Walmajarri language

Walmajarri is a Pama–Nyungan language spoken in the Kimberley region of Western Australia by the Walmadjari and related peoples.
Walmajarri is declared a definitely endangered language by UNESCO based on their scale of Language Vitality and Endangerment.

Names

Names for this language break down along the three dialects:

Walmajarri, Walmatjarri, Walmatjari, Walmadjari, Walmatjiri, Walmajiri, Walmatjeri, Walmadjeri, Walmadyeri, Walmaharri, Wolmeri, Wolmera, Wulmari
Bililuna, Pililuna
Jiwarliny, Juwaliny, Tjiwaling, Tjiwarlin
Speakers

Communities with a Walmajarri population are:

Bayulu
Djugerari
Junjuwa
Looma
Kadjina [Community, Western Australia|Kadjina]
Mindibungu
Mindi Rardi
Mulan
Ngumpan
Wangkajungka
Yakanarra
Yungngora

The Walmajarri people used to live in the Great Sandy Desert. The effects of colonialism took them to the cattle stations, towns and missions in the North and scattered them over a wide area. The geographical distance accounts for the fact that there are several dialects, which have been further polarised by the lack of contact and further influenced by neighbouring languages.

Phonology

Vowels

Consonants

Consonants are allowed as the final sound of a word in most cases.

Morphology

Walmajarri is a suffixing language with many english words, especially copula having equivalent Walmajarri words.

Pronouns

Number

In Walmajarri has three types of grammatical number: singular, dual, and plural.

Walmajarri	English
parri	boy
parrijara	two boys
parriawrnti	boys

Prepositions

Descriptive Nouns

Tenses

Syntax

Warlmajarri has four syntactic cases: nominative, ergative, dative and assessory case. The cases assign different meanings to the noun phrases of a sentence. Therefore, the word order can vary quite freely. Subject, Object or Verb can appear initial, final, medial in sentence.
However, the second position of a sentence is always reserved for the Verbal Auxiliary. Sometimes referred to as a Catalyst, the Verbal Auxiliary indicates the mood of a sentence, but also cross-references its noun phrases. The person and number of the noun phrases in their syntactic cases are shown in the Verbal Auxiliary.

Sample Texts

Below is a basic vocabulary list from Blake.

Resources

Some resources of the language spoken can be found in various archives or databases, such as the Pacific and Regional Archive for Digital Sources in Endangered Cultures catalogue.