Walmajarri language

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

Communities with a Walmajarri population are:

• Bayulu
• Djugerari (Cherrabun)
• Junjuwa (Fitzroy Crossing)
• Looma
• Kadjina (Millijidee)
• Mindibungu (Bililuna)
• Mindi Rardi (Fitzroy Crossing)
• Mulan
• 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.{{Cite book|last=McGregor|first=William B.|author-link=William B. McGregor|title=The Languages of the Kimberley, Western Australia|publisher=Routledge|year=2004|isbn=9780203434710|pages=11–12}} 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.

Consonants are allowed as the final sound of a word in most cases.{{Cite book|last=McGregor|first=William B.|author-link=William B. McGregor|title=The Languages of the Kimberley, Western Australia|publisher=Routledge|year=2004|isbn=9780203434710|pages=92}}

Walmajarri is a suffixing language with many english words, especially copula having equivalent Walmajarri words.{{Cite book |last=Joyce Hudson |first=Eirlys Richards |title=The Walmatjari an Introduction to the Language and Culture |year=1984 |pages=83-88}}

In Walmajarri has three types of grammatical number: singular, dual, and plural.

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 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.

Below is a basic vocabulary list from Blake (1981).{{cite book |last=Blake |first=Barry J. |author-link=Barry Blake |title=Australian Aboriginal languages: a general introduction |publisher=Angus & Robertson Publishers |publication-place=London |date=1981 |isbn=0-207-14044-8}}

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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.

• Ngurrara, a grouping of peoples of language groups including Walmajarri

{{reflist}}

• 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

• [http://coombs.anu.edu.au/WWWVLPages/AborigPages/LANG/WA/4_5_8.htm Handbook of Western Australian languages South of the Kimberly] (Walmajarri)

{{Languages of Australia}}

Category:Ngumbin languages

Category:Endangered indigenous Australian languages in Western Australia