| Western Desert Language | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spoken in | Australia | |||
| Region | Desert areas of Western Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory | |||
| Native speakers | several thousand (date missing) | |||
| Language family |
Pama–Nyungan
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| Language codes | ||||
| ISO 639-3 | variously: ant – Antikirinya ktd – Kokata kux – Kukatja mpj – Martu Wangka ntj – Ngaanyatjarra piu – Pintupi-Luritja pjt – Pitjantjatjara kdd – Yankunytjatjara |
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Western Desert Language is the name used to refer to an otherwise un-named Australian Aboriginal language. It is one of the Wati languages of the large Southwest branch of the Pama–Nyungan family.
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The speakers of the various dialects of the Western Desert Language traditionally lived across much of the desert areas of Western Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory. Most Western Desert people live in communities on or close to their traditional lands, although some now live in one of the towns fringing the desert area such as Kalgoorlie, Laverton, Alice Springs, Port Augusta, Meekatharra, Halls Creek and Fitzroy Crossing.
The following is a partial list of Western Desert communities:
The Western Desert Language consists of a network of closely related dialects; the names of some of these have become quite well known (such as Pitjantjatjara) and are often referred to as 'languages'. As the whole group of dialects which constitutes the language does not have its own name it is usually referred to as the Western Desert Language. WDL speakers referring to the overall language use various terms including wangka 'language' or wangka yuti 'clear speech'. For native speakers this language is mutually intelligible across its entire range.
Some of the named varieties of the Western Desert Language, with their approximate locations, are:
The Western Desert Language has thousands of speakers, making it one of the strongest indigenous Australian languages. The language is still being transmitted to children and has substantial amounts of literature, particularly in the Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara dialects in South Australia where there was formerly a long-running bilingual program.
In the following tables of the WDL sound system, symbols in boldface give a typical practical orthography used by many WDL communities. Further details of orthographies in use in different areas is given below. Phonetic values in IPA are shown in [square brackets].
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i [i], ii [iː] | u [u], uu [uː] | |
| Open | a [a], aa [aː] |
The Western Desert Language has the common (for Australia) three-vowel system with a length distinction creating a total of six possible vowels.
| Bilabial | Alveolar | Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | p [p] | t [t] | rt [ʈ] | tj [c] | k [k] |
| Nasal | m [m] | n [n] | rn [ɳ] | ny [ɲ] | ng [ŋ] |
| Trill | rr [r] | ||||
| Lateral | l [l] | rl [ɭ] | ly [ʎ] | ||
| Approximant | w [w] | r [ɻ] | y [j] |
As shown in the chart, the WDL distinguishes five positions of articulation, and has oral and nasal stops at each position. The oral stops have no phonemic voice distinction, but display voiced and unvoiced allophones; stops are usually unvoiced at the beginning of a word, and voiced elsewhere. In both positions they are usually unaspirated. There are no fricative consonants.
While the dialects of the WDL have very similar phonologies there are several different orthographies in use. This results from the preferences of the different early researchers as well as the fact that the WDL region extends into three states (Western Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory), with each having its own history of language research and educational policy.
The Kardutjara and Yurira Watjalku had a developed sign form of their language.[1]
Ethnologue does not have an entry for the Western Desert Language, but has a number of entries each of which deals with one of the dialects:
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