Barngarla language

Barngarla, formerly known as Parnkalla, is an Aboriginal language of Eyre Peninsula, South Australia. It was formerly extinct, but has undergone a process of revival since 2012.

Orthography
Barngarla is written phonetically using an alphabet of 27 letters, consisting of both single characters and digraphs from the English alphabet.

Despite being considered letters of Barngarla, "ai" and "aw”, do not denote distinct phonemes. On the contrary, they are in fact nothing more than the sum of their parts. The sound of "ai" is literally just the sound of "a" followed by the sound of "i"; similarly with "aw".

One important thing to note is that when there is a sequence of two dental phonemes ("dh", "nh"), the "h" is only written once rather than twice. That is, the sequence /d̪n̪/ is written "dnh" and not "dhnh". Similarly with palatal phonemes ("dy", "ny", "ly") with the "y", ("dny" instead of "dyny"), and with retroflex phonemes ("rd", "rl", "rn") with the "r", ("rdn" instead of "rdrn").

Consonants
Barngarla has the following consonant phonemes:


 * All non-velar, nasal and lateral sounds can be prestopped when they occur at the start of a second syllable in a word.
 * The plosive /ɟ/ is usually realised as an affricate [] or as a plosive with approximant release [] when followed by a vowel.

Vowels
Barngarla has the following vowel phonemes:

Stress
The stress always falls on the first syllable of each word.

Grammatical number
Barngarla has four grammatical numbers: singular, dual, plural and superplural. For example:
 * wárraidya emu (singular)
 * wárraidyalbili emus (dual)
 * wárraidyarri emus (plural)
 * wárraidyailyarranha a lot of emus, heaps of emus (superplural)

Matrilineal and patrilineal distinction
Barngarla is characterised by a matrilineal and patrilineal distinction. For example, the matrilineal ergative case first person dual pronoun ngadlaga ("we two") would be used by a mother and her child, or by a man and his sister’s child, while the patrilineal form ngarrrinyi would be used by a father and his child, or by a woman with her brother’s child.

Naming children according to their birth order
In traditional Barngarla, birth order was so important that each child within the family was named according to the order in which s/he was born. Barngarla has nine male birth order names and nine female birth order names, as following:


 * Male: Biri (1st), Warri (2nd), Gooni (3rd), Mooni (4th), Mari (5th), Yari (6th), Mili (7th), Wanggooyoo (8th) and Ngalai (9th).
 * Female: Gardanya (1st), Wayooroo (2nd), Goonda (3rd), Moonaga (4th), Maroogoo (5th), Yaranda (6th), Milaga (7th), Wanggoordoo (8th) and Ngalaga (9th).

To determine the suitable name for the newborn Barngarla child, the parents first found out the number of the newborn within the family, and only then selected the male/female name, according to the gender of the newborn. So, for example, if a baby girl was born after three boys, her name would have been Moonaga (4th born, female) as she was the fourth child within the family.

Language revival
The last native speaker of the language died in 1964. However, the language has been revived thanks to the work of a German Lutheran pastor Clamor Wilhelm Schürmann, who worked at a mission in 1844 and recorded 3,500 (or 2000? ) words to form a Barngarla dictionary, entitled A Vocabulary of the Parnkalla [Barngarla] Language, Spoken by the Natives Inhabiting the Western Shores of Spencer’s Gulf.

In 2012 the chair of linguistics and endangered languages at the University of Adelaide, Ghil'ad Zuckermann, started working with the Barngarla community to revive and reclaim the Barngarla language, based on Schürmann's work. Language revival workshops are held in Port Augusta, Whyalla, and Port Lincoln several times each year, with funding from the federal government's Indigenous Languages Support program.

In October 2016, a mobile app featuring a dictionary of over 3,000 Barngarla words was publicly released.

Wardlada Mardinidhi / Barngarla Bush Medicines, a 24-page book, was published in July 2023. It is the third book co-written by Zuckermann and members of the Richards family of Port Lincoln, this time represented by Evelyn Walker. It records the names a number of native plants from around Port Lincoln in Barngarla, Latin, and English, and describes their use as bush medicine. Walker hopes that the book will form part of a program to help youth and others affected by the Stolen Generations to reconnect with their culture and language, improving their mental health.

Language resources

 * Zuckermann, Ghil'ad and the Barngarla (2019), Barngarlidhi Manoo (Speaking Barngarla Together), Barngarla Language Advisory Committee. (Barngarlidhi Manoo – Part II)
 * Zuckermann, Ghil'ad, Emma Richards and the Barngarla (2021), Mangiri Yarda (Healthy Country: Barngarla Wellbeing and Nature), Revivalistics Press.

Media articles

 * Reawakening Language (audio, 41 mins; includes Barngarla sentences spokdn by Ghil'ad Zuckermann) BBC World Service, 27 January 2016
 * Waking up Australia's sleeping beauty languages (audio, 7 mins) Radio National, 25 July 2013
 * Reclaiming their language Port Lincoln Times, 30 July 2013
 * Barngarla language app, Transcontinental, 2 August 2016
 * Group moves to preserve Barngarla language Transcontinental, 31 July 2013
 * Native tongue title (audio, 14 mins) Radio National, 20 October 2012