Walmajarri (many other names;
see below) is a
Pama–Nyungan language spoken in the
Kimberley region of
Western Australia
Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...
by the
Walmadjari and related peoples.
Walmajarri is declared a definitely endangered language by
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...
based on their scale of Language Vitality and Endangerment.
Names
Names for this language break down along the three dialects:
*Walmajarri, Walmatjarri, Walmatjari, Walmadjari, Walmatjiri, Walmajiri, Walmatjeri, Walmadjeri, Walmadyeri, Walmaharri, Wolmeri, Wolmera, Wulmari
*Bililuna, Pililuna
*Jiwarliny, Juwaliny, Tjiwaling, Tjiwarlin
Speakers
Communities with a Walmajarri population are:
*
Bayulu
*
Djugerari (
Cherrabun)
*
Junjuwa (
Fitzroy Crossing)
*
Looma
*
Kadjina (Millijidee)
*
Mindibungu (
Bililuna)
*
Mindi Rardi (
Fitzroy Crossing)
*
Mulan
Hua Mulan () is a legendary Chinese folk heroine from the Northern and Southern dynasties era (4th to 6th century Common Era, CE) of Chinese history. Scholar, Scholars generally consider Mulan to be a fictional character. Hua Mulan is depicte ...
*
Ngumpan
*
Wangkajungka (
Christmas Creek)
*
Yakanarra
*
Yungngora
The Walmajarri people used to live in the
Great Sandy Desert. The effects of colonialism took them to the cattle stations, towns and missions in the North and scattered them over a wide area. The geographical distance accounts for the fact that there are several dialects, which have been further polarised by the lack of contact and further influenced by neighbouring languages.
Phonology
Vowels
Consonants
Consonants are allowed as the final sound of a word in most cases.
Morphology
Walmajarri is a suffixing language with many english words, especially
copula having equivalent Walmajarri words.
Pronouns
Number
In Walmajarri has three types of
grammatical number
In linguistics, grammatical number is a Feature (linguistics), feature of nouns, pronouns, adjectives and verb agreement (linguistics), agreement that expresses count distinctions (such as "one", "two" or "three or more"). English and many other ...
:
singular,
dual, and
plural
In many languages, a plural (sometimes list of glossing abbreviations, abbreviated as pl., pl, , or ), is one of the values of the grammatical number, grammatical category of number. The plural of a noun typically denotes a quantity greater than ...
.
Prepositions
Descriptive Nouns
Tenses
Syntax
Warlmajarri has four syntactic
cases:
nominative,
ergative,
dative and
assessory case. The cases assign different meanings to the
noun phrases of a sentence. Therefore, the word order can vary quite freely.
Subject,
Object or
Verb
A verb is a word that generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual description of English, the basic f ...
can appear initial, final, medial in sentence.
However, the second position of a sentence is always reserved for the Verbal Auxiliary. Sometimes referred to as a Catalyst, the Verbal Auxiliary indicates the mood of a sentence (similar to the English auxiliaries), but also cross-references its noun phrases. The person and number of the noun phrases in their syntactic cases are shown in the Verbal Auxiliary.
Sample Texts
Below is a basic vocabulary list from
Blake (1981).
:
Resources
Some resources of the language spoken can be found in various archives or databases, such as the Pacific and Regional Archive for Digital Sources in Endangered Cultures (PARADISEC) catalogue.
[nickT. "Home". ''PARADISEC''. Retrieved 2020-12-04.]
See also
*
Ngurrara, a grouping of peoples of language groups including Walmajarri
References
Bibliography
* Hudson, Joyce. (1978). ''The Walmatjari: An Introduction to the Language and Culture''. Darwin: Summer Institute of Linguistics
* Hudson, Joyce. (1978). ''The core of Walmatjari grammar''. Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies. New Jersey, U.S.A.: Humanities Press Inc.
* Hudson, Joyce & Richards, Eirlys. (1969). ''The phonology of Walmatjari''.
* Hudson, Joyce & Richards, Eirlys. (1990). ''Walmajarri–English Dictionary''. Darwin: Summer Institute of Linguistics
External links
Handbook of Western Australian languages South of the Kimberly(Walmajarri)
{{Languages of Australia
Ngumbin languages
Endangered indigenous Australian languages in Western Australia