The Southwest Pama–Nyungan or Nyungic language group is the most diverse and widespread, though hypothetical, subfamily of the
Pama–Nyungan language family of
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...
. It contains about fifty distinct languages.
Internal classification
The Kanyara and Mantharta languages appear to be the most divergent of the Southwest languages. The others are sometimes collected under the name Nyungic.
*
Kanyara
*
Mantharta
*
Nyungic
**
Ngayarda
**
Kartu
**''
Nyungar
The Noongar (, also spelt Noongah, Nyungar , Nyoongar, Nyoongah, Nyungah, Nyugah, and Yunga ) are Aboriginal Australian people who live in the south-west corner of Western Australia, from Geraldton on the west coast to Esperance on the sou ...
''
**''
Mangarla''
**
Mirning
The Mirning, also known as the Ngandatha, are an Aboriginal Australian people whose traditional lands lay on the coastal region of the Great Australian Bight extending from Western Australia into south-west South Australia.
Name
''Mirniŋ'' was ...
(Mirniny)
**
Wati (
Western Desert language
The Western Desert language, or Wati, is a dialect cluster of Australian Aboriginal languages in the Pama–Nyungan family.
The name ''Wati'' tends to be used when considering the various varieties to be distinct languages, ''Western Desert'' w ...
)
**
Marrngu
**
Ngarrka–Ngumpin
**
Yura
Validity
The proposal has been largely abandoned. Bowern (2011) restricts "Southwest Pama–Nyungan" to Nyungar plus Kalaaku (See
Nyungic languages
The Nyungic languages are the south-westernmost of the Australian Aboriginal languages:
*Nyungic
**Noongar language
** Galaagu language (Kalarko, Malpa)
** Kalaamaya– Natingero
Galaagu and Kalaamaya/Natingero are poorly attested; it is n ...
). However, the language group does correspond to a clade identified in Bouckaert et al. (2018).
Footnotes
References
*Bouckaert, R. R., Bowern, C., & Atkinson, Q. D. (2018). The origin and expansion of Pama–Nyungan languages across Australia. ''Nature ecology & evolution'', ''2''(4), 741-749.
*
Dixon, R. M. W. (2002). ''Australian Languages: Their Nature and Development.'' Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Southwest Pama-Nyungan languages
South West (Western Australia)