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Ngarla is a Pama–Nyungan language of coastal
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 t ...
. It is possibly
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 a ...
with Panyjima and Martuthunira, but the three are considered distinct languages. Ngarla is a member of the Ngayarda branch of the
Pama–Nyungan languages The Pama–Nyungan languages are the most widespread family of Australian Aboriginal languages, containing 306 out of 400 Aboriginal languages in Australia. The name "Pama–Nyungan" is a merism: it derived from the two end-points of the range ...
. Dench (1995) believed there was insufficient data to enable it to be confidently classified, but Bowern & Koch (2004) include it without proviso. Ngarla is spoken near
Port Hedland A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as ...
. The "Ngarla" on the Ashburton River is a dialect of a different, though possibly related, language, Yinhawangka. According to the Irra Wangga Language Centre, "Ngarla is no longer spoken today, although there remain some community members who know some words and phrases in the language".


Phonology


Consonants


Vowels

The long vowels are rare.


Grammar


Tense markers

Ngarla tense markers for verbs:


Language revival

, Ngarla is one of 20 languages prioritised as part of the Priority Languages Support Project, being undertaken by First Languages Australia and funded by the
Department of Communications and the Arts The Australian Department of Communications and the Arts was a department of the Government of Australia charged with responsibility for communications policy and programs and cultural affairs. In December 2019, prime minister Scott Morrison a ...
. The project aims to "identify and document critically-endangered languages — those languages for which little or no documentation exists, where no recordings have previously been made, but where there are living speakers". Research has been undertaken on the language at the Irra Wangga Language Centre, who have produced resources in Ngarla, including Ngarla Numbers and ''Jamie’s Bush Tucker Trip''.


Notes


References

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External links


Wangka Maya
Ngarla The Ngarla are an Aboriginal Australian people of the Pilbara region of Western Australia. Country Norman Tindale estimated their territory, to the west of Port Hedland, at around , describing it as lying along the coast to the west of Solita ...
Endangered indigenous Australian languages in Western Australia {{ia-lang-stub