Wambaya people
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 88 (2006 Census)[1] | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
 Australia ( Northern Territory) |
The Wambaya people, also spelt Umbaia, Wombaia and other variants, are an
Country
The Wambaya are an
Social organisation
R. H. Mathews was the first to describe the class system governing marriage rules of the Wambaya, and used his model as a Wambaya pattern for an Australian intermarriage structure based on eight sectional divisions.[5][6][7]
In terms of identity, the way a language describes the landscape in which its speakers live defines their identity. In the case of the Wambaya people this means, as Harold Koch and Rachel Nordlinger state it, following an observation by Nicholas Evans that:
in creation myths it is very common for the ancestors to be described as passing across the lands instilling different languages into different areas as they go. People are then connected to a particular tract of land and, through that connection, to the language associated with that place. Thus the Wambaya people are Wambaya because they are linked to places which are associated with the Wambaya language, and therefore speak Wambaya.[8]
The explorer David Lindsay remarked on the fine build of the Wambaya and other tableland peoples he encountered, with many as tall as 6 feet or over.[9]
Language
The
Noting its unusual word ordering properties, Emily M. Bender described it as a "radically non-configurational language with a second position auxiliary/clitic cluster". She used it to illustrate the LinGO Grammar Matrix.[10]
History of contact
The first colonial intruders into Wambaya lands were struck by the rich pasturing prospects they detected in the vast plains of
The managers of the Brunette Downs Station endeavoured to bulldoze the last remaining trace of the Wambaya, an encampment they retained on the lagoon, and shift them 60 miles north to Corella Creek.[12][when?]
Alternative names
References
- ^ Wambaya people at Ethnologue (21st ed., 2018)
- ^ a b Tindale 1974, p. 237.
- ^ Nordlinger 1998, p. xv.
- ^ Pensalfini 2004, p. 142.
- ^ Mathews 1898a, pp. 66–87.
- ^ Mathews 1898b, pp. 151–154.
- ^ Mathews 1900, pp. 494–501.
- ^ Koch & Nordlinger 2014, p. 3.
- ^ a b Lindsay 1890, p. 10.
- ^ Bender 2008, pp. 977–985, 978.
- ^ Lindsay 1890, pp. 9–10.
- ^ a b c d Gardiner 2013.
Sources
- Basedow, Herbert (1907). "Anthropological notes on the Western Coastal tribes of the Northern Territory of South Australia". Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia. 31. Adelaide: 1–62.
- Bender, Emily M. (2008). "Evaluating a Cross linguistic Grammar Resource: A Case Study of Wambaya" (PDF). Proceedings of ACL-08: HLT. Adelaide: 977–985.
- Gardiner, Kerry (17 July 2013). "Farewell to a tableland drifter. Joe Davey, 1965-2013". Crikey.
- Koch, Harold; Nordlinger, Rachel (2014). "The languages of Australia in linguistic research: context and issues". In Koch, Harold; Nordlinger, Rachel (eds.). The Languages and Linguistics of Australia: A Comprehensive Guide. ISBN 978-3-110-27977-1.
- Lindsay, David (1890). "Explorations in the Northern Territory of South Australia". Proceedings of the Royal Geographic Society of Australia, S.A. Branch. 2 (3): 1–16.
- S2CID 259614451.
- JSTOR 983703.
- JSTOR 658964.
- Nordlinger, Rachel (1998). A Grammar of Wambaya, Northern Territory (Australia) (PDF). Pacific Linguistics.
- Pensalfini, Rob (2004). "Eulogizing a language: the Ngarnka experience" (pdf). International Journal of the Sociology of Language (164): 141–156.
- JSTOR 40373034.
- JSTOR 40327330.
- Spencer, Baldwin (1914). Native tribes of the Northern Territory of Australia (PDF). London: Macmillan Publishers.
- Spencer, Sir Baldwin; Gillen, Francis J. (1904). Northern Tribes of Central Australia (PDF). Macmillan Publishers.
- ISBN 978-0-708-10741-6.
- Yallop, C. L. (1969). "The Aljawara and Their Territory". JSTOR 40329775.