Kanyara languages

The Kanyara languages are a pair of closely related languages in the southern Pilbara region of Western Australia.

Kanyara
Geographic
distribution		Western Australia
Linguistic classificationPama–Nyungan
Glottologkany1246
Kanyara languages (green) among other Pama–Nyungan (tan).

According to Dixon (2002) languages classified as members of the Kanyara languages group are (with the varieties in parentheses sometimes considered separate languages):[1]

However, according to Peter Austin (2008[2]), Binigura/Pinikura, Thalanyji, Payungu and Purdana (all classified as separate languages in AUSTLANG) "should probably be classified as belonging to the Kanyara subgroup".[3]

The languages are spoken in the region between the mouths of the Gascoyne River and the Ashburton River, along the coast and extending inland.

The name kanyara comes from the word for "man" in Burdana and Thalanyji. The Kanyara languages form a branch of the Pama–Nyungan family. The Kanyara group was first proposed by Austin (1988) based on lexical, morphological and syntactic criteria.

References
  1. Dixon, R. M. W. (2002). Australian Languages: Their Nature and Development. Cambridge University Press. p. xxxviii.
  2. Austin, Peter. 2008. The classification of Pinikura, Western Australia. In Morphology and language history, Current Issues in Linguistic Theory, 298
  3. W34 Binigura/Pinikura at the Australian Indigenous Languages Database, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies


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