Wardaman is an Australian Aboriginal

language isolate A language isolate is a language that has no demonstrable genetic relationship with any other languages. Basque in Europe, Ainu and Burushaski in Asia, Sandawe in Africa, Haida and Zuni in North America, Kanoê in South America, and Tiwi ...

. It is one of the northern non-Pama–Nyungan languages. Dagoman and Yangman were either dialects or closely related languages; as a family, these are called Yangmanic.

Classification

Though previously classified as Gunwinyguan, the Yangmanic languages have not been demonstrated to be related to other languages.Bowern, Claire.
How Many Languages Were Spoken in Australia?
' 2011. The isolate Wagiman shares a very similar morphosyntactic profile with the Yangmanic languages, although they share very low cognacy rates (about 10% according to Stephen Wilson). Francesca Merlan supports its grouping together with Yangmanic, citing that both together differ from neighbouring languages (such as the Gunwinyguan language Jawoyn and Mangarrayi) while sharing very similar syntax with each other, such as their similar use of ' verbal particles'.

Phonology

The phonological inventory of Wardaman proper:

Consonants

The alveolo-palatals are pronounced with the blade of the tongue; at the end of a syllable they may sound like ''yn'' and ''yl'' to an English ear. Even the ''y'' is said to have lateral spread and to be pronounced with the blade and body of the tongue. There is very little acoustic difference between the two apical series compared to other languages in the area. The alveolars may add a slight retroflex onglide to a following vowel, and the retroflexes may assimilate alveolars in the same word. Nonetheless, they remain phonemically distinct. Francesca describes the ''w'' as bilabial, and notes that there is little or no lip rounding or protrusion (except in assimilation to a following /u/ or /o/). The ''r'' is post-alveolar.

Vowels

Vocabulary

Capell Capell or Capel is a surname. Notable people with the name include: Capell * Arthur Capell, 1st Baron Capell of Hadham (1608–1649), English politician * Arthur Capell, 1st Earl of Essex (1631–1683), English statesman * Arthur Capell (1902–1 ...

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

Notes

References

*Merlan Francesca. 1983.
A Grammar of Wardaman
A Language of the Northern Territory of Australia''. Mouton de Gruyter. 1994. {{language families Language isolates of Australia Endangered indigenous Australian languages in the Northern Territory Endangered language isolates