A3: Ngadjumaya / Ngadju | AIATSIS Collection

AIATSIS code:

AIATSIS reference name:

Ngadjumaya / Ngadju

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Name

Thesaurus heading language	Ngadjumaya / Ngadju language A3
Thesaurus heading people	Ngadju people A3
ABN name	-
ABS name	Ngatjumaya
Horton name	Ngatjunmay
Ethnologue name	Ngadjunmaya
ISO 639-3 code	nju
Tindale name	Ngadjunmaia
Tindale (1974)	Ngadjunpakara, Ngadjunpukara, Ngadjunma (valid short form of name), Ngadju: (['nadan] = yes), Ba:donjunga (i.e., subincised men, Wudjari term), Bardok (means 'subin-cised'), Pardoak (Wiilman term), Ngadjumaja (of Njunga tribe to south), Malba (general name for their language; it is applied by southern tribes to the languages of the Kalaako and Kalamaia as well as the Ngadjunmaia; the term really means the 'circumcised ones'), Fraser Range tribe, Minninng, West Meening (term coined by P. W. Schmidt), West Mining, Buljigu (dialect spoken by northern Ngadjunmaia hordes).
O'Grady et al (1966)	Bardojunga
Glottocode	ngad1258
Other sources	Ngatju, Wangka Malpa [Douglas 1968:4] Ngajumaya, Karlaaku, Ngajunka, Ngajunkarra [Wangka Maya PALC 2008] Marlpamaya [Marmion p.c. 2013]
Synonyms	Ngatjumaya, Ngatyumaya, Ngadjunmaya, Ngatjunmay, Galagu, Kalako, Ngadjunmaia, Ba:donjunga, Badonjunga, Bardojunga, Bardok, Buljigu, Fraser Range tribe, Malba, Marlba, Marlpa, Minninng, Ngadjumaja, Ngadjunma, Ngadjunpakara, Ngadjunpukara, Ngadyunma, Ngatju, Ngatjumay, Ngatjunmaya, Norseman, Pardoak, Tchaakalaaga, Wangka malpa, West Meening, West Mining, Ngadyumaya, Ngadjunma/Marlba, Wangka Malpa, Ngadju:

Comment

Comments:

Von Brandenstein uses the terms Ngadju and Ngadjumaja to refer to a 'mixed' language consisting of formerly separate dialects in the Dundas District area including Mirningj [sic] A9, Marlba A110, Fraser Range A74, Norseman A99, Windaga A111 and Kallaagu A2, commenting that 'it will be difficult to extract the different components of the Dundas District languages ... from the mixed language now called Ngadju A3 which is still spoken...' (1980:2).

Walsh (1981) maps Ngatjunmaya and Ngatjumay as separate languages but they probably refer to the same language, Ngadjumaya.

Ngatjumay in Douglas (1968) appears to be the equivalent of von Brandenstein's Ngadju.

Sue Hanson (Wangka Maya PALC 2008) mentions an unpublished sketch grammar written by Steven Roberts. Doug Marmion (2013 p.c.) advises that this is actually a reanalysis of von Brandenstein 1980 using a more standard linguistic approach.

Oates (1975) gives Marlba (A110 in this database) as an equivalent to Ngadjunma (A3) and Tindale (1974:251) includes Malba as an alternative name for not only Ngadjunmaia (A3) but also Kalaako A2 and Kalamaia A4.

Marmion (p.c.) mentions that Ngajumaya speakers say that their language should be called 'Marlpamaya', and that this may be adopted at some point in the near future.

References:

Brandenstein, Carl G. von. 1980. Ngadjumaja: an Aboriginal language of south-east Western Australia. Innsbruck: Institut für Sprachwissen-schaft der Universität Innsbruck.
Douglas, Wilfrid H. 1968. The Aboriginal languages of south-west Australia: speech forms in current use and a technical description of Njungar: Australian Aboriginal Studies 14, Linguistic Series 4. Canberra: AIAS.
Tindale, Norman B. 1974. Aboriginal tribes of Australia: their terrain, environmental controls, distribution, limits, and proper names. Berkeley: University of California Press/Canberra: Australian National University Press.
Walsh, Michael. 1981. Maps of Australia and Tasmania. In Language atlas of the Pacific area Pt 1, eds S. A. Wurm and Shirô Hattori. Canberra: Australian Academy of the Humanities.
Wangka Maya Pilbara Aboriginal Language Centre. 2008. Ngajumaya dictionary 2008. South Hedland, WA: Wangka Maya Pilbara Aboriginal Language Centre.

Status:

Confirmed

Location

State / Territory:

Location information:

Goddard Creek south to Mount Ragged, Israelite Bay, and Point Malcolm, possession of the latter place being a matter of dispute with the Njunga people since before contact times; west to Fraser Range; east to near Narethal and to near Point Culver on the coast; at Mount Andrew and Balladonia (Tindale 1974).

Contemporary location: The very few speakers are now spread from the Kalgoorlie region through to Esperance. (Wangka Maya PALC 2008).

Maps:

Tindale, Norman. 1974. Tribal boundaries in Aboriginal Australia. Canberra: Division of National Mapping, Department of National Development.

Links

Search MURA people®

Search MURA language®

Handbook of Western Australian Aboriginal languages south of the Kimberley Region

OLAC

SIL

http://www-01.sil.org/iso639-3/documentation.asp?id=nju

Ngadju seasons calendar

Programs

Activities:

AIATSIS Centre for Australian Languages research fellow, Doug Marmion, made three visits to the Ngajumaya region over 2012 - 2013 to work with Ngajumaya speakers and community members on establishing a standard orthography, transcribing and analysing language data from historical documents, and assisting with the development of language learning programs for young people.

People:

Carl von Brandenstein, Norman Tindale, Geoffrey O'Grady, Wilfrid Douglas, Steven Roberts, Doug Marmion, Sue Hanson

Indigenous organisations:

Speakers

Year	Source	Speaker numbers
1975	Oates	-
1984	Senate	-
1990	Schmidt	-
1996	Census	-
2001	Census	-
2004	NILS1	10
2005	Estimate	5
2006	Census	-
2011	Census	-
2014	NILS2	45
2016	Census	-
2018-2019	NILS3	11-50

Speaker numbers were measured differently across the censuses and various other sources listed in AUSTLANG. You are encouraged to refer to the sources.

Speaker numbers for ‘NILS 2004’ and ‘2005 estimate’ come from 'Table F.3: Numbers of speakers of Australian Indigenous languages (various surveys)' in 'Appendix F NILS endangerment and absolute number results' in McConvell, Marmion and McNicol 2005, pages 198-230 (PDF, 2.5MB).

Documentation

Type	Documentation Status	Documentation Score
Word list	Small (20-100 pages)	2
Text Collection	Small (20-100 pages)	2
Grammar	Sketch grammar (less than 100 pages)	2
Audio-visual	None	0

Manuscript note:

tape transcription/field note available (Bates)

Grammar:

von Brandenstein, Carl. 1980. Ngadjumaja: an Aboriginal language of southeast Western Australia. Innsbruck: Institut fur Sprachwissenschaft det Universitat Innsbruck.

Dictionary:

von Brandenstein, Carl. 1980. Ngadjumaja: an Aboriginal language of southeast Western Australia. Innsbruck: Institut fur Sprachwissenschaft det Universitat Innsbruck.

Classification

Source	Family	Group	Sub-group	Name	Relationship
Ethnologue (2005)	Pama-Nyungan	South-West	Mirning	Ngadjunmaya	Ngadjunmaya [dialects: Related to Kalarko.]
Dixon (2002)		WESTERN BIGHT GROUP		Ngadjunmaya	Kalaaku (=Ngadjunmaya)
Wurm (1994)	Pama-Nyungan	South-West		Ngatjunmaya, Ngatjumay
Walsh (1981)	Pama-Nyungan	South-West	Mirning ? Nyungar	Ngadjunmaya, Ngatjumay
Oates (1975)	Pama-Nyungan	Pilbara-Nyungar (Southwest)	Mirninj (Ngadju)	Ngadjunma/Marlba
Wurm (1972)	Pama-Nyungan	Southwest (or Nyungic)	Mirniny	Ngadjunma
O'Grady, Voegelin and Voegelin (1966)	Pama-Nyungan	Southwest	Mirniny	Ngadjunma