Pama-Nyungan languages

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Pama-Nyungan
Geographic distribution:	Victoria River, Northern Territory
Genetic classification:	Macro–Pama-Nyungan  Greater Pama-Nyungan   Pama-Nyungan
Subdivisions:	—
Pama-Nyungan languages (yellow). Garawa is one of the purple languages. Tankic is purple or yellow.

The Pama-Nyungan languages are the most widespread family of Indigenous Australian languages, containing 160 of 228 identified languages.

The Pama-Nyungan family was identified and named by Kenneth Hale, in his work on the classification of Native Australian languages. Hale realised that of the Aboriginal –Pama-Nyungan]].

A fairly aggressive classification of Pama-Nyungan proper includes approximately 175 languages in 14 extant and numerous extinct branches.

• Yuulngu or Yolŋu Matha:
  • Dhuwal, Ritharngu
  • Yan-nhangu, Dhangu
  • Djinang, Djinba [accepted by Dixon]
• Kala Lagaw Ya (Mabuiag)
• Northeast (Pama-Maric):
  • See article for membership [some branches accepted by Dixon]
• Nyawaygic: Nyawaygi, Wulguru
• Waka-Kabic: Darambal, Bayali, Gureng Gureng, Gabi, Wuliwuli, Waga, Barunggam, Muringam
• Yarli: Malyangapa, Wadikali, Yardliyawara [a dialect cluster isolate per Dixon]
• Karnic (reduced) [3 families per Dixon:
  • Karna (e.g. Diyari)
  • Ngura
  • Palku (e.g. Pitta Pitta)]
• Ngarna [accepted by Dixon]
• Kalkatungic:
  • Kalkatungu
  • Yalarnnga [2 families per Dixon]
• Arandic:
  • Arrernte
  • Kaytetye [demonstrated 2004]
• Southwest
• Dhuduroa
• Warumungu
• Flinders Island
• Barrow Point
• Bandjalang^{[citation needed]}

Validity

R. M. W. Dixon, in his 1980 attempted reconstruction of Proto-Australian, was unable to find anything that reliably set Pama-Nyungan apart as a valid genetic group (although we should note that demonstrating linguistic relatedness per se and demonstrating that a group of languages comprise a subgroup of a higher order family do not use the same evidence). Fifteen years later, he had abandoned the idea that Australian or Pama-Nyungan are families. He now sees Australian languages as a language area only (Dixon 2002). Some of the small traditionally Pama-Nyungan families which have been demonstrated through the comparative method, or which in Dixon's opinion are likely to be demonstrable, include the following:

• North Cape York (Northern Paman, Umpila, Wik/Middle Paman) [in NE above]
• Yidinic (Dyaabugai and Yidiny)
• Maric (inclusion of extinct languages uncertain) [in NE above]
• Wiradhuric
• Yolngu
• Ngarrga and Ngumpin [in SW above] are each valid but demonstrating a relationship between them will require reconstructing their protolanguages.
• Ngarna, a clear connection between Yanyuwa and Warluwara, Wagaya, Yindjilandji, Bularnu. [this family is not listed above]
• Part of Yura [in SW above]
• Karna, Ngura, and Palku, but not the Karnic family they are supposed to belong to.

He believes that Lower Murray (5 families and isolates), Arandic (2 families, Kaytetye and Arrernte), and Kalkatungic (2 isolates) are small Sprachbunds.

However, the papers in Bowern & Koch (2004) demonstrate about ten traditional groups — including Pama-Nyungan and subgroups like Arandic — using the comparative method.

See also

• Gunwinyguan languages
• Macro–Pama-Nyungan languages
• Southwest Pama-Nyungan languages
• Proto-Pama-Nyungan language

References

This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please improve this article by introducing more precise citations where appropriate. (February 2008)

• Claire Bowern & Harold Koch, eds. (2004) Australian Languages: Classification and the Comparative Method. John Benjamins Publishing Company.
• McConvell, Patrick and Nicholas Evans. (eds.) 1997. Archaeology and Linguistics: Global Perspectives on Ancient Australia. Melbourne: Oxford University Press
• Dixon, R. M. W. 2002. Australian Languages: Their Nature and Development. Cambridge University Press
• Evans, Nicholas. (eds.) 2003. The Non-Pama-Nyungan Languages of Northern Australia. Comparative studies of the continent's most linguistically complex region. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics

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