Wambaya language
| Wambaya | |
|---|---|
| McArthur River | |
| Native to | Australia |
| Region | Barkly Tableland, Northern Territory |
| Ethnicity | Wambaya, Gudanji, Binbinga |
Native speakers | 43 (2021 census)[1] (24 Wambaya; 19 Gudanji) |
| Dialects |
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | Either:wmb – Wambayanji – Gudanji |
| Glottolog | wamb1258 |
| AIATSIS[2] | C19 Wambaya, C26 Gurdanji, N138 Binbinga |
| ELP | Lua error in Module:Endangered_Languages_Project at line 21: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value). |
| Binbinka | |
Wambaya is a Non-Pama-Nyungan West Barkly Australian language of the Mirndi language group[3] that is spoken in the Barkly Tableland of the Northern Territory, Australia.[4] Wambaya and the other members of the West Barkly languages are somewhat unusual in that they are suffixing languages, unlike most Non-Pama-Nyungan languages which are prefixing.[3]
The language was reported to have 12 speakers in 1981, and some reports indicate that the language went extinct as a first language.[5] However, in the 2011 Australian census 56 people stated that they speak Wambaya at home.[6] That number increased to 61 in the 2016 Census.[7]
Rachel Nordlinger notes that the speech of the Wambaya, Gudanji and Binbinka people "are clearly dialects" of a single language, which she calls "McArthur", while Ngarnga is closely related but is "probably best considered a language of its own".[8]
Phonology
[edit | edit source]Consonants
[edit | edit source]| Peripheral | Laminal | Apical | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labial | Velar | Palatal | Alveolar | Retroflex | |
| Stop | b | ɡ | ɟ | d | ɖ |
| Nasal | m | ŋ | ɲ | n | ɳ |
| Lateral | ʎ | l | ɭ | ||
| Rhotic | ɾ ~ r | ɻ | |||
| Approximant | w | j | |||
- Sounds /ɡ, ŋ/ are heard as palatalized [ɡʲ, ŋʲ] when before front vowels.
- /ɾ/ is heard as a trill [r] when in pre-consonantal position.
Vowels
[edit | edit source]| Front | Back | |
|---|---|---|
| High | ɪ, iː | ʊ, uː |
| Low | a, aː | |
- /a/ can be heard as [æ] when after palatal sounds /ɟ, ɲ/ and before /j/.
- /ɪ/ is heard as [i] when before /j/.[9]
References
[edit | edit source]- ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- ^ C19 Wambaya at the Australian Indigenous Languages Database, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (see the info box for additional links)
- ^ a b Nordlinger, Rachel. (1998), A Grammar Of Wambaya, Northern Territory (Australia), p. 1.
- ^ Ethnologue
- ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
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External links
[edit | edit source]- Bibliography of Binbinga people and language resources Archived 5 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine, at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
- Bibliography of Gudanji people and language resources Archived 29 May 2015 at the Wayback Machine, at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
