Southwest Pama-Nyungan languages

The South-West Pama-Nyungan or Nyungic language group is the most diverse and widespread, though hypothetical, subfamily of the Pama-Nyungan language family of Australia. It contains about fifty distinct languages.

Internal classification

The Kanyara and Mantharta languages appear to be the most divergent of the Southwest languages. The others are sometimes collected under the name Nyungic.

• Kanyara
• Mantharta
• Nyungic
  • Ngayarda (Yindjibarndi, etc.)
  • Kartu (Wajarri, Badimaya, etc.)
  • Nyungar
  • Mangarla
  • Mirniny (Ngadjunmaya)
  • Wati (Western Desert Language etc.)
  • Marrngu (Garadyari, Nyangumarta)
  • ? Ngardi [classified as either Ngarrga (2002) or Ngumpin (2005)]
  • Ngarrga (Warlmanpa, Warlpiri)
  • Ngumpin (Walmajarri, Djaru, Gurindji, Mudburra, Ngarinman)
  • Nangga
  • Yura (Adnyamathanha, etc.)

Validity

Dixon (2002), who rejects the validity of Pama-Nyungan, accepts that Ngarrga (Yapa) and Ngumpin have been demonstrated, but believes that they can only be shown to be related by reconstructing their protolanguages. McConvell and Laughren published such a reconstruction in 2004. Dixon also accepts part of Yura as a valid group.

References

• McConvell and Laughren (2004) "The Ngumpin-Yapa subgroup". In Claire Bowern & Harold Koch, Australian Languages: Classification and the Comparative Method. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company.
• Dixon, R. M. W. (2002). Australian Languages: Their Nature and Development. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

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