The Ngayarda (''Ngayarta'' /ŋajaʈa/) languages are a group of closely related languages in the
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 ...
. The languages classified as members of the Ngayarda languages group are (following Bowern & Koch 2004):
*
Martuthunira
*
Ngarluma-Kariyarra
*
Yindjibarndi
The Yindjibarndi are an Aboriginal Australian people of the Pilbara region of Western Australia. They form the majority of Aboriginal people around Roebourne (the Millstream area). Their traditional lands lie around the Fortescue River.
Langua ...
–
Kurrama
*
Panyjima
*
Jurruru
*
Nyamal
*
Yinhawangka
*
Ngarla
*
Nhuwala
*
Palyku
The Bailgu are an indigenous Australian people of the Pilbara region of Western Australia.
Country
Bailgu traditional lands extended over , according to Norman Tindale's estimate, covering the upper Fortescue River, and taking in Roy Hill and e ...
Dench (1995) says that for Yinhawangka, Nhuwala and Ngarla there is insufficient data to enable them to be confidently classified, and he places them in Ngayarda for convenience. However, Bowern & Koch (2004) include them without proviso. Further, there are grounds for considering Yindjibarndi-Kurrama and Ngarluma-Kariyarra to be dialect pairs, though the indigenous perception is that they are separate languages. Palyku has sometimes been excluded; it is somewhat divergent.
The name ''ngayarda'' comes from the word for "man" in many of the languages of the group. They form a branch of the
Pama–Nyungan family.
The Ngayarda group is justified on the basis of lexicostatistics as well as the following grammatical features first proposed by O'Grady (1966) as diagnostic of this group:
* The better-known members of the group (i.e. Ngarluma and Yindjibarndi) have a productive active/passive
voice distinction.
* The reflex of
Proto Pama-Nyungan *-''lu''~-''ngku'' is not used as a marker of transitive subject
* The Proto Pama-Nyungan suffix *-''ku'' has shifted from the specialised meaning
indirect object
In linguistics, an object is any of several types of arguments. In subject-prominent, nominative-accusative languages such as English, a transitive verb typically distinguishes between its subject and any of its objects, which can include but ...
to the broader meaning
object
Object may refer to:
General meanings
* Object (philosophy), a thing, being, or concept
** Object (abstract), an object which does not exist at any particular time or place
** Physical object, an identifiable collection of matter
* Goal, an ...
* The Proto Pama-Nyungan verb suffix *-''(l)ku'' has shifted from
future (or
optative
The optative mood ( or ; abbreviated ) is a grammatical mood that indicates a wish or hope regarding a given action. It is a superset of the cohortative mood and is closely related to the subjunctive mood but is distinct from the desiderative mo ...
) to
present
C.G. von Brandenstein devised a classification which divided this group into a Coastal Ngayarda and an Inland Ngayarda. This is no longer considered correct, however Austin (1988) points out that von Brandenstein's errors have been reproduced by Wurm and Hattori in their map of Australian languages, which appears to be based on the same classification.
Footnotes
References
*Dench, Alan. 1995. 'Martuthunira: A language of the Pilbara region of Western Australia'' PL C-125. Pacific Linguistics: Canberra
* O'Grady, G.N. 1966. 'Proto-Ngayarda Phonology'. ''Oceanic Linguistics'' 5:71-130.
{{Australian Aboriginal languages
Pilbara