Wemba Wemba language


The Wemba Wemba language is an extinct Aboriginal Australian language once spoken along the tributaries of the Murrumbidgee River.
Nari Nari, a dialect of Wemba Wemba, is as of 2020 part of a language revival project. Other dialects are Baraba Baraba and Wergaia.
Jardwadjali may be Wemba-Wemba, or may be closer to the Madhi–Ladji–Wadi varieties.

Sounds

Consonants

Vowels

Voiced consonant sounds only occur within prenasalized stops. Prenasal consonants include: /mb/ /nd/ /ndy/ /ng/ and /rnd/. In phonetic form they are pronounced as and .

Influence on English

At least four botanical terms in Australian English are thought to have been introduced into local speech from Wemba-Wemba:
, the Nari Nari dialect is one of 20 languages prioritised as part of the Priority Languages Support Project, being undertaken by First Languages Australia and funded by the Department of Communications and the Arts. The project aims to "identify and document critically-endangered languages — those languages for which little or no documentation exists, where no recordings have previously been made, but where there are living speakers".