McGregor William. Warrwa

Lincom Europa, 1994. — 65 p. — (Languages of the world: Materials 89).Warrwa, traditionally spoken in the Derby region of West Kimberley, Western Australia, is an endangered language, with just two full speakers. It is a non-Pama-Nyungan language, one of approximately a dozen members of the Nyulnyulan family; it belongs to the western branch. Phonologically it is typical of an Australian language, distinguishing seventeen consonants and three vowels, each with contrastive length. Two types of verbal construction are distinguished, simple and compound. Simple verbs consist of an inflecting verb root which carries pronominal prefixes cross­referencing the subject and indicating tense, and various aspectual suffixes and pronominal enclitics cross­reference the object and indirect object. Compound verbs consist of an invariant preverb followed by an inflecting simple verb. Noun classes are not distinguished in Warrwa (or in any other Nyulnyulan language), and case­relations are marked by postpositions. In the ideolect of one of the remaining speakers a few body part nominals take pronominal prefixes cross­referencing the possessor of the body part; for the other speaker this system has been lost entirely. As in other Nyulnyulan languages, free pronouns distinguish four persons, 1, 1+2, 2, and 3 and two numbers, minimal and augmented.