 | This article has multiple issues. Please helpimprove it or discuss these issues on thetalk page.(Learn how and when to remove these messages) (Learn how and when to remove this message)
|
| Wirangu | |
|---|---|
| Native to | Australia |
| Region | West coast ofSouth Australia |
| Ethnicity | Wirangu people |
Native speakers | 2 semi-speakers (2007)[1] |
| Revival | 2004 |
Pama–Nyungan
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | wgu |
| Glottolog | wira1265 |
| AIATSIS[2] | C1 |
| ELP | Wirangu |
 Tribal boundaries, afterTindale (1974), adapted from Hercus (1999) | |
| This article containsIPA phonetic symbols. Without properrendering support, you may seequestion marks, boxes, or other symbols instead ofUnicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, seeHelp:IPA. | |
TheWirangu language, also writtenWirrongu,Wirrung,Wirrunga, andWirangga, and also known by otherexonyms, is amoribundAustralian Aboriginal language traditionally spoken by theWirangu people, living on the west coast ofSouth Australia across a region encompassing modernCeduna andStreaky Bay, stretching west approximately to the head of theGreat Australian Bight and east toLake Gairdner. It is a language of theThura-Yura group, and some older sources placed it in a subgroup calledNangga.
The Wirangu language is most closely related to theThura–Yura group of Australian Aboriginal languages, which are spoken from the West Coast to theAdelaide area and north to theFlinders Ranges andLake Eyre. The best-known relatives of Wirangu areBarngarla,Nauo,Nukunu,Adnyamathanha,Narangga andKaurna.
Because of the intensive culture contacts in the southern half of South Australia, which brought dislocation and culture change, traditional lifestyles and traditional ways of speaking declined during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In the case of Wirangu, the establishment of theKoonibba Mission in 1898 brought intense contact with other languages, in particularKokatha. Like mostAboriginal Australian languages, the two languages share a common ancestor in thePama–Nyungan group, but while Wirangu is a Thura-Yura language, Kokatha is defined as aWati language. Neighbouring languages often borrow words from one another, and the new intense contacts at Koonibba led to a significant influx of Kokatha words which have become part of present-day Wirangu.[3]
Although there are very few fully fluent Wirangu speakers left, many Aboriginal people in the Ceduna area remember parts of the language.[citation needed]
A Wirangu language revitalisation program has been underway at Ceduna and surrounding areas since 2004. This has involved the recording of Wirangu language from the last two recognised full speakers of the language, Gladys and Doreen Miller. With the assistance of linguists from the University of Adelaide a number of printed and digital books have been produced for use in schools and in the wider community.[citation needed]
In 2005 the Far West Languages Centre was established in Ceduna. The centre supports and promotes the use of the Wirangu language as well as other extremely endangered local languages, such as Gugada/Kokatha andMirning.[4]
Wirangu has three phonemic vowels (a, i, u). Vowel length is not usually considered phonemic in Wirangu, as vowel length is normally short, although it is predictably long in all monosyllabic words (Wiranguma[ma:],wa[wa:],mil[mi:l], etc.), borrowings from other languages (maatha[ma:t̪a] < English "master"), and cases of initial consonant loss across phonological boundaries (marna +(k)artu =marnaartu[maɳa:ʈu]).
| Front | Back | |
|---|---|---|
| High | i | u |
| Low | a | |
The consonantal phonemic inventory of Wirangu is very similar to that of many otherPama Nyungan languages, with six series of stops and nasals. Voicing is not phonemic in the Wirangu stop series, and many stops are either unvoiced or semivoiced.[5] Wirangu also has tworhotics, an alveolar flap/trill and a more retroflex rhotic.
| Peripheral | Laminal | Apical | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labial | Velar | Dental | Palatal | Alveolar | Retroflex | ||
| Stop | p | k | t̪ | c | t | ʈ | |
| Nasal | m | ŋ | n̪ | ɲ | n | ɳ | |
| Lateral | l̪ | ʎ | l | ɭ | |||
| Flap orTrill | r | ||||||
| Approximant | w | j | ɻ | ||||
