Warlmanpa Sign Language

The first recorded documentation of Warlmanpa Sign Language was carried out by British linguist Adam Kendon. In 1978, Kendon began his initial work on gathering Aboriginal sign language material.^{[1]: 94–95} During this time, he travelled to many areas within the North Central Territory, documenting the sign languages of the Warlpiri, Waramungu, Mudbura, Anmatyerre, Kaytej, and Djingili, including trips to Tennant Creek, an area where Warlmanpa is located.^{[1]: 94–95}

On his second visit to Tennant Creek, Kendon, along with fellow researchers, gathered a vocabulary of about 900 Warlmanpa signs.^{[1]: 94–95}

Simultaneous use of sign and speech have been observed in daily situations among Warlmanpa speakers.^[1]: 301

Banka Banka Station, which lies to the west of their original traditional area, has been a center for Warlmanpa people for several generations.^[1]: 379

Out of the 41 emic handshapes recorded in Central Northern sign languages, 29 are used in Warlmanpa Sign Language.^{[1]: 120–121}

In contrast to American Sign Language (ASL) and British Sign Language (BSL), Warlmanpa (and sign languages in the North Central Territory) makes almost no use of facial action and/or cues in sign formation. In addition, the majority of signs are performed with only one hand and the range of handshapes and body locations used are significantly different.^{[1]: 100–101}

In documentation of Warlmanpa signs, Kendon and researchers followed the approach originally developed by William Stokoe for the description of signs in ASL.^{[1]: 100–101} In this sense, signs are regarded as actions which can be viewed in terms of three aspects: what is performing the action, the action taken and where the action is done. These aspects are named Sign Actor, Sign Action, and Sign Location, respectively.^{[1]: 100–101}

The body parts manipulated in the production of the sign and how they are organized during production.^{[1]: 100–101}

The pattern of action that is employed to produce the sign.^{[1]: 100–101}

Where the utilized body parts are placed as they carry out the action performed.^{[1]: 100–101}

The Stokoe notation, a phonemic script used for writing down sign languages, was adapted by Kendon for use in recording Australian Aboriginal signs.^[1]: 104

The formula is arranged in a special order where L is Sign Location; ap, HS, and OR are the three components of the Sign Actor, arm position, hand shape, and orientation, respectively; AC is the Sign Action.^[1]: 104

Many verbs in spoken Warlmanpa are compounds of a root verb and a preverb. This compound morphology is reflected in Warlmanpa Sign Language.^[1]: 116