The Kanyara languages are a pair of closely related languages in the southern
Pilbara
The Pilbara () is a large, dry, thinly populated region in the north of Western Australia. It is known for its Aboriginal peoples; its ancient landscapes; the red earth; and its vast mineral deposits, in particular iron ore. It is also a g ...
region of
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 ...
.
According to
Dixon (2002) languages classified as members of the Kanyara languages group are (with the varieties in parentheses sometimes considered separate languages):
*
Burduna (
Bayungu/Payungu); and
*
Thalanyji (
Binigura, Pinikura).
However, according to
Peter Austin (2008
[Austin, Peter. 2008]
The classification of Pinikura, Western Australia.
In Morphology and language history, Current Issues in Linguistic Theory, 298), Binigura/Pinikura, Thalanyji, Payungu and Purdana (all classified as separate languages in
AUSTLANG) "should probably be classified as belonging to the Kanyara subgroup".
The languages are spoken in the region between the mouths of the
Gascoyne River
The Gascoyne River is a river in the Gascoyne region of Western Australia. At , it is the longest river in Western Australia.
Description
The Gascoyne River comprises three branches in its upper reaches. Draining the Collier Range, the river ...
and the
Ashburton River, along the coast and extending inland.
The name ''kanyara'' comes from the word for "man" in Burdana and Thalanyji. The Kanyara languages form a branch of the
Pama–Nyungan family. The Kanyara group was first proposed by Austin (1988) based on lexical, morphological and syntactic criteria.
References
*
External links
Map showing location of the languages of the southern Pilbara region of Western Australia
Kanyara–Mantharta languages
Pilbara
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