Yinjibarndi is a Pama–Nyungan language spoken by the

Yindjibarndi people 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 ...

of 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 glo ...

region in north-western Australia. Yinjibarndi is

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 ...

with Kurrama, but the two are considered distinct languages by their speakers.

Classification

Yindjibarndi is classified as a member of the Ngayarta 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: ...

. 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, Yindjibarndi was classed as an Inland Ngayarda language, but the separation of the Ngayarda languages into Coastal and Inland groups is no longer considered valid.

Sounds

Yindjibarndi vowel inventory

Grammar

Pronouns

Yindjibarndi, like Lardil, has pronouns that indicate whether the referents include two people separated by an odd number of generations or not.

Influence on other languages

The verb , meaning 'to separate (grain or pieces of mineral) by shaking in a special shallow dish', comes from Yindjibarndi.''

Oxford Dictionary of English The ''Oxford Dictionary of English'' (''ODE'') is a single-volume English dictionary published by Oxford University Press, first published in 1998 as ''The New Oxford Dictionary of English'' (''NODE''). The word "new" was dropped from the titl ...

'', p 2,055.

References

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