Warrwa language
| Warrwa | |
|---|---|
| Native to | Australia |
| Region | West Kimberley, Derby region of Western Australia |
| Extinct | 2016, with the death of Maudie Lennard[1] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | wwr |
| Glottolog | warr1258 |
| AIATSIS[2] | K10 |
| ELP | Warrwa |
Map of the traditional lands of Australian Aboriginal tribes around Derby, Western Australia. Warrwa is in green.[a] | |
The Warrwa language is an extinct Australian Aboriginal language which was formerly spoken in the Derby Region of Western Australia near Broome, Western Australia.[3][4] It may have been a dialect of Nyigina.[2] It was also known as Warrawai or Warwa.[5]
Phonology
Consonants
| Labial | Alveolar | Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | b | d | ɖ ⟨rd⟩ | ɟ ⟨j⟩ | k |
| Nasal | m | n | ɳ ⟨rn⟩ | ɲ ⟨ny⟩ | ŋ ⟨ng⟩ |
| Lateral | l | ɭ ⟨rl⟩ | ʎ ⟨ly⟩ | ||
| Tap | ɾ ⟨rr⟩ | ||||
| Approximant | w | ɻ ⟨r⟩ | j |
Vowels
| Front | Back | |
|---|---|---|
| High | i | u |
| Low | a | |
- Vowel length is also contrastive.
- /i, u/ can have allophones of [e, o].[6]
Grammar
Warrwa employed a variety of word orders grammatically. Attributive adjectives and possessive adjectives preceded the nouns they modified.[6]
Notes
- ^ map is indicative only.
References