Western Desert Language - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Western Desert Language is the name used to refer to an otherwise un-named Australian Aboriginal language

Australian Aboriginal languages

The Australian Aboriginal languages comprise several language families and isolates native to the Australian Aborigines of Australia and a few nearby islands, but by convention excluding the languages of Tasmania and the Torres Strait Islanders...

. It is one of the Wati languages of the large Southwest branch of the Pama–Nyungan family.

Location and list of communities

The speakers of the various dialects of the Western Desert Language traditionally lived across much of the desert areas of Western Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory. Most Western Desert

Western Desert cultural bloc

The Western Desert cultural bloc or just Western Desert is a cultural region in Australia covering about 600,000 square kilometres, including the Gibson Desert, the Great Victoria Desert, the Great Sandy and Little Sandy Deserts in the Northern Territory, South Australia and Western Australia...

people live in communities on or close to their traditional lands, although some now live in one of the towns fringing the desert area such as Kalgoorlie

Kalgoorlie, Western Australia

Kalgoorlie, known as Kalgoorlie-Boulder, is a town in the Goldfields-Esperance region of Western Australia, and is located east-northeast of state capital Perth at the end of the Great Eastern Highway...

, Laverton, Alice Springs

Alice Springs, Northern Territory

Alice Springs is the second largest town in the Northern Territory of Australia. Popularly known as "the Alice" or simply "Alice", Alice Springs is situated in the geographic centre of Australia near the southern border of the Northern Territory...

, Port Augusta

Port Augusta, South Australia

-Electricity generation:Electricity is generated at the Playford B and Northern power stations from brown coal mined at Leigh Creek, 250 km to the north...

, Meekatharra

Meekatharra, Western Australia

Meekatharra is a town in the Mid West region of Western Australia. Meekatharra is an Australian Aboriginal word meaning 'place of little water'. At the 2006 census, Meekatharra had a population of 798, with 44.0% being Aboriginal....

, Halls Creek

Halls Creek, Western Australia

Halls Creek is a small town situated in the East Kimberley region of Western Australia. It is located between the towns of Fitzroy Crossing and Turkey Creek on the Great Northern Highway...

and Fitzroy Crossing

Fitzroy Crossing, Western Australia

Fitzroy Crossing is a small town in the Kimberley region of Western Australia, 400 km east of Broome and 300 km west of Halls Creek. It is approximately 2,524 km from the state capital of Perth....

.

The following is a partial list of Western Desert communities:

Kintore
Kintore, Northern Territory
Kintore is a remote settlement in the Northern Territory of Australia, located approximately 530 km west of Alice Springs and close to the border with Western Australia. At the 2001 census, Kintore had a population of 691, of which 95% identified themselves as Aboriginal...

, Northern Territory
Northern Territory
The Northern Territory is a federal territory of Australia, occupying much of the centre of the mainland continent, as well as the central northern regions...
Docker River, Northern Territory
Ernabella, South Australia
South Australia
South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...
Amata, South Australia
Fregon, South Australia
Pipalyatjara
Pipalyatjara, South Australia
Pipalyatjara is an Aboriginal community in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands in South Australia, comprising one of the six main communities on "The Lands"...

, South Australia
Kalka
Kalka, South Australia
Kalka is an Aboriginal community in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands in South Australia administered under the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Land Rights Act. At the 2006 census, Kalka had a population of 114.-Geography:...

, South Australia
Warburton
Warburton, Western Australia
Warburton or Warburton Ranges is an Indigenous Australian community in Western Australia, just to the south of the Gibson Desert and located on the Great Central Road and Gunbarrel Highway...

, Western Australia
Western Australia
Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...
Kiwirrkura, Western Australia
Balgo
Balgo, Western Australia
Balgo is a small Aboriginal Community in Western Australia which is linked with both the Great Sandy Desert and the Tanami Desert. The Community is in the Shire of Halls Creek, off the Tanami Road . It has a petrol station, supermarket, Catholic Parish, School Adult Education Centre, Clinic and...

, Western Australia
Aputula, Northern Territory (also known as Finke)
Imanpa, NT (also known as Mount Ebenezer)
Mutitjulu, NT
Jigalong, WA

Dialect continuum

The Western Desert Language consists of a network of closely related dialects; the names of some of these have become quite well known (such as Pitjantjatjara) and are often referred to as 'languages'. As the whole group of dialects which constitutes the language does not have its own name it is usually referred to as the Western Desert Language. WDL speakers referring to the overall language use various terms including wangka 'language' or wangka yuti 'clear speech'. For native speakers this language is mutually intelligible across its entire range.

Dialects

Some of the named varieties of the Western Desert Language, with their approximate locations, are:

Antakarinya -- north-east of SA
Kartutjarra -- near Jigalong, WA
Kukatja -- south of Balgo, WA
Kokatha -- central SA
Luritja
Luritja
Luritja is a name used to refer to several dialects of the Indigenous Australian Western Desert Language, and thereby also to the people who speak these varieties, and their traditional lands.-Origin and meaning of Luritja:...

-- Central Australia
Manyjilyjarra -- near Jigalong
Martu Wangka -- Jigalong communalect
Ngaanyatjarra
Ngaanyatjarra language
Ngaanyatjarra is an Australian Aboriginal language. It is one of the Wati languages of the large Southwest branch of the Pama–Nyungan family...

-- near Warburton, WA
Ngaatjatjarra -- near Warburton, WA
Pintupi
Pintupi
Pintupi refers to an Australian Aboriginal group who are part of the Western Desert cultural group and whose homeland is in the area west of Lake MacDonald and Lake Mackay in Western Australia. These people moved into the Aboriginal communities of Papunya and Haasts Bluff in the west of the...

-- Kintore (Northern Territory) and further west.
Pintupi Luritja -- Papunya and Kintore region, NT
Pitjantjatjara -- North-west of SA
Putitjarra -- south of Jigalong, WA
Titjikala Luritja -- around Maryvale and Finke, NT
Wangkatjunga -- south of Christmas Creek, WA
Warnman -- near Jigalong
Watha -- east of Meekatharra, WA
Wawula -- south-east of Meekatharra
Wong-gie -- Kalgoorlie to Cosmo Newberry and Wiluna region, W.A
Yankunytjatjara -- north-west of SA
Yulparirra -- north of Jigalong

Status of the language

The Western Desert Language has thousands of speakers, making it one of the strongest indigenous Australian languages. The language is still being transmitted to children and has substantial amounts of literature, particularly in the Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara dialects in South Australia where there was formerly a long-running bilingual program.

Phonology

In the following tables of the WDL sound system, symbols in boldface give a typical practical orthography used by many WDL communities. Further details of orthographies in use in different areas is given below. Phonetic values in IPA

International Phonetic Alphabet

The International Phonetic Alphabet "The acronym 'IPA' strictly refers [...] to the 'International Phonetic Association'. But it is now such a common practice to use the acronym also to refer to the alphabet itself that resistance seems pedantic...

are shown in [square brackets].

Vowels

	Front Front vowel A front vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a front vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far in front as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Front vowels are sometimes also...	Central Central vowel A central vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a central vowel is that the tongue is positioned halfway between a front vowel and a back vowel...	Back Back vowel A back vowel is a type of vowel sound used in spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a back vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far back as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Back vowels are sometimes also called dark...
Close Close vowel A close vowel is a type of vowel sound used in many spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a close vowel is that the tongue is positioned as close as possible to the roof of the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.This term is prescribed by the...	i [i], ii [iː]		u [u], uu [uː]
Open Open vowel An open vowel is defined as a vowel sound in which the tongue is positioned as far as possible from the roof of the mouth. Open vowels are sometimes also called low vowels in reference to the low position of the tongue...		a [a], aa [aː]

The Western Desert Language has the common (for Australia) three-vowel system with a length distinction creating a total of six possible vowels.

Consonants

	Bilabial Bilabial consonant In phonetics, a bilabial consonant is a consonant articulated with both lips. The bilabial consonants identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet are:...	Alveolar Alveolar consonant Alveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli of the superior teeth...	Retroflex Retroflex consonant A retroflex consonant is a coronal consonant where the tongue has a flat, concave, or even curled shape, and is articulated between the alveolar ridge and the hard palate. They are sometimes referred to as cerebral consonants, especially in Indology...	Palatal Palatal consonant Palatal consonants are consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the hard palate...	Velar Velar consonant Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum)....
Plosive	p [p]	t [t]	rt [ʈ]	tj [c]	k [k]
Nasal Nasal consonant A nasal consonant is a type of consonant produced with a lowered velum in the mouth, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. Examples of nasal consonants in English are and , in words such as nose and mouth.- Definition :...	m [m]	n [n]	rn [ɳ]	ny [ɲ]	ng [ŋ]
Trill Trill consonant In phonetics, a trill is a consonantal sound produced by vibrations between the articulator and the place of articulation. Standard Spanish <rr> as in perro is an alveolar trill, while in Parisian French it is almost always uvular....		rr [r]
Lateral Lateral consonant A lateral is an el-like consonant, in which airstream proceeds along the sides of the tongue, but is blocked by the tongue from going through the middle of the mouth....		l [l]	rl [ɭ]	ly [ʎ]
Approximant Approximant consonant Approximants are speech sounds that involve the articulators approaching each other but not narrowly enough or with enough articulatory precision to create turbulent airflow. Therefore, approximants fall between fricatives, which do produce a turbulent airstream, and vowels, which produce no...	w [w]		r [ɻ]	y [j]

As shown in the chart, the WDL distinguishes five positions of articulation, and has oral and nasal stops at each position. The oral stops have no phonemic voice

Phonation

Phonation has slightly different meanings depending on the subfield of phonetics. Among some phoneticians, phonation is the process by which the vocal folds produce certain sounds through quasi-periodic vibration. This is the definition used among those who study laryngeal anatomy and physiology...

distinction, but display voiced and unvoiced allophones; stops are usually unvoiced at the beginning of a word, and voiced elsewhere. In both positions they are usually unaspirated. There are no fricative consonant

Fricative consonant

Fricatives are consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate, in the case of German , the final consonant of Bach; or...

Orthography

While the dialects of the WDL have very similar phonologies there are several different orthographies in use. This results from the preferences of the different early researchers as well as the fact that the WDL region extends into three states (Western Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory), with each having its own history of language research and educational policy.

Sign

The Kardutjara and Yurira Watjalku had a developed sign

Australian Aboriginal sign languages

Many Australian Aboriginal cultures have or traditionally had a manually coded language, a sign-language counterpart of their spoken language. This appears to be connected with various speech taboos between certain kin or at particular times, such as during a mourning period for women or during...

form of their language.

External links

Ngapartji Online course of Pitjantjatjara language, and related performance event 2006.

Ethnologue does not have an entry for the Western Desert Language, but has a number of entries each of which deals with one of the dialects.

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.