The Nyulnyulan languages are a small

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

of closely related

Australian Aboriginal languages The Indigenous languages of Australia number in the hundreds, the precise number being quite uncertain, although there is a range of estimates from a minimum of around 250 (using the technical definition of 'language' as non-mutually intellig ...

spoken in northern

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

. Most languages in this family are extinct, with only three extant languages, all of which are almost extinct.

Internal classification

The languages form two branches established on the basis of lexical and morphological innovation. * Western or Nyulnyulic: :: Nyulnyul † :: Bardi :: Jawi :: Djabirr-Djabirr † ::

Nimanburru The Nimanburu were an Aboriginal Australian people of the Kimberley region of Western Australia. Language The Nimanburu language was one of the Nyulnyulan languages. Their speech was described by other aboriginal informants as a 'heavy' dialec ...

† * Eastern or Dyukun: ::

Yawuru The Yawuru, also spelt Jawuru, are an Indigenous Australian people of the Kimberley region of Western Australia. Language A Japanese linguist, Hosokawa Kōmei (細川弘明), compiled the first basic dictionary of the Yawuru language in 1988, a ...

:: Dyugun † ::

Warrwa The Warrwa, also spelt Warwa, are an Indigenous Australian people of the Kimberley region of Western Australia. Language Warrwa is an eastern Nyulnyulan language, sufficiently closely related to Nyigina to be classified as a dialect of the ...

† ::

Nyigina The Nyikina people (also spelt Nyigina and Nyikena, and listed as Njikena by Tindale) are an Aboriginal Australian people of the Kimberley region of Western Australia. They come from the lower Fitzroy River (which they call ''mardoowarra''). ...

:: Ngumbarl †

Vocabulary

Capell Capell or Capel is a surname. Notable people with the name include: Capell * Arthur Capell, 1st Baron Capell of Hadham (1608–1649), English politician * Arthur Capell, 1st Earl of Essex (1631–1683), English statesman * Arthur Capell (1902–1 ...

(1940) lists the following basic vocabulary items for the Nyulnyulan languages:Capell, Arthur. 1940
The Classification of Languages in North and North-West Australia
''Oceania'' 10(3): 241-272, 404-433. :

Lexical isoglosses

Some lexical

isogloss An isogloss, also called a heterogloss (see Etymology below), is the geographic boundary of a certain linguistic feature, such as the pronunciation of a vowel, the meaning of a word, or the use of some morphological or syntactic feature. Major d ...

es between Proto-Western Nyulnyulan and Proto-Eastern Nyulnyulan: :

Proto-languages

Proto-Nyulnyulan

The following reconstruction of Proto-Nyulnyulan is from Stokes and McGregor (2003):Stokes, Bronwyn and William McGregor. 2003. Classification and Subclassification of the Nyulnyulan Languages. In Nicholas Evans (ed.), ''The non-Pama-Nyungan languages of northern Australia: comparative studies of the continent's most linguistically complex region'', 29-74. Canberra: Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University. ;Abbreviations *WNN: Western Nyulnyulan *ENN: Eastern Nyulnyulan :

Proto-Western Nyulnyulan

The following reconstruction of Proto-Western Nyulnyulan is from Stokes and McGregor (2003): :

Proto-Eastern Nyulnyulan

The following reconstruction of Proto-Eastern Nyulnyulan is from Stokes and McGregor (2003): :

References

* Bowern, Claire. 2004. ''Bardi Verb Morphology in Historical Perspective'' PhD, Harvard University * Bowern, Claire. 2010.
Two Missing Pieces in a Nyulnyulan Jigsaw Puzzle
'. LSA, Baltimore. * {{language families Language families Non-Pama-Nyungan languages Indigenous Australian languages in Western Australia