Worrorran languages

The Worrorran (Wororan) languages are a small family of Australian Aboriginal languages spoken in northern Western Australia.

The Worrorran languages fall into three dialect clusters:

Worrorran
- the Northern Worrorran group, known as Wunambal and related dialects
- the Eastern Worrorran group, known as Ngarinyin, a.k.a. Ungarinyin, and related dialects
- the Western Worrorran group, known as Worrorra, and related dialects

In addition, Gulunggulu is unattested but presumably a Worrorran lect.^[3]

Validity

There has been debate over whether the Worrorran languages are demonstrably related to one another, or constitute a geographical language group.

Dixon (2002) considers them to be language isolates with no demonstrable relationship other than that of a Sprachbund.

However, more recent literature differs from Dixon:

Rumsey and McGregor (2009) demonstrate the cohesiveness of the family and its reconstructibility, and;
Bowern (2011) accepts the Worroorran languages as a family.^[4]

Capell (1940) lists the following basic vocabulary items for the Worrorran languages:^[5]

^ McGregor, William (2004), The languages of the Kimberley, Western Australia, RoutledgeCurzon, ISBN 978-0-415-30808-3
^ 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.
^ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Worrorran languages". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
^ Bowern, Claire. 2011. "How Many Languages Were Spoken in Australia?", Anggarrgoon: Australian languages on the web, December 23, 2011 (corrected February 6, 2012)
^ Capell, Arthur. 1940. The Classification of Languages in North and North-West Australia. Oceania 10(3): 241-272, 404-433. doi:10.1002/j.1834-4461.1940.tb00292.x

Dixon, R. M. W. (2002). Australian Languages: Their Nature and Development. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
McGregor and Rumsey (2009). Worrorran Revisited: The Case for Genetic Relations Among Languages of the Northern Kimberley Region of Western Australia. Pacific Linguistics.