Ngiyambaa language

The Ngiyambaa language, also spelt Ngiyampaa, Ngempa, Ngemba and other variants, is a Pama–Nyungan language of the Wiradhuric subgroup. It was the traditional language of the Wangaibon and Weilwan peoples of New South Wales, Australia, but is now moribund; according to Donaldson by the 1970s there were only about ten people fluent in Wangaibon, whilst there were only a couple of Weilwan speakers left.

Ngiyambaa
Native to	Australia
Region	New South Wales
Ethnicity	Ngiyambaa (Wangaibon, Weilwan)
Native speakers	0 (2005)^[1]
Language family	Pama–Nyungan Wiradhuric Ngiyambaa
Dialects	Wangaaybuwan Wayilwan (Wailwan)
Language codes
ISO 639-3	wyb
Glottolog	wang1291
AIATSIS^[1]	D22
ELP	Ngiyambaa
Ngiyambaa is classified as Critically Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger

Ngiyambaa (meaning language), or Ngiyambaambuwali, was also used by the Wangaibon and Weilwan to describe themselves, whilst 'Wangaibon' and 'Weilwan' (meanining 'With Wangai/Weil' (for 'no') were used to distinguish both the language and the speakers from others who did not have wangai or weil for no.

Other Names

Other names for Ngiyambaa are: Giamba, Narran, Noongaburrah, Ngampah, Ngemba, Ngeumba, Ngiamba, Ngjamba, Ngiyampaa and Ngumbarr; Wangaibon is also called Wangaaybuwan and Wongaibon, and Weilwan is also called Wailwan, Wayilwan or Wailwun.

Phonology

Consonants

	Peripheral		Laminal		Apical
	Labial	Velar	Dental	Palatal	Alveolar	Retroflex
Plosive	b ⟨p⟩	ɡ ⟨k⟩	d̪ ⟨th⟩	ɟ ⟨ty⟩	d ⟨t⟩
Nasal	m ⟨m⟩	ŋ ⟨ng⟩	n̪ ⟨nh⟩	ɲ ⟨ny⟩	n ⟨n⟩
Lateral					l ⟨l⟩
Rhotic					r ⟨rr⟩
Approximant	w ⟨w⟩			j ⟨y⟩		ɻ ⟨r⟩

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i ⟨i⟩ iː ⟨ii⟩		u ⟨u⟩ uː ⟨uu⟩
Open		a ⟨a⟩ aː ⟨aa⟩

Phonemes	Allophones
/i/, /iː/	[i], [ɪ], [iː], [ɪː]
/a/	[ä], [ə], [ʌ], [e], [ɛ], [o], [ɔ]
/u/, /uː/	[u], [ʊ], [o], [uː], [ʊː], [oː]

References

1. D22 Ngiyambaa at the Australian Indigenous Languages Database, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies

• Donaldson, Tamsin (1980). Ngiyambaa: The language of the Wangaaybuwan. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-22524-8. ISSN 0068-676X.