4.6.4 NGAATJATJARRA

4.6.4 Ngaatjatjarra


Location: Originally from Wingellina to Jameson including the Rawlinson and Peterman Ranges and to the north of these Ranges (Glass & Hackett 1987 p.c.).
1. Names of the language and different spellings that have been used:
Nalada
Ngaadjadjara (Oates 1975)
Ngada(-jara) (-wanga) (AIATSIS)
Ngarga (-wanga)
Nyadadjara (Worms)
Tekateka (Tindale 1968)
2. Classification of the language:
O'Grady, Voegelin and Voegelin (1966): Wati
Identification codes:AIATSIS:A.43
Capell (1963):A.38
Oates (1975):56.4b
Glass and Hackett (1990 p.c.) say that the differences between Ngaadadjara and Ngaanyatjarra are very small, and speakers of both dialects understand each other without difficulty.
Before the establishment of Warburton Mission, Ngaanyatjarra was spoken around Warburton and perhaps as far east as the Jameson Range. Ngaatjatjarra was spoken from the Jameson Range extending around the Blackstone Range and also around the Rawlinson Ranges and as far as Lake Hopkins, while Pitjantjatjara was spoken from Wingkilina in the Tomkinson Ranges and to the east and north-east. Since a large number of Ngaatjatjarra and even some Pitjantjatjara lived at Warburton for quite long periods between 1935 and 1968, children who grew up at Warburton began to speak Ngaanyatjarra even though their parents may have been Ngaatjatjarra or Pitjantjatjara.
Since then there has been much intermarriage and most people would identify themselves as Ngaanyatjarra. To some extent the distinction has become blurred. However the Pitjantjatjara always refer to both the Ngaanyatjarra and Ngaatjatjarra as Ngaatjatjarra.
3. Dialects of the language:
De Graaf suggests this may be the same language as Mandjindja.
Desert languages have an avoidance style as well as the everyday style.
4. Present number and distribution of speakers:
Glass and Hackett (1990 p.c.) say there are 1,100 speakers of Ngaanyatjarra/Ngaatjatjarra at Warburton, Jameson, Blackstone, Warakurna, Wanarn, Tjirrkarli and Tjukurla. Others also live at Docker River, Leonora, Mt Margaret, Laverton and Cosmo in the Eastern Goldfields area of Western Australia.
5. People who have worked intensively to record the language:
Amee Glass and Dorothy Hackett (since 1963)
6. Practical spelling system:
A system was developed by Douglas in 1952 for languages of the area, and has been slightly adjusted by Glass and Hackett.
7. Word lists:
O'Grady (1959)
8. Texts:
None
9. Grammar or sketch grammar:
See entries for Ngaanyatjarra.
10. Language programmes:
None
11. Language learning material:
See entries for Ngaanyatjarra.
12. Literature in the language:
See entries for Ngaanyatjarra.
13. Material available:
(see section 5 (Bibliography) for annotations on the following works)
Burbidge, A.A., K.A. Johnson, P.J. Fuller and R.I. Southgate (1988) 'Aboriginal knowledge of the mammals of the Central Deserts of Australia', pp.9-39 in Australian Wildlife Research, Vol.15.
de Graaf, M. (1963) Songs (audiotape).
de Graaf, M. (1967) 'The manufacture of spinifex gum by desert Aborigines', pp.116-119 in Western Australian Naturalist, Vol.10, no 5.
de Graaf, M. (1968) The Ngadadara at Warburton Ranges, BA thesis, UWA.
Gould, R.A. (1969a) 'Preliminary report on excavations at Puntutjarpa rockshelter, near the Warburton Ranges, Western Australia', pp.161-185 in Archaeology and Physical Anthropology in Oceania, Vol.3, no.3.
Gould, R.A. (1969b) Songs of the Western Desert Aborigines (records).
Gould, R.A. (1969c) 'Subsistence behaviour among the Western Desert Aborigines of Australia', pp.253-274 in Oceania, Vol.39, no.4.
Gould, R.A. (1969d) Yiwara - Foragers of the Australian desert, Collins, London.
Mountford, C.P. (1938) 'Gesture language of the Ngada tribe of the Warburton Ranges, WA', pp.152-155, in Oceania, Vol.9, no.2.
O'Grady, G.N. (1959) Significance of the circumcision boundary in Western Australia, BA thesis, University of Sydney.
Raa, E. ten and S. Tod Woenne (1974) Research dictionary of the Western Desert language of Australia, Anthropology Department, UWA, Perth (ts and computer disk).
Roheim, G. (1945) The eternal ones of the dream: a psychoanalytic interpretation of Australian myth and ritual, International Universities Press, New York.
Tindale, N.B. (1938) 'A game from the Great Western Desert of Australia', pp.128-129 in Man, Vol.38.
Tindale, N.B. (1959) 'Totemic beliefs in the Western Desert of Australia, pt 1, Women who became the Pleiades', pp.305-332 in Records of the South Australian Museum, Vol.13, no.3.
Tindale, N.B. (1963a) Journal of a visit to the Rawlinson Range area in the Great Western Desert, MS.
Tindale, N.B. (1965) 'Stone implement making among the Nakako, Ngadadjara and Pitjandjara of the Great Western Desert', in Records of the South Australian Museum, Vol.15, no.1.
Tindale, N.B. (n.d.a) Harvard and Adelaide Universities Anthropological Expedition, Australia 1938-1939; journals and notes (ts and MS).
Tindale, N.B. (n.d.b) Journal of a trip to Western Australia in search of tribal data. March-April 1966, MS.
Tindale, N.B. (n.d.c) Journal of a visit to the Warburton Range, Western Australia. July-September 1935, (ts and MS).


Go Back to Contents