Ritharrngu language
The Ritharnggu language (Ritharrŋu, Ritharngu, Ritarungo) is an Australian Aboriginal language of the Yolŋu language group, spoken in Australia's Northern Territory.
Ritharnggu | |
---|---|
Ritarungo, Ritharrŋu, etc. | |
Native to | Australia |
Region | Northern Territory |
Ethnicity | Ritharrngu |
Native speakers | 32 (2006 census)[1] |
Pama–Nyungan
| |
Dialects |
|
Yolŋu Sign Language | |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | rit |
Glottolog | rita1239 [2] |
AIATSIS[1] | N104 |
Dialects align with the two kinship moieties of the Ritharrngu people, one of several Yolngu peoples: (a) Ritharnggu (Yirritja moiety), and (b) Wagilak language (Dua moiety).[3] The Manggurra (the other Dua clan) now speak Ritharnggu, but apparently shifted from Nunggubuyu.
Language revival
As of 2020, Wägilak/Ritharrŋu is one of 20 languages prioritised as part of the Priority Languages Support Project, being undertaken by First Languages Australia and funded by the Department of Communications and the Arts. The project aims to "identify and document critically-endangered languages — those languages for which little or no documentation exists, where no recordings have previously been made, but where there are living speakers".[4]
References
- N104 Ritharnggu at the Australian Indigenous Languages Database, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
- Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Ritarungo". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
- Dixon, R. M. W. (2002). Australian Languages: Their Nature and Development. Cambridge University Press. p. xxxvi.
- "Priority Languages Support Project". First Languages Australia. Retrieved 13 January 2020.