General Language Information:

The Mawng (Mawung, Maung, Gun-marung) language is spoken by nearly 400 people (371, 2016 Census) and is spoken on Warruwi (Goulburn Island), off the north west coast of Arnhem Land, in the Northern Territory. The Mawng language belongs to the Iwaidjan language family.

Children on Goulburn Island still speak Mawng as a first language, making it healthier than many other traditional Indigenous languages, it is taught in schools alongside English and has the language status of ‘Vigorous‘ in Ethnologue .

The Gospel of Mark ‘God Nuyu Ngaralk Mark‘ was dedicated on South Goulburn Island on 22nd June 2016 as part of the 100th Year Anniversary of the Uniting Church in Warruwi celebrations. These celebrations included a gathering on the beach for a reenactment of the historic landing of Mission Founder Rev. James Watson, the first missionary to Goulburn Island 100 years before.

Useful Links….

For a video of the Warruwi Centenary and Mawng Mark Dedication see:

Some word examples :

no—’makiny’
good— ‘namalal’ 
ghost/spirit— ‘manya’
fire—’yungku’

General Language Information:

Meriam Mir is spoken by about 2,000 people on the Torres Strait Islands of Erub, Ugar and Mer between Papua New Guinea and the mainland of Australian. Some linguists classify Miriam Mir as a member of the Eastern Trans-Fly language family of Trans-New Guinea. However, others think it is not related to the other languages in that family. From omniglot.com.

General Language Information:

Murrinh-patha is spoken by over 2,500 people, in the region of Wadeye (formerly Port Keats) in the Northern Territory.  It is one of Australia’s fastest growing Aboriginal languages spoken not only by Murrinh-patha people but also by several other people groups whose languages are waning or considered extinct in the area.

General Language Information:

[From https://aiatsis.gov.au/austlang/language/N80]

General Language Information:

The Ndjebbana language, also spelt Djeebbana, Ndjébbena and Ndjebanna and also known as Kunibidji (Gunavidji, Gunivugi, Gombudj), is a Burarran language spoken by the Gunavidji (Ndjebbana) people of North-central Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory of Australia. (Wikepedia).

Ndjebbana speakers traditional lands were on the eastern side of the mouth of the Liverpool River in central Arnhem Land (upstream almost as far as Bat Island), the two islands in the mouth of the river, lands stretching along the coast of the Arafura Sea eastwards from the Liverpool River and some adjacent inland territories in the vicinity of Gudjerama Creek (Karddjirráma), Tomkinson River and Cadell River (Austlang).

Maningrida township is situated on Ndjebbana country.

General Language Information:

The Ngaanyatjarra language is spoken by 1,200 people in the Warburton Ranges in Western Australia.

There is no ‘f’, ‘h’, ‘s’, ‘v’, ‘x’ or ‘z’ sounds in the Ngaanyatjarra language however there are 3 ‘t’ sounds (symbolised by ‘t’, ‘tj’ and ‘rt’) there are 2 ‘r’ sounds (symbolised by ‘r’ and ‘rr’) and 4 ‘n’ sounds (symbolised ‘n’, ‘rn’, ‘ny’ and ‘ng’). Often one Ngaanyatjarra word may have several different meanings in English for example ‘wanka’ can mean ‘alive’ or ‘awake’ or even ‘uncooked’, and ‘mirri’ can mean ‘unconscious’ or ‘dead’. Conversely a single English word or term may have different meanings in Ngaanyatjarra, for example the term ‘to choke’ in English can mean ‘ lirrirntanku’ which refers to choking another person while ‘ngakalku’ refers to choking on something caught in the throat.
The Ngaanyatjarra language only has four words for numbers, these are;  kutju ‘one’; kutjarra ‘two’;  marnkurrpa ‘three’ or ‘a few’ and pirni ‘many’. Larger numbers are made by combining the smaller numbers, eg Kutjarra-kutjarra (‘four’), kutjarra-marnkurrpa (‘five’).

General Language Information:

The Ngarrindjeri language is spoken from the Murray River and Lower Lakes Region of South Australia. According to the 2016 Census there are 312 speakers.

Heinrich Meye, an Encounter Bay missionary, began early wordlists and grammar for the Ngarrindjeri language in the 1840s. Later, Rev George Taplin from the Aborigines Friends Association continued this work and established the settlement of Point McLeay in 1859. A number of local indigenous people worked with Taplin to produce Scripture portions in Ngarrindjeri.

In 1864 a small booklet of these Scripture portions was published by the South Australian Auxiliary of the British & Foreign Bible Society and was the first Scripture to be officially published in an Australian Aboriginal Language. The Bible Society published a new edition of this volume in 2009 releasing it on the 24th October at the 150th Historic Celebration of the establishment of Point McLeay Mission in Raukkan, SA. This edition has both the Ngarrindjeri translation and the English (CEV). This edition also contains a translation of ‘The Lord’s Prayer’ (as translated by Rev G Taplin in 1864).

Lords prayer

(1864 Version, translated by Rev. GW Taplin from Matthew 6:9-13)

Ngaiyeri anam, lewin inde wyirrewarre.
Ungunuk urn yarnin umauwe mitye turlin urn.
Umauwe kingdom tyiwewar our itye punt.
Ngruwar ruwungai um our kung, ungunuk inde an taiyani, luk ennin narar wyirreungai.
Pemp our ind arn krepowe hikkai nungge.
Tainpul our inde ungunuk arn wirrangwarrin luk ennin arn tainpulun ungunuk ar kornar wirrangwarrin arnangk.
Nowaiy inde arnan waiyani yangi ar wirrangar rampaullun arnan wirrangwarrin.
Moerpun inde arnan wunyarn nowaiy wirrangwarrin.
Nginte ellin governorowe, piltengi, kIartin, kaldowamp.
Amen.

General Language Information:

Nyangumarta is spoken in northern Western Australia to the south and east of Lake Waukarlykarly, including Eighty Mile Beach, and part of the Great Sandy Desert inland to near Telfer. The number of first language speakers range from 300 to about 520. But there are many more partial or second language speakers. It is touted to be the most widely spoken Aboriginal language in the town of Port Hedland. (From Wikipedia )

An excellent overview of the language can be found on the Wangkamaya site

General Language Information:

There are 4,000 Noongar people (including 14 clans and 5 dialects) living in an area covering the whole southwest corner of Western Australia, from Esperance in the south to Geraldton in the north.

Having been dominated since European invasion by racist government policies, in which children were taken away to missions and forbidden from speaking or learning their language, the Noongar people have struggled to preserve their culture.

FATSIC (Federation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Is-lander Languages) has identified the Noongar language ‘at risk’ of becoming extinct. As a result various projects (including translation of traditional stories and teaching resources) have been developed in recent times to encourage a resurgence of the language.

Noongar Christians have initiated a translation of the Gospel of Luke to aid in their language’s resurgence and this was completed & published in 2014 (pictured below). This is a dramatic milestone in the history of printed Noongar texts, both sacred and secular. The Noongar Gospel is set in parallel with the English, a glossary of Noongar words runs beneath the text and there are ten pages devoted to the grammar and syntax of the Noongar language, thus aiding in the language’s preservation.

General Language Information:

This language is spoken as a first language by 1,600 people and approximately 600 people as a second language in the Papunya, Kintore region of the Northern Territory (240km north west of Alice Springs) stretching over to Kiwirrkura in Western Australia.The term Luritja is believed to come from the Arrernte word lurinya meaning ‘foreigner’, which may have developed when the Luritja left their traditional lands in Western Australia and moved east into Arrernte land.