Ngaanyatjarra dialect

Ngaanyatjarra (; also Ngaanyatjara, Ngaanjatjarra) is a dialect of the Western Desert language spoken primarily by the Ngaanyatjarra people.

It is very similar to its close neighbour Ngaatjatjarra, with which it is highly mutually intelligible.

Name

The name Ngaanyatjarra derives from the word 'this' which, combined with the comitative suffix means 'having (as the word for 'this')'. This distinguishes it from its near neighbour Ngaatjatjarra, which has for 'this'.

Phonology

Orthography is in brackets.

Vowels

Before alveolar consonants, the two vowels are pronounced as .
Before velar consonants, the three vowels are pronounced as .
Vowel sounds are rhotacized when preceding retroflex consonants.

Consonants

Laminal stop sounds tend to vary, across the dialects of Ngaanyatjarra. In the Western dialects, they are always pronounced as dental, and in the Eastern dialects they are pronounced as palatal. Yet they are still orthographically transcribed the same as palatal sounds, as in the other dialects.
When occurring after nasal sounds, stop consonants become slightly voiced.

Phonotactics

Words always end in vowels.

Grammar

Pronominal suffixes differ between singular, dual and plural, e.g. "you" (singular), "you" (dual), and "you" (plural).

Vocabulary

Semantic correspondence

Some Ngaanyatjarra words correspond to multiple English words:

On the other hand, some English words correspond to multiple Ngaanyatjarra words:

Time

and , while translated here 'now', rarely mean 'right this moment' as the word in English often does. Depending on context, it can mean 'within the hour', 'sometime today', 'this week', or 'current times' as opposed to 'former times'.

Ngaanyatjarra people are more conscious of events, rather than time.

Periods of time

Periods of time, e.g. a year, are referred to by natural phenomena that mark the 'peak' of that period, e.g. 'year', literally 'hot season', (years are sometimes counted by Christmases in modern Ngaanyatjarra) and 'month', literally 'moon', 'lunar month'. They are measured by the period's 'peak', so e.g. 15 months would be referred to as 'two years' if it included two hot seasons, and ten days would be referred to as 'two weeks' if it included two Sundays. Note that the custom of counting years and celebrating birthdays is not part of the traditional culture.

Days are counted by the number of sleeps ( 'camp') and weeks by the number of Sundays.

The year is broken into four seasons.

Colors

Color terms correspond to nature, e.g.:

Numbers

The numeral system is very simple:

Some larger numbers can be formed through combining these:

Idioms

In English, emotions are often expressed using the heart as a metaphor, e.g. 'heartless', 'heartbroken'. In Ngaanyatjarra, body parts can also be metaphorically used to express emotion:

Words for new concepts

Languages have various ways of forming words for new concepts. The most common is borrowing from other languages, which is employed in Ngaanyatjarra:

Note that since the phonologies of Ngaanyatjarra and English differ, these words changes form. Ngaanyatjarra words do not end in consonants, so extra vowels or the suffix can be added. /b/ and /f/ both become . Clusters such as cannot occur so an epenthetic vowel is added, and /s/, absent in Ngaanyatjarra, is replaced with .

Loanwords often have a slightly different meaning from the English equivalent:

Compound words are also formed to express new concepts:

The meaning of native terms can also be extended to cover new concepts.

Sample text

In English: A man said to his wife "We are going hunting to shoot something and bring it back. Cook some food and keep it aside for me." So the woman cooked the food, set it aside, went into the shade of a tree and went to sleep. Then two children came along and took the food away and ate it. When the man came home at night there was no food for him.