Wemba Wemba language

The Wemba Wemba language is an extinct Aboriginal Australian language once spoken along the Murray River and its tributaries in North Western Victoria and South Central New South Wales.

Wemba-Wemba
Eastern Central Murray
RegionVictoria
EthnicityWemba-Wemba, Nari-Nari, Barababaraba, Wergaia, Wotjobaluk, Marditjali, ?Jardwadjali
Extinct(date missing)[1]
Dialects
Language codes
ISO 639-3xww – inclusive code
Individual codes:
rnr – Nari-Nari
rbp – Barababaraba
weg – Wergaia
xwt – Wotjobaluk
Glottologwest2443  incl. Madhi–Ladji–Wadi
AIATSIS[2]D1
ELPWemba-Wemba
 Nari Nari[3]

Nari Nari, a dialect of Wemba Wemba, is as of 2020 part of a language revival project. Other dialects are Barababaraba and Wergaia.

Jardwadjali (with dialects Jagwadjali, Nundadjali, Mardidjali) may be Wemba-Wemba,[4] or may be closer to the Madhi–Ladji–Wadi varieties.

Sounds

Consonants
Labial Velar Dental Palatal Alveolar Retroflex
Stop p k t̪ c t ʈ
Nasal m ŋ ɲ n ɳ
Lateral l ɭ
Rhotic r ɽ
Approximant w j

Vowels
Front Central Back
Close ɪ, i ʊ, u
Mid ɛ, e ə ɔ, o
Open a

Voiced consonant sounds only occur within prenasalized stops. Prenasal consonants include: /mb/ /nd/ /ndy/ /ng/ and /rnd/. In phonetic form they are pronounced as [mb] [nd] [ɲɟ] [ŋɡ] and [ɳɖ].[5]

Influence on English

At least four botanical terms in Australian English are thought to have been introduced into local speech from Wemba-Wemba:

Language revival

As of 2020, the Nari Nari dialect[8] is one of 20 languages prioritised as part of the Priority Languages Support Project being undertaken by First Languages Australia and funded by the Department of Communications and the Arts. The project aims to "identify and document critically-endangered languages — those languages for which little or no documentation exists, where no recordings have previously been made, but where there are living speakers".[9]

References
  1. "D1: Wemba Wemba". Austlang. AIATSIS. Retrieved 14 January 2020.
  2. D1 Wemba-Wemba at the Australian Indigenous Languages Database, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
  3. Endangered Languages Project data for Nari Nari.
  4. R. M. W. Dixon, Australian Languages: Their Nature and Development: v. 1 (Cambridge Language Surveys). Cambridge University Press, 2002. ISBN 978-0-521-47378-1
  5. Hercus, Luise A. (1992). Wembawemba Dictionary.
  6. Clarke, Philip A. (2008). Aboriginal Plant Collectors: Botanists and Australian Aboriginal People in the Nineteenth Century. Rosenberg. p. 52. ISBN 978-1-877058-68-4. Retrieved 25 May 2021.
  7. Oxford Dictionary of English, p 2,054.
  8. "D9: Nari Nari". Austlang. AIATSIS. Retrieved 14 January 2020.
  9. "Priority Languages Support Project". First Languages Australia. Retrieved 14 January 2020.


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