Ngarinyin language

Ngarinyin
Ngarinyin
Eastern Worrorran
Ungarinjin
	Worrorran languages (purple), among other non-Pama-Nyungan languages (grey)
Region	Western Australia
Ethnicity	Ngarinjin, Wurla (Waladjangarri)
Native speakers	59 (2021 census)[1]
Language family	Worrorran Ngarinyin;
Dialects	Ngarinyin; Guwidj (Orla); Munumburru; Wolyamidi; Andadjin; Worla (Waladja); Ngarnawu; Waladjangari;
Writing system	Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Either:; ung – Ngarinyin; ajn – Andajin
Glottolog	ngar1284
AIATSIS[2]	K18 Ngarinyin, K19 Guwidj (Orla), K25 Munumburu, K26 Wolyamidi, K23 Andajin, K43 Worla (Waladja)
ELP	Ngarinyin; Andajin; Worla;
	Map showing Worrorran languages[3]

The Ngarinyin language, also known as Ungarinjin and Eastern Worrorran, is an endangered Australian Aboriginal language of the Kimberley region of Western Australia spoken by the Ngarinyin people.

Classification and naming

Ngarinyin is one of the Worrorran languages, along with Wunambal and (Western) Worrowan.[4]

It is itself a dialect cluster, and may be considered more than a single language; Robert M. W. Dixon lists Guwidj (Orla), Waladja (Worla), Ngarnawu,[5] Andadjin, Munumburru, Wolyamidi, and Waladjangarri (Waladjangari[6]) as dialects.[2] Claire Bowern (2011) lists Ngarinyin, Andajin, and Worla.[4][7]

According to Rumsey, Ngarinyin may be applied to either the language or the people who speak it, whereas Ungarinyin only refers to the language. McGregor reported that "Ngarinyin has been chosen as the preferred language name" by the community.[2]

Usage

Sign in the Ngarinjin language

With only 38 people recorded as speaking the language at home in the 2016 Australian census,[8] Ngarinyin is considered a critically endangered and currently moribund language, though there are efforts being made to documenting speech and grammar structures before it becomes extinct, including the specifics on the terms of the kinship system of the language.

Ngarinyin is found only within the local region of Northern Kimberley, Australia, and other local languages are found in the surrounding region instead due to the small population of Ngarinyin speakers, including the Worrorran languages of Wunambal and Worrorra. Ngarinyin is found at the centre of the region, and the other Aboriginal languages in the area face similar levels of endangerment. Ngarinyin was previously one of the most prevalent of the Aboriginal languages in Northern Kimberley, but it has since become a language known only by a small number of the elderly.[9]

Kriol is often used by younger generations instead of Ngarinyin, though some knowledge of the language is still retained by these people.[10]

Kinship terms

Ngarinyin places great emphasis on the classification of family members and is similar to the neighbouring Aboriginal languages of Worrorra and Wunambal to the point of being virtually identical, though it is still considered unusual among those that study kinship systems of Aboriginal languages.[11] One of the most noticeable features of this system is the use of identical terms given to kin usually separated by generation level. For instance, the titles wife's brother, wife's father and wife's father's father in English all share the same title of waiingi in Ngarinyin.

Phonology

Vowels

	Front	Back
High	i iː	u uː
Mid	e	o
Low	a aː

Consonants

	Bilabial	Alveolar	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar
Stop	p	t	ʈ	c	k
Nasal	m	n	ɳ	ɲ	ŋ
Lateral		l	ɭ	ʎ
Rhotic		r	ɻ
Semivowel	w			j

Notes

Australian Bureau of Statistics (2021). "Cultural diversity: Census". Retrieved 13 October 2022.
K18 Ngarinyin at the Australian Indigenous Languages Database, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (see the info box for additional links)
Adapted from Rumsey, Alan (2018). "The sociocultural dynamics of indigenous multilingualism in northwestern Australia". Language & Communication. 62: 91–101. doi:10.1016/j.langcom.2018.04.011. ISSN 0271-5309. S2CID 150007441. Retrieved 7 November 2020.
Bowern, Claire. 2011. "How Many Languages Were Spoken in Australia?", Anggarrgoon: Australian languages on the web, December 23, 2011 (corrected February 6, 2012)
K52 Ngarnawu at the Australian Indigenous Languages Database, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
K24 Waladjangari at the Australian Indigenous Languages Database, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
"Master List of Australian Languages, v1.2". Historical and Pama-Nyungan Lab. 6 February 2012. Retrieved 7 November 2020.
"Census 2016, Language spoken at home by Sex (SA2+)". stat.data.abs.gov.au. ABS. Retrieved 30 October 2017.
Capell, Arthur (1 May 2017). "The Classification of Languages in North and North-West Australia". Oceania. 10 (3): 241–272. doi:10.1002/j.1834-4461.1940.tb00292.x. JSTOR 40327769.
"Ngarinyin". Ethnologue. Retrieved 1 May 2017.
Rumsey, Alan (1 January 1981). "Kinship and Context among the Ngarinyin". Oceania. 51 (3): 181–192. doi:10.1002/j.1834-4461.1981.tb01448.x. JSTOR 40332242.

Sources

Capell, A. (1 January 1972). "The Languages of the Northern Kimberley, W. A.: Some Structural Principles". Oceania. 43 (1): 54–65. doi:10.1002/j.1834-4461.1972.tb01196.x. JSTOR 40330037.
Coate, H. H. J.; Elkin, A. P. (1974). Ngarinjin-English Dictionary. Sydney: Oceania Linguistic Monographs.
Coate, H. H. J.; Oates, Lynette (1970). A Grammar of Ngarinjin. Canberra: Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies.
Dixon, R. M. W. (2002). Australian Languages: Their Nature and Development. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
McConvell, P., Keen, I., & Henderey, R. (2013). 7. The Evolution of Yolngu and Ngarinyin Kinship Terminologies. In, Kinship Systems: Change and Reconstruction (132). University of Utah Press.
Rumsey, A. (1982). An intra-sentence grammar of Ungarinjin, north-western Australia. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.
Scheffler, H. W. (1 January 1984). "Meaning and Use in Ngarinyin Kin Classification". Oceania. 54 (4): 310–322. doi:10.1002/j.1834-4461.1984.tb02060.x. JSTOR 40330770.