4.6.9 WANGGATHA/WANGKATJA

4.6.9 Wanggatha/Wangkatja


Location: Northern margin of the Nullarbor Plain from north of Hughes to north of Loongana, northwards from plain margin for about 150 miles.
Wangkatja : at Coonana and Cundelee.
Wanggatha : at Mt Margaret and Leonora.
1. Names of the language and different spellings that have been used:
Pindini
Pini
Wanggaji (Capell)
Wangkayi
Wongaii
Wonggai
Wongi
2. Classification of the language:
O'Grady, Voegelin and Voegelin (1966): Wati
Identification codes:AIATSIS:A.12
Capell (1963):A.37
Oates (1975):(not mentioned)
Douglas (1990 p.c.) and Glass (1990 p.c.) point out that Wanggatha from around Mt Margaret and Leonora is different to Wangatja which is spoken at Cundelee and Coonana. Glass notes that the term Wangkatja is confusing, '"'because all the Western Desert speaking Aborigines of the Eastern Goldfields and surrounding desert areas call themselves Wangkatja'"'.
3. Dialects of the language:
Desert languages have an avoidance style as well as the everyday style.
No other information.
4. Present number and distribution of speakers:
No information
5. People who have worked intensively to record the language:
Dawn and Brian Hadfield (their work is the basis for Vászolyi's teaching programme)
6. Practical spelling system:
Trimmer (1986) uses a system similar to the one used for Nyungar (see section 4.2), or the northern desert languages (e.g. Manjiljarra).
7. Word lists:
Trimmer (1986)
Blyth (n.d.)
8. Texts:
None
9. Grammar or sketch grammar:
None
10. Language programmes:
N. Blyth and W. Douglas run courses at Kalgoorlie College.
11. Language learning material:
Vászolyi (1979)
12. Literature in the language:
Trimmer (1983b)
13. Material available:
(see section 5 (Bibliography) for annotations on the following works)
Bates, D.M. (1934) [Letter to Aubrey Smith], Ooldea, 16 December 1934.
Bates, D.M. (n.d.16) Myths and legends - Central Australia, typescript copy of MS, Section 7, ANL-MS365-26/2-48.
Bates, D.M. (n.d.29) Native vocabularies - Border of SA and WA, typescript copy of MS, Section 12, 2G, ANL-MS365-59/28-43.
Bates, D.M. (n.d.38) Native vocabularies - Coolgardie Magisterial District, typescript copy of MS, Section 12, 2C, ANL-MS365-47/35-56.
Bates, D.M. (n.d.62) Native vocabularies - Lake Way district, typescript copy of MS, Section 12, 2F, ANL-MS365-55/55-104.
Bates, D.M. (n.d.63) Native vocabularies - Laverton area, typescript copy of MS, Section 12, 2F, ANL-MS365-56/2-78.
Bates, D.M. (n.d.69) Native vocabularies - Menzies area, typescript copy of MS, Section 12, 2F, ANL-MS365-56/146-172.
Bates, D.M. (n.d.77) Native vocabularies - Mt Margaret Magisterial District, typescript copy of MS, Section 12, 2F, ANL-MS365-58/14-40.
Bates, D.M. (n.d.136) Social organisation - Relationship terms, typescript copy of MS, Section 3, ANL-MS365-14/2-111.
Blyth, N. (n.d.) Wangka base dictionary, MS.
Brandenstein, C.G. von (1970f) Report [to AIAS] on fieldwork conducted July- August 1970 as part of the 1969-70 project Western Desert Fringe study, Nedlands, WA.
Brown, M. (1975) Case inflections in Wongai, ts.
Brown, M. (1979) Morphological reconstruction of proto-Western Desert, BA (Hons) thesis, ANU.
Burton, W. and (?) Burton (1972) 'Songs of the Dreamtime', pp.43-45 in WA AAPA Newsletter, Vol.l, no.1.
Glass, A.D. and D. Hackett (1979b) Medical phrases from three Western Desert languages, Human Sciences Research, Perth.
Mathews, R.H. (1907a) 'Languages of some tribes of Western Australia', pp.361-368 in Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Vol.46.
McCardell, A. (1971) Transcriptions of some of the song material collected in 1971 at Cundeelee, WA.
McCardell, A. (1976) Rhythm and melody in Australian Aboriginal songs of the Western Desert, PhD thesis, UWA.
Metcalfe, C.D. (1968) Clause level constructions of the Western Desert language, Cundeelee dialect: a tentative tagmemic statement, ts.
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).
Terry, M. (1928) Untold miles: three gold hunting expeditions amongst the picturesque borderland ranges of Central Australia, Selwyn and Blount, London.
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.
Trimmer, K. (1983a) 'The contrast between palatals and dentals in Wangkatha', p.15 in Ngali, June 1983, SAL, Batchelor.
Trimmer, K. (1983b) You can read Wangkatha too, SAL, Batchelor.
Trimmer, K. (1986) Wanggatha dictionary ( draft).
Vászolyi, E.G. (1979) Teach yourself Wangkatja, Mt Lawley Teachers' College, Perth.


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