Martu Wangka is a variety of the

Western Desert language The Western Desert language, or Wati, is a dialect cluster of Australian Aboriginal languages in the Pama–Nyungan family. The name ''Wati'' tends to be used when considering the various varieties to be distinct languages, ''Western Desert'' w ...

that emerged during the 20th century in

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 ...

as several

Indigenous communities There is no generally accepted definition of Indigenous peoples, although in the 21st century the focus has been on self-identification, cultural difference from other groups in a state, a special relationship with their traditional territ ...

shifted from their respective territories to form a single community. It refers to both a dialect found at and around Jigalong, Western Australia and many different dialect groups in the Gibson, Little Sandy and Great Sandy deserts. A dictionary of over 400 pages was published in 1992. This dictionary has been described as "a volume of interim work-sheets" that was published to encourage the conservation of the language. An edited version was published in 2005. An introduction to the structure and use of Martu Wangka was published in 2017.

History

Martu Wangka developed after two tribes, the

Kartudjara The Kartudjara are an Aboriginal Australian people of the Pilbara region of Western Australia. Country The Kartudjara's traditional lands extended over from ''Madaleri'', north of Kumpupintil Lake around Well 22 down southwest towards ''Pulp ...

and the Manjiljarra came in from the Western desert to settle into

Jigalong Jigalong is a remote Aboriginal community of approximately 333 people located in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. The traditional owners of the land are the Martu people. Location Jigalong is in the Pilbara region of Western Australia ...

during the 1960s. Though tribally distinct, they spoke two mutually intelligible dialects of the Western Desert language family. Through daily cohabitation, they developed a

koiné language In linguistics, a koine or koiné language or dialect (pronounced ; ) is a standard or common dialect that has arisen as a result of the contact, mixing, and often simplification of two or more mutually intelligible varieties of the same langu ...

. In this process, elements of the two languages are selected to fuse into a single shared idiom, thus forming a

lingua franca A lingua franca (; ; for plurals see ), also known as a bridge language, common language, trade language, auxiliary language, link language or language of wider communication (LWC), is a Natural language, language systematically used to make co ...

distinct from the originative dialects of the various groups who settled down to live together.

Phonology

Vowels

* /i/ can be heard as sounds or in free variation. * /ʊ/ can be heard as sounds or in free variation. * /a/ is typically pronounced as or . When following the glide /w/, it may be realized as .