Jurruru language

Pilbara region of Western Australia, particularly near the Ashburton River.^[1] It is classified as part of the Pama–Nyungan language family, within the Ngayarda subgroup.^[3] There were two speakers left in 1967 and no speakers by 1986, leading to its extiction.^[4]

split-ergative nominal morphology found in the Kanyara and Mantharta languages. In Jurruru, the accusative case is marked by the suffix -ku, contrasting with -nha in Mantharta and Kanyara. The allative case is marked by -karta, distinct from -kurla/-rla in Mantharta and -pura/-kurrunu in Kanyara. The ablative case is marked by -nguru, similar to one of the two ablatives used in Jiwarli, but unlike the -parnti form seen in Kanyara and Mantharta.^[5] Unlike the southern groups, Jurruru marks transitive object noun phrases consistently with the accusative -ku regardless of clause type. In Mantharta and Kanyara, object marking can vary depending on syntactic context, such as purpose or relative clauses.^[5]

Warriyangka, though its function varies across groups.^[6] Jurruru does not distinguish inclusive vs. exclusive forms in the first-person non-singular pronouns, a trait also found in the Kanyara language Payungu but not in Mantharta.^[7] Jurruru's plural pronouns may exhibit final long vowels (e.g., -kuu), possibly deriving from earlier -kuru forms via loss of r.^[8]