Mantharta language

Mantharta is a partly extinct dialect cluster spoken in the southern Pilbara region of Western Australia. There were four varieties, which were distinct but largely mutually intelligible. The four were:^[3][4]

• Tharrgari (Tharrkari, Dhargari), still spoken c. 2005
• Warriyangka (Wadiwangga), still spoken c. 1973
• Thiin (Thiinma), still spoken c. 2021^[5]
• Jiwarli (Tjiwarli), extinct 1986

Mantharta
Region	Western Australia
Ethnicity	Tharrkari, Wariangga, Tenma, Jiwarli, ?Malgaru
Native speakers	2 Dhargari (2005)[1] 1 (2007)[2]
Language family	Pama–Nyungan Kanyara–Mantharta Mantharta
Dialects	Dhargari Warriyangga Dhiin Jiwarli
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Variously: dhr – Dhargari wri – Warriyangga iin – Thiin dze – Djiwarli
Glottolog	mant1266
AIATSIS[1]	W21 Tharrkari, W22 Warriyangka, W25 Thiin, W28 Jiwarli
Mantharta languages (green) among other Pama–Nyungan (tan).

The name mantharta comes from the word for "man" in all four varieties.

Phonology

The following is of the Thargari dialect:^[6][7]

Consonants

	Peripheral		Laminal		Apical
	Labial	Velar	Dental	Palatal	Alveolar	Retroflex
Plosive	p/b	k/ɡ	t̪/d̪	c/ɟ	t/d	ʈ/ɖ
Nasal	m	ŋ	n̪	ɲ	n	ɳ
Rhotic					ɾ
Lateral			l̪	ʎ	l	ɭ
Approximant	w			j		ɻ

• /d̪/ can also be lenited as a fricative [ð] in intervocalic positions.
• /ɾ/ can also be heard as a trill [r].

Vowels

	Front	Back
Close	i, iː	u, uː
Open	a, aː

Language revival

As of 2020^[update], the Warriyangga dialect is one of 20 languages prioritised as part of the Priority Languages Support Project, being undertaken by First Languages Australia and funded by the Department of Communications and the Arts. The project aims to "identify and document critically-endangered languages — those languages for which little or no documentation exists, where no recordings have previously been made, but where there are living speakers".^[8]