Burragorang

New South Wales & ACT, Australia

Ngunnawal, Gandangara

0 (Ngunnawal)
80 (2014, Gundungurra)

revival efforts for both languages

  • Ngunawal/Ngunnawal
  • Gundungurra

Either:
xul – Ngunawal
xrd – Gundungurra

nort2760

D3 Ngunawal/Ngunnawal, S60 Gundungurra

Classification[edit]

Gundungurra/Ngunawal is generally classified to fall within the tentative (and perhaps geographic) Yuin–Kuric group of the Pama–Nyungan family.[3]

Location[edit]

The traditional country of the Ngunnawal people is generally thought to have extended east near Goulburn, North to Boorowa, south through Canberra, perhaps even to Queanbeyan, and extending west to around the Goodradigbee River.[2]

Retroflex sounds [ɖ, ɳ, ɭ] may have also been recorded in limited distribution.

Stops /b, d, ɟ, ɡ/ may also be heard as voiceless [p, t, c, k] when in word-final or syllable-final positions.

/ɹ/ may have also been heard as [ɻ].

[5]

Current status[edit]

The Ngunnawal community has for some years been engaged in work to revive the language with the aim being to bring it back into daily use within the community. They have been working with AIATSIS linguists to assist them with this work, and with identifying historical records that can be used for this work.[6]