Ngarluma and Kariyarra are members of a

dialect continuum A dialect continuum or dialect chain is a series of Variety (linguistics), language varieties spoken across some geographical area such that neighboring varieties are Mutual intelligibility, mutually intelligible, but the differences accumulat ...

, which is a part of the Ngayarda language group 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 ...

, in the Pama–Nyungan language family. Some sources suggest that an extinct dialect,

Jaburara The Yapurarra or Jaburara, also rendered Yaburara, are an Aboriginal Australian people whose traditional lands are in the Pilbara region of Western Australia and the Dampier Archipelago. Language The Jaburara language (Yaburarra) is thought to ...

, was a third member of the continuum. However, it is clear that Jaburara had a distinct identity that has been partly obscured by a collapse in the numbers of Jaburara speakers during the late 19th century, and there is some evidence that Jaburara may have instead been a dialect of Martuthunira (see below). While Ngarluma and Kariyarra, as parts of a continuum, are

mutually intelligible In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is a relationship between languages or dialects in which speakers of different but related varieties can readily understand each other without prior familiarity or special effort. It is sometimes used as an ...

, they are considered distinct languages by their speakers, reflecting an ethnic division between the

Ngarluma The Ngarluma are an Indigenous Australian people of the western Pilbara area of northwest Australia. They are coastal dwellers of the area around Roebourne and Karratha. Not including Millstream. Language The Ngarluma language belongs to the ...

and Kariyarra peoples. As such they may be regarded as a single,

pluricentric language A pluricentric language or polycentric language is a language with several interacting codified standard forms, often corresponding to different countries. Many examples of such languages can be found worldwide among the most-spoken languages, inc ...

. Under

Carl Georg von Brandenstein Carl-Georg Christoph Freiherr von Brandenstein (10 October 1909 – 8 January 2005) was a German linguist who took up the study of Australian Aboriginal languages. Life Born in 1909 in Hannover to , Carl-Georg finished high school in Weimar, an ...

's 1967 classification scheme, Ngarluma was classed as a "Coastal Ngayarda" (or Ngaryarta) language, but the separation of the group into "Coastal" and "Inland" groups is no longer considered valid.

Dialects

Apart from the division between Ngarluma and Kariyarra, there are either three or four sub-dialects within Ngarluma. However, the inclusion of Jaburara – which parallels a belief amongst Ngarluma people that the

Jaburara people The Yapurarra or Jaburara, also rendered Yaburara, are an Aboriginal Australian people whose traditional lands are in the Pilbara region of Western Australia and the Dampier Archipelago. Language The Jaburara language (Yaburarra) is thought to h ...

and their traditional land were a sub-group of the Ngarluma people and lands – is controversial. There are two reasons for this: the Jaburara dialect is sometimes considered a dialect in its own right, or a dialect of Martuthunira. There is evidence for the latter theory in the word ''jaburara'', which means "northerners" in the languages of the region: the traditional lands of the Jaburara, on and around the Burrup Peninsula, are generally to the north of the Martuthunira lands (whereas the Jaburara are mostly west of the Ngarluma lands). A

pidgin A pidgin , or pidgin language, is a grammatically simplified means of communication that develops between two or more groups of people that do not have a language in common: typically, its vocabulary and grammar are limited and often drawn from s ...

ized form of Ngarluma was once used as a contact language in the area.

Phonology

Vowels

Three vowels are present as /a i u/.

Consonants

* The trill /r/ can also be heard as a tap � * Prenasal consonants also occur phonetically as ̪t̪ �ɖ

Linguistic area/boundaries

Kariyarra people, prior to European settlement occupied an area from the Yule River east to Port Hedland and south to the

Hamersley Range The Hamersley Range is a mountainous region of the Pilbara region of Western Australia. The range was named on 12 June 1861 by explorer Francis Thomas Gregory after Edward Hamersley (senior), Edward Hamersley, a prominent promoter of his explo ...

. The official Ngarluma Native Title Determination Area (including the Jaburara lands) covers the area southward from Point Samson,

Cossack The Cossacks , es, cosaco , et, Kasakad, cazacii , fi, Kasakat, cazacii , french: cosaques , hu, kozákok, cazacii , it, cosacchi , orv, коза́ки, pl, Kozacy , pt, cossacos , ro, cazaci , russian: казаки́ or ...

, Wickham, Roebourne, to the northern boundary of Millstream-Chichester National Park and; from the east side of the mouth of the Maitland River to the west side of the Peawah River near Whim Creek, including the towns of Dampier and Karratha.Ngarluma Aboriginal Corporation, 2012, ''Ngarluma Aboriginal Corporation''
(12 October 2012). However, this boundary is controversial for two reasons: it includes areas also regarded as traditional country by many Martuthunira people and; for legal reasons, it does not include areas that many Ngarluma people consider to fall into their traditional country.

Footnotes

{{Pama–Nyungan languages, West Ngayarda languages Endangered indigenous Australian languages in Western Australia Pilbara