The Ritharnggu language (Ritharrŋu, Ritharngu, Ritarungo) is an

Australian Aboriginal Aboriginal Australians are the various Indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, such as Tasmania, Fraser Island, Hinchinbrook Island, the Tiwi Islands, and Groote Eylandt, but excluding the Torres Strait Isl ...

language of the Yolŋu language group, spoken in Australia's

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory shares its borders with Western Au ...

. Dialects align with the two kinship moieties of the

Ritharrngu The Ritharrngu (Ritharrŋu, Ritharngu) and also known as the Diakui (and variant spellings), are an Aboriginal Australian people of Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory, of the Yolŋu group of peoples. Their clans are Wagilak and Manggura (of th ...

people, one of several Yolngu peoples: (a) Ritharnggu (Yirritja

moiety Moiety may refer to: Chemistry * Moiety (chemistry), a part or functional group of a molecule ** Moiety conservation, conservation of a subgroup in a chemical species Anthropology * Moiety (kinship), either of two groups into which a society is ...

), and (b) Wagilak language (Dua moiety). The Manggurra (the other Dua clan) now speak Ritharnggu, but apparently shifted from Nunggubuyu.

Language revival

, Wägilak/Ritharrŋu is 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 department of the Government of Australia charged with responsibility for communications policy and programs and cultural affairs. In December 2019, prime minister Scott Morriso ...

. 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".

References

Yolŋu languages Endangered indigenous Australian languages in the Northern Territory {{NorthernTerritory-stub