Manjiljarra
Mandjildjara
Manyjilyjarra
Regionnear Jigalong, Western Australia
EthnicityMandjildjara (and Mandjindja?)
Native speakers
170 (2006 census); 311 (2016 census)[1]
Pama–Nyungan
Manjiljarra Sign Language
Language codes
ISO 639-3
mpj – Martu Wangka
GlottologNone
AIATSIS[1]A51.1
ELP

Manjiljarra (Manyjilyjarra, Mandjildjara) is one of the Wati languages of the large Pama–Nyungan family of Australia. It is sometimes counted as a dialect of the Western Desert Language, but is classified as a distinct language in Bowern.[2]

It is one of the components of the Martu Wangka koine.

Sign language

Main article: Australian Aboriginal sign languages

Most of the peoples of central Australia have (or at one point had) signed forms of their languages. Among the Western Desert peoples, sign language has been reported specifically for Manjiljarra, though it is not clear from records how well developed it was.[3]

References

  1. ^ a b A51.1 Manjiljarra at the Australian Indigenous Languages Database, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
  2. ^ Claire Bowern and Quentin Atkinson. 2012. Computational phylogenetics and the internal structure of Pama-Nyungan. Language 88. 817-845. Johns Hopkins University Press.
  3. ^ Kendon, A. (1988) Sign Languages of Aboriginal Australia: Cultural, Semiotic and Communicative Perspectives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.


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