Ngunnawal/Ngunawal and Gundungurra are

Australian Aboriginal languages The Indigenous languages of Australia number in the hundreds, the precise number being quite uncertain, although there is a range of estimates from a minimum of around 250 (using the technical definition of 'language' as non-mutually intellig ...

, and the traditional languages of the

Ngunnawal The Ngunnawal people, also spelt Ngunawal, are an Aboriginal Australians, Aboriginal people of southern New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory in Australia. Language Ngunnawal–Gundungurra language, Ngunnawal and Gundungurr ...

and

Gandangara The Gandangara people, also spelled Gundungara, Gandangarra, Gundungurra and other variations, are an Aboriginal Australian people in south-eastern New South Wales, Australia. Their traditional lands include present day Goulburn, Wollondilly Sh ...

. Ngunnawal and Gundungurra are very closely related and the two were most likely highly mutually intelligible. As such they can be considered dialects of a single unnamed language, but this is the technical linguistic usage of these terms and Ngunnawal and Gundungurra peoples prefer to describe their individual varieties as separate languages in their own right.

Classification

Gundungurra/Ngunawal is generally classified to fall within the tentative (and perhaps geographic) Yuin–Kuric group of the Pama–Nyungan family.

Geographical distribution

The traditional country of the Ngunnawal people is generally thought to have extended east near

Goulburn Goulburn ( ) is a regional city in the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales, Australia, approximately south-west of Sydney and north-east of Canberra. It was proclaimed as Australia's first inland city through letters patent by Queen Victor ...

, North to

Boorowa Boorowa () is a farming village in the Hilltops Council, Hilltops Region in the South West Slopes, south west slopes of New South Wales, Australia. It is located in a valley southwest of Sydney around above sea-level. The town is in Hilltops C ...

, south through Canberra, perhaps even to Queanbeyan, and extending west to around the

Goodradigbee River Goodradigbee River, a perennial stream that is part of the Murrumbidgee catchment within the Murray-Darling basin, is located in the Snowy Mountains district of New South Wales, Australia. Course and features The river rises below Mount Morg ...

Current status

The language was

extinct Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...

by 1994. Some recordings of the last native speakers exist, but they did not bring their children up to speak the language. The Ngunnawal community has for some years been engaged in work to revive the language, aiming to bring it back into daily use within the community. They have been working with

AIATSIS The Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS), established as the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies (AIAS) in 1964, is an independent Australian Government statutory authority. It is a collecting, ...

linguists to assist them with this work, and with identifying historical records that can be used.

Phonology

* Retroflex sounds �, ɳ, ɭmay have also been recorded in limited distribution. * Stops /b, d, ɟ, ɡ/ may also be heard as voiceless , t, c, kwhen in word-final or syllable-final positions. * /ɹ/ may have also been heard as �

Vocabulary

More words are compiled in ''The Wiradyuri and Other Languages of New South Wales'', an article by Robert H. Mathews first published in the

Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute The ''Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute'' (JRAI) is the principal journal of the oldest anthropological organization in the world, the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. Articles, at the forefront of the di ...

in 1904.

References

External links

*https://aiatsis.gov.au/research/research-themes/ngunawal-language-revival-project {{DEFAULTSORT:Ngunnawal-Gundungurra language Yuin–Kuric languages Canberra Extinct languages of New South Wales Extinct languages of the Australian Capital Territory