Native to Australia | ISO 639-3 nam | |
Region Northern Territory; Mission, Tipperary Station, Flora and Daly rivers junction, Daly River. Native speakers 110 (2005) to 180 (2006 census) Language family Southern?
Ngan’gityemerri Dialects Ngan’gikurunggurr
Ngan’giwumirri
Ngan’gimerri | ||
Ngan’gityemerri—or Ngan’gi for short—is an indigenous language spoken in the Daly River region of Australia’s Northern Territory. The language is spoken in three mutually intelligible dialects: Ngan’gikurunggurr, Ngen’giwumirri, and Ngan’gimerri, which are 90% cognate but distinct languages sociolinguistically. Ngan’gi is spoken by about 150-200 people in the region around the Daly River (most living in the communities of Nauiyu, Peppimenarti and Wudigapildhiyerr) and in a number of smaller outstations on traditional lands (such as Nganambala and Merrepen).
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Spelling variants
Ngan’gi is sometimes also referred to by its speakers as Ngan'gityemerri. The varieties of this language have using widely differing spellings, including Nangikurrunggurr, Ngankikurungkurr, Ngenkikurrunggur, Ngangikarangurr, Ngankikurrunkurr, Nangikurunggurr, Nanggikorongo, Nangikurungguru, Nangikurungurr, Nangikurunurr, Nangityemer, Ngan’gikurunggurr, Ngangikurongor, Ngangikurrunggurr, Ngangikurrungur, Ngan'gikurunggurr, Ngangikurunggurr, Tyemeri, Moil, Moiil, Moyl, Moyle, Ngangi-Wumeri, Ngenkiwumerri, Nangumiri, Nangiomeri, Nangimera, Mariwumiri, Mariwunini, Murin-wumiri, Nanggiomeri, Nanggiwumiri, Nanggumiri, Nangimeri, Nangiomera, Nangi-wumiri, Ngan'giwumirri, Ngengewumiri, Ngen'giwumirri, Ngengomeri, Ngen-gomeri and Wumiri.
Sometimes it is referred to by the names it is called by neighbouring languages, such as Marityemeri, Marri Sjemirri and Murrinh Tyemerri.
Grammatical features
Ngan’gi is a non-Pama-Nyungan language with strong head-marking properties. It has 31 finite verbs, which combine with a large class of coverbs to form morphologically complex verb words with the type of information requiring a sentence to convey in English (including information about the subject, the object and other participants). Ngan’gi also has a system of 16 noun classes (including bound prefixes and free words), which exhibit agreement properties on modifying words. Ngan’gi also has sound features which are unusual by Australian standards, including a three-way obstruent contrast; it has two series of stops, as well as phonemic fricatives.
Relationship to other languages
The first major study of Ngan’gi was Darrell Tryon’s 1974 work, a broad discussion of Ngan’gi as one of a dozen or so "Daly family languages". Tryon viewed Ngan’gikurunggurr and Ngen’giwumirri as two languages of the "Tyemeri subgroup" of the Daly family. They are now classified with Murrinh-Patha as a Southern Daly family, a position not without problems; see Southern Daly languages for details.