Yawuru language

Yawuru
RegionAustralia
EthnicityYawuru, Jukun
Native speakers
152 (2021 census)[1]
Nyulnyulan
  • Eastern
    • Yawuru
Dialects
Language codes
ISO 639-3ywr
Glottologyawu1244
AIATSIS[2]K1
ELPYawuru
Map of the traditional lands of Australian Aboriginal tribes around Derby, Western Australia. Yawuru is the dark blue.[3]

Yawuru is a Western Nyulnyulan language spoken on the coast south of Broome in Western Australia.

Grammatically it resembles other Nyulnyulan languages. It has a relatively free word order.[4]

By the late 1990s the number of fluent speakers of Yawuru had dropped to a handful but a few younger people dedicated themselves to learning the language and they are now teaching it in schools and in adult classes, in Broome.[5]

  1. ^ Australian Bureau of Statistics (2021). "Cultural diversity: Census". Retrieved 13 October 2022.
  2. ^ K1 Yawuru at the Australian Indigenous Languages Database, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
  3. ^ This map is indicative only.
  4. ^ Yawuru Ngan-ga, a Phrasebook of the Yawuru Language, Magabala, 1995.
  5. ^ "Yawuru Language". Nyamba Buru Yawuru. Retrieved 26 July 2023.