| Yinggarda | |
|---|---|
| Yingkarta, Inggarda | |
| Native to | Australia |
| Region | Gascoyne coast area ofWestern Australia; Shark Bay coast between Gascoyne and Wooramel rivers, inland to Red Hill, West Pilbara |
| Ethnicity | Yingkarta (Tedei,Mandi), ?Maia |
Native speakers | 2 (2005)[1] |
Pama–Nyungan
| |
| Dialects |
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | yia |
| Glottolog | ying1247 |
| AIATSIS[1] | W19 Inggarda,W20 Maya |
| ELP | Yingkarta |
| Maya | |
TheYinggarda language (also writtenYingkarta andInggarda) is anAustralian Aboriginal language. It is anendangered language, but efforts atlanguage revival are being made.
"Yinggarda" has been spelt in a number of ways, some linguists (including Dench) writing it as "Yingkarta".
It is one of theKartu languages of thePama–Nyungan family. TheEthnologue equates Yinggarda with Pulinya[2] but it is unclear what the basis is for this connection asWilfrid Douglas, who recorded the name 'Pulinya,' described it as a name for the oldGeraldton language.[specify]
Unattested Maya (Maia) is reported to have been "like" Yinggarda and may have been a dialect.
| Peripheral | Laminal | Apical | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labial | Velar | Dental | Palatal | Alveolar | Retroflex | |
| Stop | p | k | t̪ | ɟ | t | ʈ |
| Nasal | m | ŋ | n̪ | ɲ | n | ɳ |
| Lateral | l̪ | ʎ | l | ɭ | ||
| Rhotic | ɾ~r | |||||
| Approximant | w | j | ɻ | |||
| Front | Back | |
|---|---|---|
| High | i iː | u uː |
| Low | a aː | |
Yinggarda country is aroundCarnarvon, on the central western coast of Western Australia, and extends inland to nearGascoyne Junction and south to around the mouth of theWooramel River.
A dictionary of Yinggarda byPeter K. Austin was published in 1992. A sketchgrammar was written by Alan Dench in 1998, who worked with some of the last speakers and carried out his research mainly in the 1970s and 1980s. The Yamaji Language Centre, now theIrra Wangga Language Centre, has been continuing to work on the Yinggarda language since 1993.[4]
As of 2020[update], Yinggarda is one of 20 languages prioritised as part of the Priority Languages Support Project, being undertaken by First Languages Australia and funded by theDepartment 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".[5]