Nyangumarta language

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Nyangumarta
Spoken in:	Australia
Region:	Western Australia
Total speakers:	520 (1991)
Language family:	Australian Pama-Nyungan Nyungic Marrngu Nyangumarta
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	none
ISO 639-2:	`aus`
ISO 639-3:	`nna`
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

Nyangumarta is spoken by Indigenous Australians in the region of Western Australia to the south and east of Lake Waukarlykarly, including Eighty Mile Beach, and part of the Great Sandy Desert inland to near Telfer.

1 Classification
2 Geographic distribution
- 2.1 Variation/Dialects
3 Sounds/Phonology
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Classification

Nyangumarta is a member of the Marrngu subgroup of the Nyungic branch of Pama-Nyungan languages. The other members of this group are Mangarla and Karajarri, with which it shares more features and vocabulary.

[edit] Geographic distribution

[edit] Variation/Dialects

Nyangumarta has two main dialects: Ngurlipartu, spoken in the southern, inland region, and Wanyarli, spoken in the northern, coastal region.

[edit] Sounds/Phonology

- Nyangumarta words are at least disyllabic. - Simple 'canonical' CV (Consonant, vowel) structures are strongly preferred. - Nyangumarta does not permit consonant clusters (CC) in the onset of a syllable. - Nyangumarta has no fricative sounds like the [s] in English seven. - Nyangumarta has a very limited inventory of vowel sounds (eg., no [e] sound as in pen, or no weak vowel, like the vowel that begins the English word above) - Knowing these phonological facts enables us to predict the phonological transformations that take place when an English word is borrowed into Nyangumarta. Knowing a little bit about traditional aboriginal culture and the European contact situation, you can probably figure out why these particular English words were 'borrowed' into Nyangumarta.