Garadjari language

Garadjari (Karajarri, many other spellings; see below) is an Australian Aboriginal language spoken by the Karajarri people. The language is a member of the Marrngu subgroup of the Pama-Nyungan family. It is spoken along the coast of northwestern Australia.

Garadjari
Karajarri
Region	Western Australia
Ethnicity	Karajarri
Native speakers	41 (2016 census)[1]
Language family	Pama–Nyungan Marrngu Garadjari
Dialects	Najanaja (Murrkut/Murgud) Nawurtu (Naurdu) Nangu
Writing system	Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3	gbd
Glottolog	kara1476
AIATSIS[2]	A64
ELP	Karajarri

Name

The name has many spelling variants, including:

• Garadjari (used by A Grammar of Garadjari)
• Garadjiri
• Garadyari
• Garadyaria
• Gard'are
• Karadjeri (used by Ethnologue)
• Karajarri (used by the Handbook of Western Australian Aboriginal languages and is the spelling selected by the Karajarri people for their native title claims^[3][4])
• Karatjarri (used by Australian Languages)
• Karatyarri
• Karrajarra
• Karrajarri

Kurajarra / Guradjara is sometimes confused with Garadjari, but it appears to have been a separate language.^[2]

Phoneme inventory

Garadjari's phoneme inventory is typical of Australian languages, and is identical to the inventories of the other Marrngu languages. There are 17 consonant phonemes.

	Peripheral		Apical		Laminal
	Bilabial	Velar	Alveolar	Retroflex	Palatal
Obstruents	p	k	t	ʈ	ɟ
Nasals	m	ŋ	n	ɳ	ɲ
Laterals			l	ɭ	ʎ
Rhotics			ɾ	ɻ
Approximants	w				j

Also typical of Australian languages, there are only three vowel phonemes.

	Front	Back
High	i	u
Low	a

References

• Dixon, R. M. W. (2002). Australian Languages: Their Nature and Development. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521473780.
• Johnson, Edward (1992). Karajarri sketch grammar. University of Sydney.
• Sands, Anna Kristina (1989). A Grammar of Garadjari, Western Australia.^{[permanent dead link]}
• Thieberger, Nicholas (1993). Handbook of Western Australian Aboriginal languages South of the Kimberley Region. Pacific Linguistics.