- Walmajarri language
Infobox Language
name=Walmajarri
region=Western Australia
speakers=1,000
iso2=aus
iso3=wmt
familycolor=Australian
fam1=Pama-Nyungan
fam2=South-West
fam3=Ngumbin
script=Latin alphabet Walmajarri (many other names; see below) is a South-West Pama-Nyungan language spoken in
Western Australia .Names
Names for this language include:
*Walmajarri, Walmatjarri, Walmatjari, Walmadjari, Walmatjiri, Walmajiri, Walmatjeri, Walmadjeri, Walmadyeri, Walmaharri, Wolmeri, Wolmera, Wulmari
*Bililuna, Pililuna
*Jiwarliny, Juwaliny, Tjiwaling, TjiwarlinThe Speakers
Communities with Walmajarri population are:
*Bayulu
*Djugerari (Cherrabun )
*Junjuwa (Fitzroy Crossing )
*Looma
*Millijidee
*Mindibungu (Bililuna )
*Mindi Rardi (Fitzroy Crossing )
*Mulan
*Ngumpan
*Wangkajungka (Christmas Creek )
*Yakunarra
* YungngoraThe Walmajarri people used to live in the Great Sandy Desert. Subsequent events 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 polarized by the lack of contact and further influenced by neighbouring languages.
Phonology
Vowels
Consonants
Morphology
Warlmajarri is a suffixing language. There are no prefixes.
yntax
Warlmajarri has 4 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 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.
References
* 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 LinguisticsExternal links
* [http://coombs.anu.edu.au/WWWVLPages/AborigPages/LANG/WA/4_5_8.htm Handbook of Western Australian languages South of the Kimberly] (Walmajarri)
* [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=wmt Ethnologue report for language code:wmt]
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