Worrorra language facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Worrorra
Worrorran languages (purple), among other non-Pama-Nyungan languages (grey)
Region	Western Australia
Ethnicity	Worrorra, Unggumi, Yawijibaya, Unggarranggu, Umiida
Native speakers	8  (2021 census)
Language family	Wororan (Western) Worrorra
Dialects	Worrorra Unggumi Yawidjibara Windjarumi Unggarrangu Umiida
AIATSIS	K17 Worrorra, K14, K49
Worrorran languages

Worrorra, also written Worora and other variants, and also known as Western Worrorran, is a moribund Australian Aboriginal language of northern Western Australia. It encompasses a number of dialects, which are spoken by a group of people known as the Worrorra people.

It is one of a group of Worrorran languages, the other two being Wunambal and Ngarinyin.

Dialects of (western) Worrorra

Worrorra is a dialect cluster; Bowern (2011) recognises five languages: Worrorra proper, Unggumi, Yawijibaya, Unggarranggu, and Umiida. McGregor and Rumsey (2009) include the above dialects and also include Winyjarrumi (Winjarumi), describing Worrorra as a non-Pama-Nyungan language of the Worrorran group of languages known properly as western Worrorran.

Umiida, Unggarrangu, Unggumi, and Yawijibaya peoples are described in separate articles.

An alleged Maialnga language was a reported clan name of Worrorra proper that could not be confirmed with speakers.

Notable people

Elkin Umbagai was a translator between English and Worrorra.

Sounds

• A nasal occurring before a stop consonant, is then realised as a prenasalized voiced stop sound (ex. [ŋɡ]).
• /r/ can be heard as a trill or a flap, and is typically only voiced when preceding a sonorant, voiced phoneme, or lateral consonant. Elsewhere, it is voiceless as [r̥], or can be heard in free variation.
• /j/ can also be heard as a fricative sound [ç] in word-initial positions.

Worrorra vowel inventory

• Long vowel sounds are noted as follows: /iː, ɛː, uː, ɔː, ɑː/.
• In between consonant clusters, an epenthetic vowel sound [ʉ̆] ~ [ɨ̆] occurs when breaking them up. Sometimes it can also be heard as a central vowel sound [ɨ].

Sign language

The Worora have (or at one point had) a signed form of their language, used for speaking to kin in certain taboo relationships, but it is not clear from records that it was particularly well developed compared to other Australian Aboriginal sign languages.