Wergaia or Werrigia is an
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 ...
in the
Wimmera
The Wimmera is a region of the Australian state of Victoria. The district is located within parts of the Loddon Mallee and the Grampians regions; and covers the dryland farming area south of the range of Mallee scrub, east of the South Aust ...
region of north-Western
Victoria. The Wergaia language consisted of four distinct dialects: Wudjubalug/Wotjobaluk, Djadjala/Djadjali, Buibadjali, Biwadjali. Wergaia was in turn apparently a dialect of the
Wemba Wemba language, a member of the
Kulinic branch of
Pama–Nyungan.
The
Aboriginal people who speak Wergaia dialects include the
Maligundidj
The Wergaia or Werrigia people are an Aboriginal Australian group in the Mallee and Wimmera regions of north-Western Victoria, made up of a number of clans. The people were also known as the Maligundidj (in the Wotjobaluk language) which mea ...
or Wergaia people, which means the people belonging to the
''mali'' (mallee) eucalypt bushland which covers much of their territory, and the
Wotjobaluk people
The Wotjobaluk are an Aboriginal Australian people of the state of Victoria (Australia), Victoria. They are closely related to the Wergaia people.
Language
Robert Hamilton Mathews, R. H. Mathews supplied a brief analysis of the Wotjobaluk langua ...
.
In mid-2021 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 groups, o ...
project started up at the Wotjobaluk Knowledge Place, established in December 2020 at
Dimboola. A Wergaia language program would run over 20 weeks.
Sounds
The following is the Djadjala dialect.
Vowels given are /a e i u/.
[Hercus 1969.]
Some words
* ''dhallung'' (male or buck klangaroo)
* ''gal'' (dog)
* ''kulkun'' (a boy)
* ''laiaruk'' (a woman)
* ''lanangurk'' (a girl)
[
* ''mindyun'' (a kangaroo)
* ''muty'' (doer or female kangaroo)][}
* ''winya nyua'' (Who is there?)][
* ''wotjo'' (a man)
]
Notes and references
Notes
References
*
*
*
{{refend
Wergaia
Kulin languages