Badimaya language

Badimaya (sometimes written Badimia) is an Australian Aboriginal language. It is a member of the Kartu subgroup of the Pama–Nyungan family, spoken by the Badimaya people of Western Australia.

Not to be confused with Mayi-Kutuna language or Maya language (Australia).

Badimaya
Native toAustralia
RegionMurchison area of Western Australia
EthnicityBadimaya, Widi
Native speakers
3 (2016)[1]
Dialects
  • Northern, Southern
Language codes
ISO 639-3bia
Glottologbadi1246
AIATSIS[2]A14
ELPBadimaya[3]

Badimaya is a critically endangered language, spoken by only a handful of elderly Aboriginal people, all of whom are over 65 years of age.[2] However, there is a passionate movement of language revival underway in the Badimaya community.[4]

Geographic distribution

Badimaya was traditionally spoken across a large region spanning Lake Moore, Ninghan Station, Paynes Find and Dalwallinu in the south, to Mount Magnet, Wynyangoo Station and Kirkalocka Station in the north.

Today Badimaya people live across the Mid West region,[lower-alpha 1] based in regional towns and communities including Mount Magnet, Geraldton, Yalgoo, Mullewa, Meekatharra, Wubin, Dalwallinu and Perth.[5]

Traditional Badimaya country is bordered by Western Desert language (Tjuparn, Wanmala) to the east, Noongar to the south-west and Wajarri to the north-west.

Varieties

Analysis of the lexicon and grammatical features of the language suggests that there were (at least) two varieties of Badimaya, a northern and southern variety. These varieties are unnamed; however, Badimaya speakers are aware of differences in the speech of Badimaya people from different regions of Badimaya country.

Widi, also referred to as Wiri (not to be confused with the Wiri language of Queensland) and a variety of other names, may be a dialect of Badimaya, but its status is unclear.[6]

Typology

Badimaya is typologically fairly standard of Western Australian Pama-Nyungan languages. It has a phoneme inventory typical of Pama-Nyungan languages, with six places of articulation (showing both a laminal and apical contrast) and a three-way vowel system, with (limited) length-contrast.

Badimaya is a suffixing language with fairly free word order. It has a split-ergative case marking system, consistent with neighbouring languages. Unlike neighbouring languages however, Badimaya does not show evidence for a bound pronominal system.

Grammar

Pronominal system

Pronouns are of the form: person+number+case.[7] The third person displays person allomorphy conditioned by number. There are morphological distinctions in the first and second person for the dual number, but this distinction is not found in the third person in the southern dialect. The pronominal forms of the southern dialect of Badimaya are listed below:

Personal pronouns[7]
Person Number Absolutive Accusative Locative Dative Allative
1 Singular ngadhu ngadhunha ngadhula nganang nganangudi
Dual ngalidya ngalidyanha ngalidyala ngalidyang
Plural ngalimi ngaliminha ngalimila ngalimi ngalimidi
2 Singular nhundu nhununha nhundula nhunung nhunungudi
Dual nhuradya

nhubadya

nhubali

 nhuranha nhurala nhubadyang

nhurang

 nhurangudi
Plural nhurami nhuraminha nhurangula
3 Singular balu balunha balula balung balungudi

baludi

Plural dhanha dhanhanha dhanhala dhanhung dhanhungudi

There are two demonstrative pronouns a proximal (nhinha) and a distal (banha) which are declined as follows.[7] The ablative case is formed by adding a suffix to both the ablative ending (-ngun) and the word gardi 'side.'[7]

Demonstrative pronouns
Case Proximate Distal
nhinha banha
Absolutive nhinha banha
Ergative nhinhalu banhalu
Accusative nhinhanha banhanha
Dative nhinhawu banhawu
Locative nhinhala banhala
Allative nhinhadi banhadi
Ablative nhinhagardi(ngun) banhagardi(ngun)

There are four interrogative proforms, the nominal referring of which have case paradigms for the absolutive, ergative, locative and dative cases. The dative case has a possessive function.[7]

Interrogative pronouns[7]
Absolutive Ergative Locative Dative
ngana

'who'

 ngana

'who'

 nganalu

'who'

 nganawu

'whose'

nha

'what'

 nha

'what

 nhalu

'what'

 nhala

'on what'

nhangga

'when'

 nhawu

'why'

wandi

'where/which'

 wandi

'which/where'

 wandila

'whereabouts'
ya

'how'

Language resources

The Bundiyarra Irra Wangga Language Centre (and previously the Yamaji Language Centre) has been carrying out work on the Badimaya language since 1993. A sketch grammar of Badimaya was published by Leone Dunn in 1988,[8] and a Badimaya-English dictionary (2014),[9] illustrated topical dictionary (2014)[10] and several children's books were published by Bundiyarra Irra Wangga Language Centre.[8] The last fluent speaker of Badimaya, Mt Magnet elder Ollie George, undertook significant language documentation work between the early 1990s and 2018, in collaboration with Bundiyarra Irra Wangga Language Centre.[11]

An art and language project, Nganang Badimaya Wangga, was collaboratively produced in 2017 by the Irra Wangga Language Centre, with artists from Yamaji Art[12] and Wirnda Barna Artists.[13] The project produced a book of more than 20 stories of Ollie's life entitled Nganang Badimaya Wangga: Yarns with Gami Ollie George,[14] a short video about Ollie by ABC Open Producer Chris Lewis, and an exhibition of the artworks created for the project.[15]

Notes
  1. Traditionally the region is known as the Murchison.

References
  1. "Census 2016, Language spoken at home by Sex (SA2+)". stat.data.abs.gov.au. ABS. Retrieved 4 October 2018.
  2. A14 Badimaya at the Australian Indigenous Languages Database, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
  3. Endangered Languages Project data for Badimaya.
  4. "Irra Wangga Language Centre: Mid West languages: Badimaya". Bundiyarra Aboriginal Community Aboriginal Corporation. Retrieved 14 January 2020.
  5. Bednall, 2014
  6. A13 Widi at the Australian Indigenous Languages Database, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
  7. Dunn, Leone. 1988. 'Badimaya, a Western Australian language' pp. 19–49 in ''Papers in Australian Linguistics'' No. 17, Pacific Linguistics, Canberra.
  8. "Irra Wangga Language Centre: Mid West languages: Badimaya". Bundiyarra Aboriginal Community Aboriginal Corporation. Retrieved 14 January 2020.
  9. Bednall, James, (compiler.) (2014), Badimaya to English dictionary : an aboriginal language of Western Australia, Bundiyarra-Irra Wangga Language Centre, ISBN 978-0-9871566-8-6CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  10. Bednall, James, (editor.) (2014), Badimaya guwaga : talking Badimaya : an illustrated wordlist of the Badimaya language of Western Australia, Bundiyarra-Irra Wangga Language Centre, ISBN 978-0-9871566-7-9CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
  11. Mann, Francesca (2 June 2017). "Elder's Life and Work Celebrated". The West Australian.
  12. Yamaji Art
  13. Wirnda Barna Artists
  14. George, Ollie (2017). Bednall, James; Chiera, Susan; Sitorus, Rosie (eds.). Nganang badimaya wangga: yarns with Gami Ollie George. Geraldton, W.A.: Bundiyarra-Irra Wangga Language Centre. ISBN 978-0-648-06240-0.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  15. "Nganang Badimaya Wangga - Yarns with Gami Ollie George". Moran Arts Foundation. Archived from the original on 30 April 2018. Retrieved 30 April 2018.
  • Bednall, James (compiler). 2014. 'Badimaya Dictionary: an Aboriginal language of Western Australian'. Bundiyarra Irra Wangga Language Centre, Geraldton WA.
  • Dunn, Leone. 1988. 'Badimaya, a Western Australian language' pp. 19–49 in Papers in Australian Linguistics No. 17, Pacific Linguistics, Canberra.
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