Muruwari (also Muruwarri, Murawari, Murawarri) is an extinct Australian Aboriginal language of the Muruwari people, an isolate within the Pama–Nyungan family. Poorly attested Barranbinja may have been a dialect. Muruwari means 'to fall (''warri'') with a fighting club (''murru'') in one's hand'. The Muruwari language region includes the areas around the Paroo Shire in

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , establishe ...

and

Brewarrina Shire Brewarrina Shire is a local government area in the Orana region of New South Wales, Australia. The Shire is located adjacent to the Darling River, which is known as the Barwon River upstream from Bourke; and located adjacent to the Kamilaroi ...

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

. The Muruwari language was collated from many tapes of language material recorded by Jimmy Barker of Brewarrina, Emily Horneville (Mrs Ornable) and Shillin Jackson of Goodooga, and Robin Campbell of Weilmoringle. The Murawari language was first published by R. H. Mathews in the early 1900s and again by Ian Sims, Judy Trefry, Janet Mathews, and Lynette F. Oates (1988). Oates' grammar is based on the recordings made by Jimmie Barker and Janet Mathews from 1968 to 1972, and Bill Campbell and Judy Trefry in 1967, and supplemented by her own field work in Goodooga with the last remaining full speakers, Mrs Emily Horneville and Mr Robin Campbell, among others.

Relationship with other languages

Lynette Oates' work on Muruwari and Barranbinya corroborates the view that both languages are most likely in a dialect relation, giving a cognate count of 44% between the two varieties. R.H. Mathews (1903), who recorded both Muruwari and Barranbinya, also commented that besides vocabulary differences, the grammar of both Muruwari and Barranbinya were essentially the same. Together, Muruwari and Barranbinya form an isolate group within the Pama–Nyungan language family, being very different in many respects from its geographic neighbours (which belong to many different Pama–Nyungan subgroups). To the east, both are bordered by the

Wiradhuric languages The Wiradhuric languages or Central (Inland) New South Wales, are a family of Pama–Nyungan languages of Australia. There are three languages: *Gamilaraay (northeast) *Wiradhuri–Ngiyambaa **Wiradhuri (south) **Ngiyambaa (west) All are now mori ...

Yuwaaliyaay The Yuwaalaraay, also spelt Euahlayi, Euayelai, Eualeyai, Ualarai, Yuwaaliyaay and Yuwallarai, are an Aboriginal Australian people of north-western New South Wales. Name and language The ethnonym derives from their word for "no" () to which ...

and Yuwaalaraay speakers; to the south by

Ngiyambaa The Ngiyambaa language, also spelt Ngiyampaa, Ngempa, Ngemba and other variants, is a Pama–Nyungan language of the Wiradhuric subgroup. It was the traditional language of the Wangaibon and Weilwan peoples of New South Wales, Australia ...

speakers (also Wiradhuric); and to the north by speakers of Maric languages, including Guwamu and

Badjiri The Badjiri people, also written Budjari or Badyidi, are an Australian Aboriginal people of just north of the Paroo River, close to the southern border of Queensland. They are not to be confused with the Pitjara/Bidjara people of the Warrego ...

. To the west, they neighboured Kurnu speakers (part of the Paakantyi dialect continuum). The Muruwari language was influenced through contact with many of these neighbouring languages, and influences can even be traced to the Karnic languages and the languages of the Western Desert. More recently, Claire Bowern and Quentin Atkinson's

lexicostatistical Lexicostatistics is a method of comparative linguistics that involves comparing the percentage of lexical cognates between languages to determine their relationship. Lexicostatistics is related to the comparative method but does not reconstruct a ...

work placed Muruwari together with the Wiradhuric languages, forming a "Central NSW group", to which other Southeastern Pama-Nyungan languages are related.

Phonology

Phonemic inventory

The phonemic inventory is very similar to Barranbinya. Letters used by Oates are in angle brackets. All phonemes except those with a star (*) may be word-initial.

Morphosyntax

According to Oates, Muruwari is an affix-transferring language (borrowing a term from

Arthur Capell Arthur Capell (28 March 1902 – 10 August 1986) was an Australian linguist, who made major contributions to the study of Australian languages, Austronesian languages and Papuan languages. Early life Capell was born in Newtown, New South Wales ...

): many suffixes (particularly tense, aspect and person suffixes, but also stem-forming suffixes) can be 'transferred' from the verb to other words in the clause. Nouns, adjectives, demonstratives, verb modifiers (such as ''pinja'' 'only' and ''warri'' ' not sure'), adverbs (such as ''ngarlu'' 'again'), interrogatives and pronouns can receive verbal suffixes. The exact function of this is unclear.

Vocabulary

Example sentence: *"''Pitara yaan Muruwariki''" meaning: "Muruwari is good, sweet talk” Some words from the Muruwari language, as spelt and written by Muruwari authors include: * ''Kula'': kangaroo * ''Kuya'': fish * ''Mara'': hand * ''Marrinj thalu'': good day * ''Ngapa'': water (fresh) * ''Ngurra'': camp * ''Pipi'': baby * ''Thurri'': sun * ''Witji-witji'': bird(s)

Relationship with other languages

Phonology

Phonemic inventory

Morphosyntax

Vocabulary

References

See also