Ngandi language

Ngandi is an extinct Australian Aboriginal language of the Wilton River, Northern Territory. It is closely related to Nunggubuyu.

In 2017 the last fluent speaker of Ngandi, Cherry Wulumirr Daniels, began teaching the language to younger people at Ngukurr. She died in 2019.

Phonology

Consonants

• Rhotic phonemes can be heard as either a tap [ɾ] or a trill [r].

• /l̪/ and /n̪/ are "not really" phonemes and occur only in two or three words for flora and fauna, or from loanwords from neighboring languages.

Vowels

and are described as "more open" than their counterparts in Spanish.

Media

A short film, Lil Bois, written in the language and directed by Daniels's nephew, was released in 2018.

References