Wagiman language

Wagiman
Wageman
RegionPine Creek, Northern Territory, Australia
EthnicityWagiman
Native speakers
11 (2005)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3waq
Glottologwage1238
AIATSIS[3]N27
ELPWagiman
Wagiman (purple), among other non-Pama-Nyungan languages (grey)
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Wagiman, also spelt Wageman, Wakiman, Wogeman,[4] and other variants, is a near-extinct Aboriginal Australian language spoken by a small number of Wagiman people[5][3] in and around Pine Creek, in the Katherine Region of the Northern Territory.

The Wagiman language is notable within linguistics for its complex system of verbal morphology, which remains under-investigated, its possession of a cross-linguistically rare part of speech called a coverb, its complex predicates and for its ability to productively verbalise coverbs.

As of 1999 Wagiman was expected to become extinct within the next generation, as the youngest generation spoke no Wagiman and understood very little.[6] The 2011 Australian census recorded 30 speakers, while the 2016 Australian census recorded 18 speakers.[3]

  1. ^ "Wageman". Ethnologue. Retrieved 10 June 2018.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference Bowern was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ a b c N27 Wagiman at the Australian Indigenous Languages Database, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
  4. ^ Carrington, L., & Triffitt, G. (1999: 266)
  5. ^ Gordon, R. G., Jr. (2005)
  6. ^ Wilson, S. (1999)