Warrwa language

Warrwa
Warrwa
Native to	Australia
Region	West Kimberley, Derby region of Western Australia
Extinct	2016, with the death of Maudie Lennard
Language family	Nyulnyulan Eastern Nyigina? Warrwa; ; ;
Language codes
ISO 639-3	wwr
Glottolog	warr1258
AIATSIS	K10
ELP	Warrwa
	Map of the traditional lands of Australian Aboriginal tribes around Derby, Western Australia. Warrwa is in green.

The Warrwa language is an extinct Australian Aboriginal language which was formerly spoken in the Derby Region of Western Australia near Broome, Western Australia. It may have been a dialect of Nyigina. It was also known as Warrawai or Warwa.

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

/k/ may also be heard as voiced [ɡ].

Vowels

	Front	Back
High	i	u
Low	a

Vowel length is also contrastive.
/i, u/ can have allophones of [e, o].

Grammar

Warrwa employed a variety of word orders grammatically. Attributive adjectives and possessive adjectives preceded the nouns they modified.

Notes

↑ map is indicative only.

References

↑ Warrwa at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
1 2 K10 Warrwa at the Australian Indigenous Languages Database, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
↑ llmao.org
↑ Wals.info
↑ Ethnologue.com
1 2 3 McGregor, William. (1994). Warrwa. München: Lincom Europa.

This Australian Aboriginal languages-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by adding missing information.

[3] s indicative only.

[e25-1] Warrwa at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)

[AIATSIS-2] 1 2 K10 Warrwa at the Australian Indigenous Languages Database, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies

[4] .org

[5] Wals.info

[6] Ethnologue.com

[:0-7] 1 2 3 McGregor, William. (1994). Warrwa. München: Lincom Europa.