Data collected by AUSTLANG

Data on Wargamay

Alternative names: Wargamaygan, Warrgamay.

For a full list of alternative names and spellings, see Austlang

Main dialects: Biyay, Wargamay

Wargamay is used both as a language name and a dialect name. Biyay is a name for two different dialects of Wargamay.

Classification: Pama-Nyungan, Dyirbalic group

Area: Australia, Queensland.

Coast south of Hinchinbrook Island, and inland along Herbert River.

Number of speakers : The 2005 National Indigenous Languages Survey Report counted 3 native speakers of Wargamay.

Language vitality & transmission :

The language is clearly on the verge of extinction. The NILS classifies Wargamay as “severely endangered”.

Bibliography

Dixon, R M W. 1972. The Dyirbal language of north Queensland. London: Cambridge University Press.

Dixon R M W. 1981. Wargamay. In Handbook of Australian languages Vol. 2, eds. Dixon RMW and B Blake, 1-144. Canberra: ANU Press.

Dixon, R M W and Koch, Grace. 1996. Dyirbal song poetry : the oral literature of an Australian rainforest people. St. Lucia, QLD: University of Queensland Press.

Sutton, Peter. 1973. Gugu-Badhun and its neighbours: a linguistic salvage study, Macquarie University: MA.

Tindale, Norman. 1974. Tribal Boundaries in Aboriginal Australia. Canberra: Division of National Mapping, Department of National Development.

See Austlang website for a complete bibliography about  Bundjalung

Links

Ethnologue entry for Wargamay

AUSTLANG website