Warlpiri language

Spoken in

• Australian Macro - Pama Nyunga Pama - Nyungan Ngumpin - Yapa Ngarrka Warlpiri

Wbp

Warlpiri (also: Walbiri, Elpira, Ilpara, Wailbri, Walpiri, Walmama, Ngaliya, Ngardilpa or Illpirra ) is a language of a tribe of Aborigines in Central Australia.

Dissemination

Warlpiri is spoken in the Northern Territory around Yuendumu, Ali Curung Willowra, Alice Springs, Katherine, Darwin and Lajamanu. With around 3,000 speakers - according to the 1996 census 2,670 speakers - it is one of the largest Australian languages. The comparatively quite large number of speakers is attributed to the fact that it is spoken in the most remote, arid areas of Australia and lebensfremdsten, especially in the Northern Territory and the influence of the white population remained low. The UNESCO Atlas of Endangered Languages ​​they still lists as " near threatened ".

Linguistic structure

The language Warlpiri, is a so-called Ergativsprache and has been in the linguistic research of the Aborigines special significance, because there are characteristics in Warlpiri, which occur in other languages ​​of the Aborigines as well. The language allows the omission of pronouns ( possessive pronoun ), a very free word order and also so-called discontinuous expressions (separation of noun and adjective). The sentence structure is the subject, object and verb, subject to two limitations, freely adjustable. The language belongs to the language family Pama - Nyunga, one of the most common Aboriginal languages. The sound system of the Warlpiri language uses special so-called retroflex sounds that do not exist in German. Here, a tongue configuration is used with a wide recurved tip of the tongue.

Forbidden to speak / sign language

There are women in mourning, they have a ban on speaking in this culture. Then make use of a sign language. The Aboriginal tribes who speak Warlpiri, have a complete own sign language. Older women have the Gebärdenspräche so internalized that they use sign language in parallel with the spoken language.

Vocabulary

The Warlpiri language has another special feature: A relatively large part of the vocabulary called relationships. These terms are of great importance for the cultural life because certain rituals by persons with a certain degree of relationship can be executed. Furthermore, persons of different degree of relationship not only shunned, but may not be geehelicht also.

TV station

A Walpiri Media Association was founded in 1983 as a television station that dealt with the creation of films from the life of Warlpiri. 2000-2001 Video Bush Mechanics was filmed, showing four short films.