Wardaman is an Australian Aboriginal language isolate spoken in the Northern Territory by the Wardaman, Dagoman and Yangman peoples, with about 50 native speakers recorded in the 2016 census. Its three closely related varieties, Wardaman, Dagoman and Yangman, are collectively known as the Yangmanic family. Wardaman was previously classified within the Gunwinyguan family, but no relationship to Gunwinyguan or to any other family, including the neighboring isolate Wagiman, with which it shares only about 10 percent cognate vocabulary, has ever been demonstrated. It is one of the northern non-Pama-Nyungan languages and is critically endangered.
Facts
RegionNorthern Territory, Australia 1 Proto-Language StatusLanguage isolate; one of the northern non-Pama-Nyungan languages, with no wider family established. 1 Sources
1. Wikipedia: Wardaman Language
Wikimedia FoundationWikipedia short-description field
Language isolate of Australia's Northern Territory
Lead section, sentences 1-2: classification
Wardaman is an Australian Aboriginal language isolate. It is one of the northern non-Pama-Nyungan languages.
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