Nyigina language

Nyikina (also Nyigina, Njigina) is an Australian Aboriginal language of Western Australia, spoken by the Nyigina people.

Nyikina
Region	Lower Fitzroy River, Western Australia
Ethnicity	Nyigina
Native speakers	61 (2016 census)[1]
Language family	Nyulnyulan Eastern Nyikina
Writing system	Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3	nyh
Glottolog	nyig1240[2]
AIATSIS[3]	K3

Warrwa may have been a dialect.

Classification

R. M. W. Dixon (2002) regards Nyikina, Warrwa, Yawuru and Jukun as a single language.

Nyikina is placed in the Nyulnyulan family of non-Pama–Nyungan languages.

Map of the traditional lands of Australian Aboriginal tribes around Derby, Western Australia.[4]

See also

• Belinda Dann
• Loongkoonan
• Butcher Joe Nangan

References

1. "Census 2016, Language spoken at home by Sex (SA2+)". stat.data.abs.gov.au. ABS. Retrieved 30 October 2017.
2. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Nyigina". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
3. K3 Nyikina at the Australian Indigenous Languages Database, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
4. This map is indicative only.

• Capell, A. (1952–1953). "Notes on the Njigina and Warwa tribes, N.W. Australia". Mankind. 4 (9): 351–360, 450–496. doi:10.1111/j.1835-9310.1952.tb00261.x.
• Dixon, R. M. W. (2002). Australian Languages: Their Nature and Development. Cambridge University Press.
• Muecke, Stephen (2004). "A Chance to Hear a Nyigina Song". In Ryan, J. (ed.). Imagining Australia: Literature and Culture in the New New World. Wallace-Crabbe, C. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Committee on Australian Studies. pp. 123–135. ISBN 978-0-674-01573-9.
• Stokes, B. (1982). A description of Nyigina, a language of the West Kimberley, Western Australia. PhD dissertation. Australian National University.

External links

• film "Mad Bastards" (2010) depicting Nyikina language and culture