Kayardild
Kaiadilt
Region	South Wellesley Islands, north westQueensland,Australia
Ethnicity	Kaiadilt,Yanggal
Native speakers	43 (2021 census)[1]
Language family	Macro-Pama–Nyungan? Tangkic Kayardild
Dialects	Kayardild Yangkaal†[2]
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Either: gyd – Kayardild nny – Yangkaal/Nyangga (two different languages)
Glottolog	kaya1318
AIATSIS[1]	G35 Kayardild,G37 Yangkaal
ELP	Kayardild
	Yangkaal
Kayardild Traditional area
Kayardild is classified as Critically Endangered by the UNESCOAtlas of the World's Languages in Danger.

Kayardild is a moribundTangkic language spoken by 43 of theKaiadilt on theSouth Wellesley Islands, north westQueensland,Australia. Other members of the family includeYangkaal (spoken by theYangkaal people),Lardil, andYukulta (Ganggalidda).

Kayardild is a criticallyendangered language, considered near-extinct.^[3] In 1981, there were around fifty native speakers of Kayardild. The number of speakers of Kayardild significantly reduced since the 1940s as a result of thestolen generations.^[4] By 1981, there were fifty known native speakers.^[4] In the 2016 census, there were eight,^[5] and this number increased to 43 in 2021.^[1]

Kayardild is known for its many unusual case phenomena, includingcase stacking of up to four levels, the use of clause-level case to signal interclausal relations and pragmatic factors, and another set of 'verbal case' endings which convert their hosts from nouns into verbs morphologically. It is also well-known for only allowing subordination one level deep. Kayardild is the only known spoken language where tense markers appear on both nouns and verbs.^[7]

Speakers tend to have a preference forsubject–object–verb word order.^[8]

• Evans, Nick (1995a). "Current Issues in Australian languages". In Goldsmith, John A. (ed.).The Handbook of Phonological Theory. Blackwell Handbooks in Linguistics (1st ed.). Blackwell. pp. 723–761.
• Evans, Nicholas (1995b).A Grammar of Kayardild: With Historical-comparative Notes on Tangkic. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.ISBN 978-3-11-012795-9.

• Evans, Nicholas (1988). "Odd topic marking in Kayardild". In Austin, Peter (ed.).Complex sentence constructions in Australian Languages. Typological Studies in Language. Vol. 15. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. pp. 219–266.doi:10.1075/tsl.15.11eva.ISBN 978-90-272-2887-1.
• Evans, Nicholas (1992).Kayardild Dictionary and Thesaurus. University of Melbourne: Department of Linguistics and Language Studies.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)
• Evans, Nicholas (1995c). "The Kayardild language". In Robinson, Julia (ed.).Voices of Queensland. Melbourne: Oxford University Press.
• Evans, Nicholas (1995d)."Multiple case in Kayardild: anti-iconicity and the diachronic filter". In Plank, F. (ed.).Double case. Agreement by Suffixaufnahme. Oxford University Press. pp. 396–428.ISBN 9780195087758.
• Evans, Nicholas (2001). "Typologies of agreement: some problems from Kayardild".Transactions of the Philological Society.101 (2):203–234.doi:10.1111/1467-968X.00118.hdl:1885/33294.
• Evans, Nicholas (2006). "Kayardild". In Brown, Keith (ed.).Encyclopaedia of Language and Linguistics. Vol. 6. Oxford: Elsevier. pp. 168–169.
• Round, Erich (2009).Kayardild Morphology, Phonology, and Morphosyntax (PhD thesis). Yale University.
• Round, Erich (2013).Kayardild Morphology and Syntax. Oxford: Oxford University Press.ISBN 978-0-19-965487-1.
• Round, Erich; Corbett, Greville G. (2016)."The theory of feature systems: one feature versus two for Kayardild tense-aspect-mood".Morphology.27 (1):1–55.doi:10.1007/s11525-016-9294-3.

• Critically endangered languages
• Endangered languages of Oceania
• North West Queensland
• Tangkic languages

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