| Warumungu | |
|---|---|
| Region | Northern Territory, Special Autonomous Region (SAR) Australia |
| Ethnicity | Warumungu people,Kunapa |
Native speakers | 424 (2021 census)[1] |
Warumungu
| |
| Warumungu Sign Language | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | wrm |
| Glottolog | waru1265 |
| AIATSIS[2] | C18 |
| ELP | Warumungu |
 Warumungu (green) | |
TheWarumungu (orWarramunga) language is spoken by theWarumungu people in Australia'sNorthern Territory. In addition to spoken language, the Warumungu have a highly developedsign language.
In the 1870s, early whiteexplorers described the Warumungu as a flourishingnation.[3] However, by 1915, invasion andreprisal had brought them to the brink ofstarvation.[3][4] In 1934, a reserve that had been set aside for the Warumungu in 1892 was revoked in order to clear the way forgold prospecting. By the 1960s, the Warumungu had been entirely removed from their native land.[3]
Warumungu is a living language,[5] but its number of speakers seemed to be decreasing quickly. In the mid-1950s, Australian linguist Robert Hoogenraad estimated that there were only about 700 people who could speak some Warumungu;[6] by 1983, the population was estimated to be as small as 200 speakers.[7]
However, the language has evidently undergone something of a renaissance. Today, the language is in a robust position compared to many indigenous Australian languages, as it is being acquired by children and used in daily interaction by all generations, and the situation is sustainable though some ethnic group members may prefer Kriol. Today the Warumungu estimate their national speaker population to be at least 700 people and increasing.
| Peripheral | Laminal | Apical | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labial | Velar | Palatal | Dental | Alveolar | Retroflex | ||
| Stop | plain | b~p | ɡ~k | ɟ~d̪ ~ c~t̪ | d~t | ɖ~ʈ | |
| tense | pː ~ p | kː ~ k | cː~c ~ t̪ː~t̪ | tː ~ t | ʈː ~ ʈ | ||
| Nasal | plain | m | ŋ | ɲ ~ n̪ | n | ɳ | |
| tense | mː | ŋː | ɲː ~ n̪ː | nː | ɳː | ||
| Lateral | plain | ʎ ~ l̪ | l | ɭ | |||
| tense | ʎː ~ l̪ː | lː | ɭː | ||||
| Rhotic | ɾ ~ r | ||||||
| Approximant | w | j | ɻ | ||||
| Front | Back | |
|---|---|---|
| High | i iː | u uː |
| Low | a aː | |
Warumungu is a suffixing language, in whichverbs are formed by adding a tensesuffix (although some verbs are formed bycompounding apreverb).[4] As are many of the survivingIndigenous Australian languages, the Warumungu language is undergoing rapid change. Themorphology used by younger speakers differs significantly than the one used by older speakers.[4] An example of a Warumungu sentence might beapurtu im deya o warraku taun kana, meaning 'father's mother, is she there, in town, or not?'.[9]
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