Kanyara languages

{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2019}}

{{use Australian English|date=March 2021}}

{{Infobox language family

| name = Kanyara

| region = Western Australia

| familycolor = Australian

| fam1 = Pama–Nyungan

| fam2 = Kanyara–Mantharta

| glotto = kany1246

| glottorefname = Kanyara

| map = Kanyara languages.png

| mapcaption = Kanyara languages (green) among other Pama–Nyungan (tan).

| child1 = Burduna

| child2 = Thalanyji

}}

The Kanyara languages are a pair of closely related languages in the southern Pilbara region of Western Australia.

According to Dixon, languages classified as members of the Kanyara languages group are (with the varieties in parentheses sometimes considered separate languages):{{cite book |last=Dixon |first=R. M. W. |author-link=R. M. W. Dixon |title=Australian Languages: Their Nature and Development |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2002 |url=http://www.cambridge.org/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=0521473780|page=xxxviii}}

• Burduna (Bayungu/Payungu); and
• Thalanyji (Binigura language).

However, according to Peter Austin, Binigura/Pinikura, Thalanyji, Payungu and Purdana (all classified as separate languages in AUSTLANG{{AIATSIS|W34|Binigura/Pinikura}}) "should probably be classified as belonging to the Kanyara subgroup".Austin, Peter. 2008. [https://benjamins.com/catalog/cilt.298.05aus The classification of Pinikura, Western Australia.] In Morphology and language history, Current Issues in Linguistic Theory, 298

The languages are spoken in the region between the mouths of the Gascoyne River and the Ashburton River, along the coast and extending inland.

The name kanyara comes from the word for "man" in Burdana and Thalanyji. The Kanyara languages form a branch of the Pama–Nyungan family. The Kanyara group was first proposed by Austin based on lexical, morphological and syntactic criteria.{{cite book|author=Austin, Peter|author-link=Peter Austin (linguist)|url=https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/bitstream/1885/144567/1/PL-A71.pdf|date=1988|chapter=Classification of Southern Pilbara languages|title=Papers in Australian Linguistics, no. 17|pages=1–17; PL A-71|publisher= Pacific Linguistics|place= Canberra|editor1-last= Dunn|editor1-first=L.|editor2-last=Geytenbeek|editor2-first=H.|editor3-last=Glasgow|editor3-first=K.|editor4-last=McGregor|editor4-first=W.|editor5-last=Oates|editor5-first=L.|editor6-last=Swartz|editor6-first=S.|doi=10.15144/PL-A71.1|quote=Online edition licensed 2015 CC BY-SA 4.0, with permission of PL}}