The Yirram or Jaminjungan languages, also known as Western Mirndi, are a branch of the Mirndi languages spoken around the Victoria River in the Northern Territory of Australia. The name of these languages is derived from the dual clitic which is "yirram" in each of the languages.[1]

Yirram
Djamindjungan
Geographic
distribution
Victoria River, Australia
Linguistic classificationMirndi
  • Yirram
Subdivisions
Glottologdjam1254
  Yirram
  Barkly
  other non-Pama–Nyungan families

It consists of two languages, the Nungali language and the Jaminjung language. A third language has been proposed, Ngaliwurru, but it is often thought to be merely a dialect of the Jaminjung language.[2]

References edit

  1. ^ Schultze-Berndt, Eva F. (2000), Simple and Complex Verbs in Jaminjung – A Study of event categorisation in an Australian language, p. 7
  2. ^ Green, Ian (1995). "The death of 'prefixing': contact induced typological change in northern Australia". Linguistics.berkeley.edu/BLS/ Berkeley Linguistics Society. 21: 414–425. doi:10.3765/bls.v21i1.1419.