrated to Australia (co ...

.Berson, J. (2010). Talking Language to Whitefellas. ''History of Anthropology Newsletter'', ''37''(1), 3-20. It is one of three

, the others being (Western) Worrorra and Ngarinyin (Eastern Worrorra, or Ungarinjin), all of the "Northern Kimberley Division".Capell, A. (1972). The Languages of the Northern Kimberley, W. A.: Some Structural Principles. It has been classified by linguists as non- Pama-Nyungan; "Other adjacent non-Pama-Nyungan language families are Nyulnyulan to the south-west, Bunuban to the south, and Jarrakan to the east."Carr TL. (2001). ''Wunambal: A language of the North-West Kimberley Region, Western Australia''. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/16787 Linguists classify Wunambal and its dialects as pronominal prefixing languages. Some have distinguished three sub-groupings of Worrorran as Wunambalic, Ungarinyinic, and Worrorric, further distinguished as Northern, Central and Southern. It is a

polysynthetic language In linguistic typology, polysynthetic languages, formerly holophrastic languages, are highly synthetic languages, i.e., languages in which words are composed of many morphemes (word parts that have independent meaning but may or may not be able t ...

that is distinct in that "all of the linguistic varieties in the Worrorran language family have noun classes" and "verbs that take subject and object prefixes". Wunambal has several

dialect A dialect is a Variety (linguistics), variety of language spoken by a particular group of people. This may include dominant and standard language, standardized varieties as well as Vernacular language, vernacular, unwritten, or non-standardize ...

s, some of which may sometimes be treated as separate languages: *Wunambal proper (5 speakers in 2005) *Gamberre (extinct by 2016) *Kwini (Gunin) (1 speaker in 2005) * Miwa (Bagu) (extinct) *Yiidji (Forrest River) (maybe 10 speakers in 2005) *? Wilawila (extinct) *? Ginan (extinct) Bowern (2012) lists three Northern Worrorran languages: Wunambal proper, Gamberre, and Gunin.

Alternative names

Other names and spellings for Wunambal include Jeidji, Jeithi, Unambal, Wumnabal, Wunambullu, Yeidji, Yeithi.

History

Wunambal's earliest noted documentation was in the early 20th century by J.R.B. Love.Clendon, Mark. ''Worrorra: a language of the north-west Kimberley coast''. University of Adelaide Press, 2015. Aboriginal peoples have occupied the Kimberleys for at least 40,000 years. The Wunambal peoples are members of their territory's descent group, and they are part of what is characterized as 'clan estates.' Their particular estate is termed guraa, inclusive of the Wunambal people and the Gaambera people. After noted contact with Europeans, Worrorran peoples consisted of around 300. There were fewer than ten speakers of the Wunambal language in 2009.

Language revival

, Wunambal Gaambera is listed as one of 20 languages prioritised as part of the Priority Languages Support Project, being undertaken by First Languages Australia and funded by the

Department of Communications and the Arts The Australian Department of Communications and the Arts was a Government department, department of the Government of Australia charged with responsibility for communications policy and programs and cultural affairs. In December 2019, prime mi ...

. The project aims to "identify and document critically-endangered languages — those languages for which little or no documentation exists, where no recordings have previously been made, but where there are living speakers".

Geographic distribution

Official status

Wunambal was originally spoken by the

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 ...

people, who migrated from their original lands in the west Kimberley area from 1956. A continuum of these speakers ranges from "north of the

Prince Regent River The Prince Regent River is a river in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. The headwaters of the river rise in the Caroline Range near Mount Agnes then flow in a north westerly direction. The river enters and flows through the Prince Reg ...

" to "as far north as Mt. Trafalgar".Capell, A. (1941). Notes on the Wunambal language. ''Oceania'', ''11''(3), 295-308. This designation originates from the shared influences common to the area; it is through these same inferences that contributes to Wunambal phonology and syntax association with Worrorran and Ungarinyin.

Dialects/varieties

Subject to debate by some scholars, Wunambal dialects include Wunambal proper, Gamberre, Kwini, Miwa, Yiidji, Wilawila, and Ginan. In contention by linguists is that some of these dialects may be considered languages of their own, while remaining closely related. "Worrarran languages constitute a group of 0or so of named varieties spoken in the Kimberley bloc"; owed to the many similarities and high degree of mutual intelligibility among the three associated languages of the Worrorra people.

Phonology

There remain a few distinctive differences heard between Wunambal and its sister languages; personal history is a factor in these recognised differences. "This is a register of linguistically differentiated tribes, each with its own fixed point of geographic origin." Notably, Worrorran languages have cluster assimilation.

Consonants

The Wunambal language contrasts with other Kimberley languages in its contrast producing alveolar vs. post-alveolar sounds. Stops, nasals, laterals, rhotics, and glides are inclusive of manner of articulation: where voicing is not contrastive in stops. A table of consonant inventory and explanation of consonant production can be found in ''Wunambal: A language of the North-West Kimberley Region, Western Australia'' by TL. Carr.Carr TL. (2001). ''Wunambal: A language of the North-West Kimberley Region, Western Australia''. Retrieved from http://e-publications.une.edu.au/1959.11/16787 * Stop sounds can be heard ranging from voiceless to voiced. * /r/ can be heard as a tap, or a trill, and when weakly articulated, it can be heard as a voiced fricative �̝ * /ɻ/ can also range to an alveolar sound � * /c/ can be heard as a fricative � or an affricate ʃin various word-initial positions. * /ɡ/ can be heard as ʒwhen preceding a long vowel /iː/ in word-initial positions.

Vowels

Wunambal "has been analysed as a six vowel system with the contrasts /i e a o u ɨ/, with /ɨ/ only found in the Northern variety." * /i, u/ can also be heard as �, ʊ*/ɨ/ can have three allophones; � � � * /aː/ can range to a back vowel sound �ː

Grammar

There are five noun classes in the northern half of Wunambal country and three in the southern half.

Morphology

Wunambal is polysynthetic; notably, Worrorran languages contain overarching concord. A complete list of Wunambal class and case markers can be found in ''Notes on the Wunambal language'' by Arthur Capell (1941).

Syntax

As in all Northern Kimberley languages, they contain phenomena of simple and compound verbs, utilizing auxiliaries through conjugation: "certain verbs are conjugated by means of prefixes for person (and to a lesser degree tense), while suffixes are added to show aspect, mood, tense and voice." All Worrorran derived languages contain nominal classification, head-marking, and complex predication.

Vocabulary

Northern Worrorran languages share vocabulary. A 2011 publication, ''Uunguu plants and animals, Aboriginal biological knowledge from Wunambal Gaambera Country in the north-west Kimberley, Australia'', gives words, descriptions and aboriginal uses of the plants and animals of Wunambal Gaambera country.