Location: York district and eastwards; at Beverley and along the Avon River, north to the Wongan hills.
1. Names of the language and different spellings that have been used:
Balardong
Ballerdokking
Maiawongi (Tindale)
Minang
Toode-nunjer
Waljuk
2. Classification of the language:
O'Grady, Voegelin and Voegelin (1966): Nyungar
Identification codes:AIATSIS:W.10
Capell (1963):W.03
Oates (1975):54.ib
3. Dialects of the language:
None known
4. Number and distribution of speakers:
Few or none
5. People who have worked intensively to record the language:
No one
6. Practical spelling system:
A system is in use by the Bunbury Nyungar group that is applicable to all Nyungar languages.
7. Word lists:
Hackett (1886)
O'Grady (1959)
Tapes made by O'Grady and Hale in 1958 and 1960, and Elkin in 1959 (referred to in O'Grady, Voegelin and Voegelin (1966:130))
8. Texts:
None
9. Grammar or sketch grammar:
Douglas (1968b)
10. Language programmes:
The Bunbury Nyungar group is developing a Nyungar language programme that will be applicable to all Nyungar languages.
11. Language learning material:
See entry under 10, above.
12. Literature in the language:
Douglas (1982)
13. Material available:
(see section 5 (Bibliography) for annotations on the following works)
Bates, D.M. (n.d.121) Native vocabularies - Victoria Plains Magisterial District, typescript copy of MS, Section 12, 2B, ANL-MS365-42/188-256.
Bates, D.M. (n.d.124) Native vocabularies - York District, typescript copy of MS, Section 12, 2B: 27, ANL-MS365-43/79-90.
Bates, D.M. (n.d.125) Native vocabularies - York Magisterial District, typescript copy of MS, Section 12, 2B, ANL-MS365-41/134-177.
Bates, D.M. (n.d.126) Native vocabularies - York, Northam, etc., typescript copy of MS, Section 12, 2B, ANL-MS365-45/2-66.
Bates, D.M. (n.d.129) Outline of grammar [2] - Pronouns, typescript copy of MS, Section 12, 1, ANL-MS365-37/43-97.
Colonial Secretary of Western Australia (1903a) 'Aboriginal placenames and meanings', p.133 in Science of Man, Vol.6, no.9.
Colonial Secretary of Western Australia (1904a) 'Aboriginal placenames and meanings', p.181 in Science of Man, Vol.6, no.11.
Douglas, W.H. (1968b) The Aboriginal languages of South-West Australia: speech forms in current use and a technical description of Nyungar, Australian Aboriginal Studies no.14, Linguistic Series no. 4, AIAS, Canberra.
Douglas, W.H. (1976b) The Aboriginal languages of the South-West of Australia, Australian Aboriginal Studies Research and Regional Studies no.9, AIAS, Canberra.
Douglas, W.H. (1982) Writing the South-West language, Mount Lawley College of Advanced Education, Perth.
Grey, G. (1841) Journals of two expeditions of discovery in North-West and Western Australia during the years 1837, 38, and 39, T. and W. Boone, London (facsimile 1964).
Hackett, D.E. (1886) 'Vocabulary no.21, York District: the Ballardong tribe', pp.344-345 in E.M. Curr, The Australian race, Vol. 1.
O'Grady, G.N. (1957-58) Materials on the suffixing languages of Western Australia, MS.
O'Grady, G.N. (1959) Significance of the circumcision boundary in Western Australia, BA thesis, University of Sydney .
Turner, J. (1969) The Swan River natives and the Walyunga site, MS.
