Nhanhagardi language facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Nhanhagardi |
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|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nanakarti Wilunyu |
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| Native to | Western Australia | |||
| Region | Champion Bay | |||
| Ethnicity | Nhanda | |||
| Extinct | (date missing) | |||
| Language family | ||||
| AIATSIS | A93 | |||
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The Nhanhagardi language is an Aboriginal Australian language. It comes from the Champion Bay area in Western Australia. People also know it by other names. These include Nana karti, Nanakarti, and Wilunyu. Some names like Jaburu mean "northern peoples".
Sadly, no one has spoken Nhanhagardi since 1975. This was confirmed in Australian population counts up to 2016. The Irra Wangga Language Centre says Nhanhagardi usually means the traditional language. It also refers to the people from Champion Bay.
For a while, people were not sure if the language still existed. They also wondered how it was related to other languages. But by 2020, its status was confirmed. This information is now on the AIATSIS website.
Clarrie Cameron is a person with Nhanhagardi family roots. He says "Pulinya" (AIATSIS W43) is an old name for Nhanhagardi. However, the Ethnologue website links Pulinya to the Yinggarda language. Cameron also believes Nhanhagardi is a type of Nhanda language.
Bringing the Language Back
Efforts to Revive Nhanhagardi
As of 2020, "Wilunyu" is one of 20 languages getting special help. Wilunyu is another name for Nhanhagardi. This help comes from the Priority Languages Support Project. First Languages Australia is running this project. The Department of Communications and the Arts helps fund it.
The project has an important goal. It wants to find and record languages that are almost gone. These are languages with very little information about them. They might not have any recordings. But the project focuses on languages where some speakers are still alive. This helps keep these special languages from disappearing forever.
