Wemba Wemba language

Extinct Australian Aboriginal language

The Wemba Wemba language is an extinct Aboriginal Australian language once spoken along the Murray River and its tributaries in North Western Victoria and South Central New South Wales.

Nari Nari, a dialect of Wemba Wemba, is as of 2020^[update] part of a language revival project. Other dialects are Barababaraba and Wergaia.

Jardwadjali (with dialects Jagwadjali, Nundadjali, Mardidjali) may be Wemba-Wemba,^[4] or may be closer to the Madhi–Ladji–Wadi varieties.

Phonology

Consonants

Vowels

Voiced consonant sounds only occur within prenasalized stops. Prenasal consonants include: /mb/ /nd/ /ndy/ /ng/ and /rnd/. In phonetic form they are pronounced as [mb] [nd] [ɲɟ] [ŋɡ] and [ɳɖ].^[5]

Vocabulary

Below is a basic vocabulary list from Blake (1981).^[6]

Influence on English

At least four botanical terms in Australian English are thought to have been introduced into local speech from Wemba-Wemba:

• dilanj = nitre bush/dillon
• lerep = lerp/honeydew or lerp manna^[7]
• gambang = bulrush/cumbungi^[7]
• mali = mallee^[7]
• The word yabby, a type of crayfish, comes from Wemba-Wemba.^[8]

Language revival

As of 2020^[update], the Nari Nari dialect^[9] is one of 20 languages prioritised as part of the Priority Languages Support Project being undertaken by First Languages Australia and funded by the Department of Communications and the Arts. The project aims to "identify and document critically-endangered languages — those languages for which little or no documentation exists, where no recordings have previously been made, but where there are living speakers".^[10]

External links

• Wemba Wemba language

References

1. "D1: Wemba Wemba". Austlang. AIATSIS. Retrieved 14 January 2020.
2. D1 Wemba-Wemba at the Australian Indigenous Languages Database, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
3. Endangered Languages Project data for Nari Nari.
4. R. M. W. Dixon, Australian Languages: Their Nature and Development: v. 1 (Cambridge Language Surveys). Cambridge University Press, 2002. ISBN 978-0-521-47378-1
5. Hercus, Luise A. (1992). Wembawemba Dictionary.
6. Blake, Barry J. (1981). Australian Aboriginal languages: a general introduction. London: Angus & Robertson Publishers. ISBN 0-207-14044-8.
7. Clarke, Philip A. (2008). Aboriginal Plant Collectors: Botanists and Australian Aboriginal People in the Nineteenth Century. Rosenberg. p. 52. ISBN 978-1-877058-68-4. Retrieved 25 May 2021.
8. Oxford Dictionary of English, p 2,054.
9. "D9: Nari Nari". Austlang. AIATSIS. Retrieved 14 January 2020.
10. "Priority Languages Support Project". First Languages Australia. Retrieved 14 January 2020.