Ngarinyin language

Ngarinyin
Spoken in	Western Australia
Native speakers	unknown (82 cited 1981)
Language family	Worrorran Ngarinyinic Ngarinyin
Writing system	Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3	either: ung – Ngarinyin ajn – Andajin
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Ngarinyin, aka Ungarinjin, is a moribund Australian Aboriginal language of Western Australia.

Classification

Ngarinyin is usually classified as a Worrorran language. R. M. W. Dixon (2002), however, regards the Worrorran family as simply an areal group.

Ngarinyin is a dialect cluster, and may be considered more than a single language.

Phonology

Vowels

	Front	Back
High	i iː	u uː
Mid	e	o
Low	a aː

Consonants

	Peripheral		Laminal	Apical
	Bilabial	Velar	Palatal	Alveolar	Retroflex
Stop	p	k	c	t	ʈ
Nasal	m	ŋ	ɲ	n	ɳ
Lateral			ʎ	l	ɭ
Rhotic				r	ɻ
Semivowel	w		j

References

• Coate, H. H. J.; Elkin, A. P. (1974). Ngarinjin-English Dictionary. Sydney: Oceania Linguistic Monographs. 
• Coate, H. H. J.; Oates, Lynette (1970). A Grammar of Ngarinjin. Canberra: Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies. 
• Dixon, R. M. W. (2002). Australian Languages: Their Nature and Development. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. http://www.cambridge.org/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=0521473780. 
• Rumsey, A. (1982). An intra-sentence grammar of Ungarinjin, north-western Australia. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. 

External links

• Ethnologue report for language code:ung