Location: Geraldton to Hill River; at Champion Bay; inland to Mullewa.
1. Names of the language and different spellings that have been used:
Amandyo (Tindale)
Champion Bay Tribe
Njaagurdi (Oates 1975)
Nyaakurti (Brandenstein 1991)
Ying
2. Classification of the language:
O'Grady, Voegelin and Voegelin (1966): Kardu
Identification codes:AIATSIS:W.12
Capell (1963):W.01
Oates (1975):53.4b
Morphy (1985) notes that arnmangu is the word for 'man' and that this language is identical to Nhanta.
O'Grady, Voegelin and Voegelin (1966) include Amangu with Nhanta.
Brandenstein (1991 p.c.) points out that Amangu is the name for 'uncircumcised Aboriginal man' around Geraldton and is not the name of a separate language.
3. Dialects of the language:
This appears to be a dialect of Nhanta.
4. Number and distribution of speakers:
O'Grady, Voegelin and Voegelin (1966): two speakers left.
5. People who have worked intensively to record the language:
No one
6. Practical spelling system:
None, but the sytem used for Watjarri or Nhanta may be used.
7. Word lists:
Bates (n.d.36)
Bates (n.d.37)
Foley (1865)
Goldsworthy (1886b)
O'Grady (1959)
8. Texts:
None
9. Grammar or sketch grammar:
None
10. Language programmes:
None
11. Language learning material:
None
12. Literature in the language:
None
13. Material available:
(see section 5 (Bibliography) for annotations on the following works)
Bates, D.M. (n.d.36) Native vocabularies - Champion Bay, typescript copy of MS, Section 12. 2F, ANL-MS365-58/68-71.
Bates, D.M. (n.d.37) Native vocabularies - Champion Bay, typescript of copy MS, Section 12, 2B, ANL-MS365-43/6-10.
Foley, R.J. (1865) 'Vocabulary of the Champion Bay tribe', pp.297-298 in Ethnological Society of London Transactions, no.3.
Goldsworthy, R.T. (1886b) 'Vocabulary no.15, The Champion Bay tribe', pp.316-317 in E.M.Curr, The Australian race, Vol.1.
Morphy, F. (1985) Working notes on Western Australian languages. Part of an ARGS project directed by R.M.W. Dixon.
O'Grady, G.N. (1959) Significance of the circumcision boundary in Western Australia, BA thesis, University of Sydney .
O'Grady, G.N., C.F. Voegelin and F.M. Voegelin (1966) 'Languages of the world: Indo-Pacific fascicle 6', pp. 1-197 in Anthropological Linguistics, Vol.8, no.2.
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