Endangered Mirndi language of Australia's Northern Territory
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)
Language family
Mirndi
Ngurlun
Wambaya
Dialects
Wambaya
Gudanji
Binbinka
Language codes
ISO 639-3
Either: wmb – Wambaya nji – Gudanji
Glottolog
wamb1258
AIATSIS[2]
C19 Wambaya, C26 Gurdanji, N138 Binbinga
ELP
Wambaya
Binbinka[3]
Wambaya is a Non-Pama-Nyungan West Barkly Australian language of the Mirndi language group[4] that is spoken in the Barkly Tableland of the Northern Territory, Australia.[5] 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.[4]
The language was reported to have 12 speakers in 1981, and some reports indicate that the language went extinct as a first language.[6] However, in the 2011 Australian census 56 people stated that they speak Wambaya at home.[7] That number increased to 61 in the 2016 Census.[8]
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".[9]
^Australian Bureau of Statistics (2021). "Cultural diversity: Census". Retrieved 13 October 2022.
^C19 Wambaya at the Australian Indigenous Languages Database, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (see the info box for additional links)
^Endangered Languages Project data for Binbinka.
^ abNordlinger, Rachel. (1998), A Grammar Of Wambaya, Northern Territory (Australia), p. 1.
^Ethnologue
^Bender, Emily M. (2008), Evaluating a Crosslinguistic Grammar Resource: A Case Study of Wambaya, p. 2
Wambaya is a Non-Pama-Nyungan West Barkly Australian language of the Mirndi language group that is spoken in the Barkly Tableland of the Northern Territory...
Wambaya may refer to: Wambaya people Wambayalanguage This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Wambaya. If an internal link led...
Wambaya language and the Ngarnka language respectively. The Ngarnka language shares 60% of its vocabulary with the Wambayalanguage, while the Wambaya language...
Territory. Their language is the Wambayalanguage. Their traditional lands have now been taken over by large cattle stations. The Wambaya are an Indigenous...
two languages. A Grammar of Wambaya was written by Dr. Rachel Nordlinger in hope of helping younger Wambaya speakers learn something of their language or...
Consciously devised language Endangered language – Language that is at risk of going extinct Ethnologue#Language families Extinct language – Language that no longer...
There are numerous Australian Aboriginal languages and dialects, many of which are endangered. An endangered language is one that it is at risk of falling...
library, MS 4114 Miscellaneous Australian notes of Kenneth L. Hale, Series 2 Barkly Tablelands language material, item 1-2 Wampaya [Wambaya (C19)]. v t e...
The IBM WebSphere Message Broker software The ISO 639 code for the Wambayalanguage spoken in the Australian Northern Territory The Wetzikon–Meilen tramway...
times (the 1970s), though genetically affiliated with Wambaya and Jingulu, was a distinct language. Ngarnga Ngarndji Gudanji Ngewin Gnuin Leeillawarrie...
Australia. The branch consists of two to four languages, depending on what is considered a dialect: Ngarnka, Wambaya, and often Binbinka and Gurdanji. The group...
Ngurlun language, belonging to the eastern Mirndi languages group of non-Pama Nyungan family, one that was mutually intelligible with Wambaya. Norman...
Mirndi languages, closely related to Wambaya, to the degree that Wambaya, Binbinka and Gudanji are often treated as dialects of a single language. The Binbinga...
research focuses on Indigenous Australian languages, and is based on fieldwork undertaken with Bilinarra, Wambaya, Gudanji, Murrinhpatha and Marri Ngarr...
(September 1992). "Warlmanpa language & country" (PDF). Research Paper: 1–15. Nordlinger, Rachel (1998). A Grammar of Wambaya, Northern Territory (Australia)...
languages. The Jingulu have (or had) a well-developed signed form of their language. Other languages spoken in the West Barkly family include Wambaya...
(singular) and "my dogs watch television" (plural). This is not universal: Wambaya marks number on nouns but not verbs, and Onondaga marks number on verbs...
are properly understood as language or dialect names; some are simply the word meaning man or person in the associated language; some are endonyms (the name...
neighbours Binbinka, Gudanji and Wambaya. It is more distantly related to its western neighbour Jingulu, and three languages of the Victoria River District...
morphology in the Besleney dialect of Kabardian (Abkhaz-Adyghe), Soundex, Wambaya (West Barkly) syntax and the rules of Somali (Afroasiatic) poetry. The...
people, west of the Injilarija and Nguburinji peoples, and east of the Wambaya and Wakaya peoples' lands.[citation needed] They took over the land of...
Classification in Australian Languages. Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 978-3-110-87087-9. Nordlinger, Rachel (1998). A Grammar of Wambaya, Northern Territory (Australia)...
Global Information