The Yinggarda language (also written Yingkarta and Inggarda) 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 ...

. It is an

endangered language An endangered language or moribund language is a language that is at risk of disappearing as its speakers die out or shift to speaking other languages. Language loss occurs when the language has no more native speakers and becomes a " dead lang ...

, but efforts at

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 ...

are being made.

Name

"Yinggarda" has been spelt in a number of ways, some linguists (including Dench) writing it as "Yingkarta".

Classification

It is one of the

Kartu languages The Kartu languages is a group of Indigenous Australian languages spoken in the Murchison and Gascoyne regions of Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of t ...

of the Pama–Nyungan family. The '' Ethnologue'' equates Yinggarda with Pulinya but it is unclear what the basis is for this connection as Wilfrid Douglas, who recorded the name 'Pulinya,' described it as a name for the old

Geraldton Geraldton ( Wajarri: ''Jambinu'', Wilunyu: ''Jambinbirri'') is a coastal city in the Mid West region of the Australian state of Western Australia, north of the state capital, Perth. At June 2018, Geraldton had an urban population of 37,648. ...

language. Unattested Maya (Maia) is reported to have been "like" Yinggarda and may have been a dialect.

Phonology

Consonants

* /ɾ/ can be heard as a trill when preceding consonants, and can also be heard as a glide �when in intervocalic position. * Stops /k, t̪, ʈ/ are heard as �, ð, ɽwhen in intervocalic position.

Vowels

Region

Yinggarda country is around Carnarvon, on the central western coast of Western Australia, and extends inland to near

Gascoyne Junction The Gascoyne region is one of the nine administrative 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 Gascoy ...

and south to around the mouth of the

Wooramel River The Wooramel River is an ephemeral river in the Gascoyne region of Western Australia. The river rises near McLeod Pyramid and flows in a westerly direction, joined by six tributaries including the Wooramel River North, Bilung Creek, One Gum Cre ...

Language revival

A dictionary of Yinggarda by

Peter K. Austin Peter Kenneth Austin, often cited as Peter K. Austin, is an Australian linguist, widely published in the fields of language documentation, syntax, linguistic typology and in particular, endangered languages and language revitalisation. After a ...

was published in 1992. A sketch

grammar In linguistics, the grammar of a natural language is its set of structure, structural constraints on speakers' or writers' composition of clause (linguistics), clauses, phrases, and words. The term can also refer to the study of such constraint ...

was written by Alan Dench in 1998, who worked with some of the last speakers and carried out his research mainly in the 1970s and 1980s. The Yamaji Language Centre, now the

Irra Wangga Language Centre Irra can refer to: *IRRA, The Institute of Russian Realist Art *Lugal-Irra In ancient Mesopotamian religion, Lugal-irra () and Meslamta-ea () are a set of twin gods who were worshipped in the village of Kisiga, located in northern Babylonia. Th ...

, has been continuing to work on the Yinggarda language since 1993. , Yinggarda 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

{{Australian Aboriginal languages Kartu languages Endangered indigenous Australian languages in Western Australia