Hercus and Simpson (2001) examine the sources on Nauo (L2) including East (1889), who considers Nauo to be 'a type of' Wirangu C1 and Grey (1845), who treats Nauo, Wirangu and Mirniny A9 as a single 'dialect' . Comparing sample words in early vocabularies from Barngarla L6, Nauo and Wirangu, Hercus and Simpson say that the linguistic evidence suggests Nauo was one of a group of 'mutually intelligible dialects which constitute the language called "Wirangu" ' (270-273), though they conclude that Nauo appears to be 'a separate language, but "in between" Wirangu and Barngarla' (287). Hercus (1999:14) reports that one of her informants considered Nyawa (L2) to be a dialect of Parnkalla L6.
In 2004 Simpson and Hercus describe Naou (L2) as a member of the Thura-Yura L63 sub-group of Pama-Nyungan. Other members include Kaurna L3; Ngadjuri L5; Nukunu L4; Narangga L1; Barngarla L6; Adnyamathana L10; Kuyani L9 and Wirangu C1, which exhibits some differences with the Thura-Yura languages. One particular cultural-linguistic feature uniquely Thura-Yura is the use of ten birth-order names. Another are the regular pronoun forms unique to the sub-group (2004:179).
Simpson, J & L Hercus. 2004. Thura-Yura as a subgroup, in (Bowern & Koch eds) Australian Languages : classification and the comparative method. Amsterdam/Philadelphia : John Benjamins.
Southwestern half of Eyre Peninsula; west to Cape Radstock, north to beyond Minnipa; east to near Darke Peak; west of Cleve and halfway between Carrow and Franklin Harbor; at Port Lincoln, Mount Hope, Coffin Bay, and Elliston (Tindale 1974). Port Lincoln, on the coast to the south-west of the settlement (Schurmann 1987:152-2 in Hercus and Simpson 2001:264). The western boundary has been suggested as near Elliston (cf. Hercus and Simpson 2001:270-272).
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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).
