Kunindirri (C23) is a dialect of Garrwa N155, which has two known varieties: Heavy Garrwa, also called Eastern Garrwa or Gunindirri / Kunindirri (C23) and Light Garrwa also called Western Garrwa N155 (Mushin, 2012:5).
Gunindiri (C23), Garrwa N155 and the neighbouring language Waanyi G23 belong to the Garrwan language family, located in the Gulf of Carpentaria and is the 'only family which has explicitly been analysed as having an indeterminate or intermediate status' regarding its classification as non-Pama Nyungan or Pama Nyungan (Harvey, 2009:197-198).
Harvey argues 'the evaluation of the overall evidence shows Garrwan to be a PN family, within the terms of the criteria for the hypothesised opposition' (2009:198).
In contrast, earlier analyses by Blake (1990) and Evans (2005) classify Garrwan as non-Pama Nyungan (in Mushin, 2012:6).
Barkly Tableland along headwaters of Calvert, Robinson, and Nicholson rivers; southwest to Anthony Lagoon; at Creswell Downs and Fish Waterhole (Tindale 1974).
Tindale's map seems to show that the northern boundary of Kunindirri territory is the divide between the watershed of the Robinson and the westernmost part of the watershed of the Calbert (to the north) and the watersheds of the Nicholson River and Cresswell Creek (to the south).... It may be that Kun(in)dirri occupied a band of country stretching from the headwaters of the Cresswell and Nicholson across to Wollogorang and Westemoreland. My map reflects this uncertainty (Breen 2003:426)
Along the Robinson and Calvert Rivers, south of the Karrawa (Basedow 1907:3) The reasonably certain general associations of Gunindirri were to Wollogorang and Westmoreland. Eastward limits: Just to the east of Westmoreland, there is a change of affiliations to Ganggalida. Southward limits: China Wall - north of China Wall is Gunindirri, south of China Wall is Wanyi. Westward limits: These are uncertain. The Creswell Downs area was associated with either Gunindirri or Wanyi, but there is no direct evidence as to which. Northward limits: There is no definite information on the northward limits to the association of Gunindirri (Harvey AILEC 0802).
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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).
