This is one of the Noongar / Nyoongar W41 groups; see record for Noongar / Nyoongar W41 for a discussion about the relationship between Noongar / Nyoongar people names and language/dialect names.
Oates (1975:88) says that Balardung (W10) was deleted in Wurm's 1970 classification but retained by von Brandenstein (1971).
The Noongar Boodjar Waangkiny Language Centre assigns the Balardong (W10) clan to the 'Djiraly: Northern' dialect, noting the approximate nature of 'how the original 14 recognised Noongar Clans have been drawn into 3 main dialects'.
Language data by Hackett in Curr (1886) is identified as that of the 'Ballardong or Ballerdokking' group, and records for several Daisy Bates items (not held in the AIATSIS collection) contain the Ballardong language heading. Ballardong has been treated as a Noongar / Nyungar W41 dialect in past classifications and several Noongar / Nyoongar community web sites treat it as a language variety. Note, however, that there is a place called Balladong.
Douglas (e.g. 1976:5-6) makes no reference to Ballardong but does mention a dialect called Tjapanmay A92, the location of which ('New Norcia - Goomalling area') corresponds to part of the location Tindale (1974) describes for Balardong (W10). Further, Tindale mentions that the name 'Tap:anmai, instead of Balardong, is used at Goomalling. Tjapanmay A92 may be the name of the language variety spoken by the Ballardong people (i.e. the people of Balladong).
York district and east to the vicinity of Tammin, Kununoppin, Waddouring Hill, and Bencubbin. North along the Avon River; at Toodyay, Goomalling, Wongan Hills, and northward to Kalannie where there is a native mine for white stone used for knives and multibarbed spears. South to Pingelly and Wickepin. Western boundary the Darling scarp (Tindale 1974).
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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).
