| Also Known As: Wirrung,Wirrunga,Wirongu,Nyangga,Wironguwongga,Warrangoo,Njangga,Nhawu
Description:
The Wirangu language is a moribund Australian Aboriginal language traditionally spoken by the Wirangu people, living on the west coast of South Australia across a region encompassing modern Ceduna and Streaky Bay, stretching west approximately to the Head of Bight and east to Lake Gairdner.
Wirangu is a Pama-Nyungan language, closely related to other neighboring Thura-Yura languages in the east such as Parnkalla and Nauo. Wirangu also appears to have borrowed several lexical items from the Kukata people, who lived to the north of the Wirangu.
Wirangu has three phonemic vowels (a, i, u). Vowel length is not usually considered phonemic in Wirangu, as vowel length is normally short, although it is predictably long in all monosyllabic words (Wirangu 'ma' [ma:], 'wa' [wa:], 'mil' [mi:l], etc.), borrowings from other languages ('maatha' [ma:t̪a] ..... full article at Wikipedia |
