Worrorra language
Appearance
Worrorra | |
---|---|
Region | Western Australia |
Native speakers | 4 (2005) to 22 (2006 census)[1] |
Wororan
| |
Dialects |
|
Worora Kinship Sign Language | |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | unp – inclusive codeIndividual codes: wro – Worrorraxgu – Unggumixud – Umiidaxun – Unggarranggujbw – Yawijibaya |
Glottolog | west2435 |
AIATSIS[1] | K17 Worrorra, K14 Unggumi, K49 Umiida, K55* Unggarrangu, K53* Yawijibaya |
ELP | Worrorra |
Worrorra (Worora), or Western Worrorran, is a moribund Australian Aboriginal language of northern Western Australia.
Worrorra is a dialect cluster; Bowern (2011) recognizes five languages: Worrorra proper, Unggumi, Yawijibaya, Unggarranggu, and Umiida.[3]
An alleged Maialnga language was a reported clan name of Worrorra proper that could not be confirmed with speakers (Tyndale 1974).
Sign language
The Worora have (or at one point had) a signed form of their language, used for speaking to kin in certain taboo relationships,[4] but it is not clear from records that it was particularly well developed compared to other Australian Aboriginal sign languages.[5]
References
- ^ a b K17 Worrorra at the Australian Indigenous Languages Database, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (see the info box for additional links)
- ^ Clendon (1994, 2000), Love (2000), cited in Dixon 2002
- ^ Bowern, Claire. 2011. "How Many Languages Were Spoken in Australia?", Anggarrgoon: Australian languages on the web, December 23, 2011 (corrected February 6, 2012)
- ^ Love, J.R.B. (1941). Worora kinship gestures, Reprinted in Aboriginal sign languages of the Americas and Australia. New York: Plenum Press, 1978, vol. 2, pp. 403–405.
- ^ Kendon, A. (1988) Sign Languages of Aboriginal Australia: Cultural, Semiotic and Communicative Perspectives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press