Ngarna languages

"Warluwar(r)ic" was first proposed by O'Grady, Voegelin and Voegelin (1966), consisting of Warluwarra only, to which the "Wakayic" (consisting of Wakaya) and "Yanyulan" groups (consisting of Yanyuwa) were later proved to be related. Bularnu and Yindjilandji were later recorded and also added to the classification. On the basis of shared pronoun systems and nominal case-marking, Barry Blake (1988){{cite book| first = Barry | last = Blake | author-link1 = Barry Blake (linguist) | title = Aboriginal Linguistics 1 | chapter = Redefining Pama-Nyungan: towards the prehistory of Australian Languages |editor1-last= Evans |editor1-first= Nicholas |editor1-link= Nicholas Evans (linguist)|editor2-last= Johnson| editor2-first= Steve |publisher = University of New England | year = 1988 }} later grouped Yanyuwa, Wakaya (and by extension Yindjilandji), Bularnu and Warluwarra into the "Warluwaric" subgroup of Pama-Nyungan. Breen (2004){{Cite book| last = Breen| first = Gavan| chapter = Evolution of the verb conjugations in the Ngarna languages| editor1-last= Bowern | editor1-first= Claire | editor1-link= Claire Bowern (linguist)| editor2-last= Koch| editor2-first= Harold | editor2-link = Harold Koch (linguist) |publisher = John Benjamins Publishing Company | year = 2004| title = Australian Languages: Classification and the Comparative Method}} proposed the name "Ngarna" over "Warluwar(r)ic" (in reference to the first-person singular nominative pronoun common to all members of the subgroup), although "Warluwar(r)ic" is still commonly used. For one, Mary Laughren retains the label "Warluwarric" on the basis that (nga)rna is a common retention among many other Western Pama-Nyungan languages and not exactly unique to this subgroup.{{cite book| first = Mary| last = Laughren| title = Skin, Kin and Clan| chapter = Asymmetrical Distinctions in Waanyi Kinship Terminology: The Dynamics of Social Categories in Indigenous Australia| year = 2018 | publisher = ANU Press}}

Within the subgroup, Breen uses lexicostatical evidence, and also evidence from nominal and verbal morphology, to distinguish between the "Ngarru" group (containing Wagaya and Yindjilandji) and the "Thawa" group (containing Bularnu and Warluwara), each respectively after the common word for 'man, Aboriginal person'. These two groups together form the southern branch of Ngarna/Warluwar(r)ic, to which the discontinuous Yanyuwa is related at the uppermost level of the subgroup. Work on proto-Ngarna/Warluwar(r)ic has been done by Catherine Koch (1989),{{Cite thesis| type=Honours| last = Koch | first = Catherine| title = A problem of subgrouping: four Australian languages of the Queensland and Northern Territory border area| date = 1989| publisher = La Trobe University}} Daniel Brammall (1991),{{Cite thesis| type=Honours| last = Brammall| first = Daniel| title = A comparative grammar of Warluwaric| date = 1991| publisher = Australian National University}} Margaret Carew (1993),{{Cite thesis| type=Honours| last = Carew| first = Margaret| title = Proto-Warluwarric phonology| date = 1993| publisher = University of Melbourne}} and Gavan Breen (2004).

Beyond the subgroup, relations with other branches of Pama-Nyungan are more speculative. McConvell and Laughren (2004){{Cite book| last1 = McConvell | first1 = Patrick | last2 = Laughren | first2 = Mary | chapter = The Ngumpin-Yapa subgroup | editor1-last= Bowern | editor1-first = Claire | editor1-link= Claire Bowern (linguist)| editor2-last = Koch| editor2-first = Harold | editor2-link = Harold Koch (linguist) | publisher = John Benjamins Publishing Company | year = 2004| title = Australian Languages: Classification and the Comparative Method}} entertain the possibility that the Ngumpin-Yapa languages and the Ngarna/Warluwar(r)ic languages share a common ancestor, although other evidence also suggests a closer genetic relation between Ngumpin-Yapa and the more southerly branches. In any case, early and sustained contact between speakers of Ngumpin-Yapa and Ngarna/Warluwar(r)ic languages is evinced by shared phonological changes and certain lexical similarities. Using computational phylogenetic methods, Bowern and Atkinson (2012){{cite journal | last1 = Bowern | first1 = Claire | last2 = Atkinson | first2 = Quentin | title = Computational phylogenetics and the internal structure of Pama-Nyungan | journal = Language | volume = 88 | issue = 4 | year = 2012 | pages = 817–845| doi = 10.1353/lan.2012.0081 | hdl = 1885/61360 | s2cid = 4375648 | hdl-access = free }} grouped the Ngarna/Warluwar(r)ic languages into the "Western Pama-Nyungan" group. Their work suggests a tentative link between Ngarna/Warluwar(r)ic and the Yolngu languages, forming a higher subgroup to which the other Western Pama-Nyungan branches (i.e. Southwest Nyungic and Desert Nyungic) are more distantly related.

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{{Pama–Nyungan languages|North}}

{{Australian Aboriginal languages}}

Category:Indigenous Australian languages in Queensland

Category:Indigenous Australian languages in the Northern Territory