Walmajarri language
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Walmajarri | ||
|---|---|---|
| Spoken in: | Western Australia | |
| Total speakers: | 1,000 | |
| Language family: | Pama-Nyungan South-West Ngumbin Walmajarri |
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| Writing system: | Latin alphabet | |
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639-1: | none | |
| ISO 639-2: | aus | |
| ISO 639-3: | wmt | |
| Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. | ||
Walmajarri (many other names; see below) is a South-West Pama-Nyungan language spoken in Western Australia.
Contents |
[edit] Names
Names for this language include:
- Walmajarri, Walmatjarri, Walmatjari, Walmadjari, Walmatjiri, Walmajiri, Walmatjeri, Walmadjeri, Walmadyeri, Walmaharri, Wolmeri, Wolmera, Wulmari
- Bililuna, Pililuna
- Jiwarliny, Juwaliny, Tjiwaling, Tjiwarlin
[edit] The Speakers
Communities with Walmajarri population are:
- Bayulu
- Djugerari (Cherrabun)
- Junjuwa (Fitzroy Crossing)
- Looma
- Millijidee
- Mindibungu (Bililuna)
- Mindi Rardi (Fitzroy Crossing)
- Mulan
- Ngumpan
- Wangkajungka (Christmas Creek)
- Yakunarra
- Yungngora
The Walmajarri people used to live in the Great Sandy Desert. Subsequent events took them to the cattle stations, towns and missions in the North and scattered them over a wide area. The geographical distance accounts for the fact that there are several dialects, which have been further polarized by the lack of contact and further influenced by neighbouring languages.
[edit] Phonology
[edit] Vowels
| Front | Back | |
|---|---|---|
| High | i, iː | u, uː |
| Low | a, aː | |
[edit] Consonants
| Peripheral | Laminal | Apical | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bilabial | Velar | Palatal | Alveolar | Retroflex | |
| Stop | p | k | c | t | ʈ |
| Nasal | m | ŋ | ɲ | n | ɳ |
| Lateral | ʎ | l | ɭ | ||
| Rhotic | r | ||||
| Approximant | w | j | ɻ | ||
[edit] Morphology
Warlmajarri is a suffixing language. There are no prefixes.
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[edit] Syntax
Warlmajarri has 4 syntactic cases: nominative, ergative, dative and assessory case. The cases assign different meanings to the noun phrases of a sentence. Therefore, the word order can vary quite freely. Subject, Object or Verb can appear initial, final, medial in sentence.
However, the second position of a sentence is always reserved for the Verbal Auxiliary. Sometimes referred to as a Catalyst, the Verbal Auxiliary indicates the mood of a sentence (similar to the English auxiliaries), but also cross-references its noun phrases. The person and number of the noun phrases in their syntactic cases are shown in the Verbal Auxiliary.
[edit] References
- Hudson, Joyce. (1978). The Walmatjari: An Introduction to the Language and Culture. Darwin: Summer Institute of Linguistics
- Hudson, Joyce. (1978). The core of Walmatjari grammar. Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies. New Jersey, U.S.A.: Humanities Press Inc.
- Hudson, Joyce & Richards, Eirlys. (1969). The phonology of Walmatjari.
- Hudson, Joyce & Richards, Eirlys. (1990). Walmajarri – English Dictionary. Darwin: Summer Institute of Linguistics
[edit] External links
- Handbook of Western Australian languages South of the Kimberly (Walmajarri)
- Ethnologue report for language code:wmt
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