Southwest Pama–Nyungan languages

Southwest Pama–Nyungan
Southwest Pama–Nyungan
Geographic; distribution	Southwestern Australia
Linguistic classification	Pama–Nyungan Southwest Pama–Nyungan;
Subdivisions	Kanyara; Mantharta; Nyungic;
Glottolog	sout3134

The Southwest Pama–Nyungan or Nyungic language group is the most diverse and widespread, though hypothetical, subfamily of the Pama–Nyungan language family of Australia. It contains about fifty distinct languages.

Internal classification

The Kanyara and Mantharta languages appear to be the most divergent of the Southwest languages. The others are sometimes collected under the name Nyungic.

Kanyara
Mantharta
Nyungic
- Ngayarda
- Kartu
- Nyungar
- Mangarla
- Mirning (Mirniny)
- Wati (Western Desert language)
- Marrngu
- Ngarrka–Ngumpin
- Yura

Validity

The proposal has been largely abandoned. Bowern (2011) restricts "Southwest Pama–Nyungan" to Nyungar plus Kalaaku. (See Nyungic languages.)

Footnotes

References

Dixon, R. M. W. (2002). Australian Languages: Their Nature and Development. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.