Ngarna languages

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Ngarna
Warluwaric, Warluwarric
Geographic
distribution		Northern Territory, Queensland
Linguistic classificationPama–Nyungan
  • Ngarna
Subdivisions
Garrwan and Mirndi
languages (grey).

The Ngarna or Warluwar(r)ic languages are a discontinuous primary branch of the

Pama–Nyungan language family of Australia.[1][2] The moribund Yanyuwa language
is the only survivor of this group.

The two geographic and also cladistic groups are:

  • Ngarna
    • Yanyuwa
    • Southern Ngarna/Warluwar(r)ic
      • Ngarru
      • Thawa
        • Bularnu
          †
        • Warluwara
          †

History and status

"Warluwar(r)ic" was first proposed by O'Grady, Voegelin and Voegelin (1966), consisting of Warluwarra only, to which the "Wakayic" (consisting of

Pama-Nyungan. Breen (2004)[4] 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.[5]

Within the subgroup, Breen uses lexicostatical evidence, and also evidence from nominal and verbal morphology, to distinguish between the "Ngarru" group (containing

Warluwara), each respectively after the common word for 'man, Aboriginal person'.[4] 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),[6] Daniel Brammall (1991),[7] Margaret Carew (1993),[8] and Gavan Breen (2004).[4]

Beyond the subgroup, relations with other branches of Pama-Nyungan are more speculative. McConvell and Laughren (2004)

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.

References

  1. ISBN 978-0-521-47378-1
    .
  2. ^ Bowern, Claire. 2011. "How Many Languages Were Spoken in Australia?", Anggarrgoon: Australian languages on the web, December 23, 2011 (corrected February 6, 2012)
  3. ^ Blake, Barry (1988). "Redefining Pama-Nyungan: towards the prehistory of Australian Languages". In Evans, Nicholas; Johnson, Steve (eds.). Aboriginal Linguistics 1. University of New England.
  4. ^ a b c Breen, Gavan (2004). "Evolution of the verb conjugations in the Ngarna languages". In Bowern, Claire; Koch, Harold (eds.). Australian Languages: Classification and the Comparative Method. John Benjamins Publishing Company.
  5. ^ Laughren, Mary (2018). "Asymmetrical Distinctions in Waanyi Kinship Terminology: The Dynamics of Social Categories in Indigenous Australia". Skin, Kin and Clan. ANU Press.
  6. ^ Koch, Catherine (1989). A problem of subgrouping: four Australian languages of the Queensland and Northern Territory border area (Honours). La Trobe University.
  7. ^ Brammall, Daniel (1991). A comparative grammar of Warluwaric (Honours). Australian National University.
  8. ^ Carew, Margaret (1993). Proto-Warluwarric phonology (Honours). University of Melbourne.
  9. ^ McConvell, Patrick; Laughren, Mary (2004). "The Ngumpin-Yapa subgroup". In Bowern, Claire; Koch, Harold (eds.). Australian Languages: Classification and the Comparative Method. John Benjamins Publishing Company.
  10. S2CID 4375648
    .
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