Garadjari language
Australian Aboriginal language
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Garadjari (Karajarri, many other spellings; see below) is an Australian Aboriginal language spoken by the Karajarri people. The language is a member of the Marrngu subgroup of the Pama-Nyungan family. It is spoken along the coast of northwestern Australia.
RegionWestern Australia
EthnicityKarajarri
Native speakers
41 (2016 census)[1]Pama–Nyungan
-
Marrngu
- Garadjari
Name
The name has many spelling variants, including:
- Garadjari (used by A Grammar of Garadjari)
- Garadjiri
- Garadyari
- Garadyaria
- Gard'are
- Karadjeri (used by Ethnologue)
- Karajarri (used by the Handbook of Western Australian Aboriginal languages and is the spelling selected by the Karajarri people for their native title claims[3][4])
- Karatjarri (used by Australian Languages)
- Karatyarri
- Karrajarra
- Karrajarri
Kurajarra / Guradjara is sometimes confused with Garadjari, but it appears to have been a separate language.[2]
Phoneme inventory
Garadjari's phoneme inventory is typical of Australian languages, and is identical to the inventories of the other Marrngu languages. There are 17 consonant phonemes.
Also typical of Australian languages, there are only three vowel phonemes.
References
- Dixon, R. M. W. (2002). Australian Languages: Their Nature and Development. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521473780.
- Johnson, Edward (1992). Karajarri sketch grammar. University of Sydney.
- Sands, Anna Kristina (1989). A Grammar of Garadjari, Western Australia.[permanent dead link]
- Thieberger, Nicholas (1993). Handbook of Western Australian Aboriginal languages South of the Kimberley Region. Pacific Linguistics.
