Endangered Languages Project

ALSO KNOWN AS		MacArthur Subgroup, Wombaia, Wambaja, Wampaja, Won-baia, Wom-by-a, Wombya, Yumpia, Umbaia, Umbia, Wambaia, Umbai, Wampaya, Wom-By-A,Wambayan,Binbinka
CLASSIFICATION		Mirndi
CODE AUTHORITY		ISO 639-3
LANGUAGE CODE		wmb
VARIANTS & DIALECTS		Gudanji Wambaya Binbinka
DOWNLOAD		As csv
MORE RESOURCES		OLAC search

Compare Sources (9)

Information from: “Australasia and the Pacific” (425-577) . Stephen Wurm (2007) , Christopher Moseley · Routledge

Critically endangered

20 percent certain, based on the evidence available
2-3
Native speakers worldwide

OTHER LANGUAGES USED BY THE COMMUNITY

Severely endangered

100 percent certain, based on the evidence available
“My estimates are that there are only between 15 and 20 really competent speakers of Wambaya left…”
Native speakers worldwide
SEMI SPEAKERS
32
MORE ON SPEAKER NUMBERS
“A recent survey of language speakers undertaken by Robert Hoogenraad lists 32 people who claim to be full speaks of Wambaya…”

“...One old (now deceased) Wambaya man is reported as claiming there are only two fluent Wambaya speakers left (of which he was one) as all the other speakers have mixed the language up with Gudanji.”

DOMAINS OF USE

SPEAKER NUMBER TRENDS

TRANSMISSION

MORE ON VITALITY

“All of the competent speakers of Wambaya and Gudanji are over about 55 years old, and most of them would be over 60.”

“None of the younger generations can speak the language at all, apart from the subsection terms, kinship terms and some lexical items.”

SPEAKER ATTITUDE

“There is, however, some interest among some of the younger people in learning to read and write Wambaya, with the possible intention of teaching some to the children in school.”

Severely endangered

20 percent certain, based on the evidence available
12
Native speakers worldwide
MORE ON SPEAKER NUMBERS
Speaker number data: (Wurm and Hattori 1981)

PLACES: Australia;

LOCATION DESCRIPTION: Northern Territory, Barkly Tableland, Limmen Bight and McArthur rivers headwaters; east of Lake Woods

Severely endangered

20 percent certain, based on the evidence available
20
Native speakers worldwide

Dormant
“Wambaya is a recently extinct language of the West Barkly family from the Northern Territory in Australia”
Native speakers worldwide

Severely endangered

20 percent certain, based on the evidence available
12
Native speakers worldwide
MORE ON SPEAKER NUMBERS
3 speakers of Gudanji variety.

DATE OF INFO: 1981

Severely endangered

20 percent certain, based on the evidence available
12
Native speakers worldwide

Severely endangered

20 percent certain, based on the evidence available
20
Native speakers worldwide

			2007	Australasia and the Pacific	Atlas of the World's Languages	97-126		R. E. Asher and Christopher Moseley	Routledge			4			Darrell Tryon	Tryon, Darrell. 2007. "Australasia and the Pacific." In Atlas of the World's Languages, edited by R. E. Asher and Christopher Moseley. 97-126. Routledge.		12	1981	10-99	3 speakers of Gudanji variety.				Severely Endangered (20 percent certain, based on the evidence available)
		16	2009	Ethnologue: Languages of the World, 16th Edition (2009)				M. Paul Lewis	SIL International		Dallas, TX			http://www.ethnologue.com/		Lewis, M. Paul (ed.). 2009. Ethnologue: Languages of the World, 16 edn. http://www.ethnologue.com/home.asp. (15 February, 2011.)	ll_pub	12		10-99	Speaker number data: (Wurm and Hattori 1981)				Severely Endangered (20 percent certain, based on the evidence available)					Australia;	Northern Territory, Barkly Tableland, Limmen Bight and McArthur rivers headwaters; east of Lake Woods
			2011	How many languages were spoken in Australia?			Also includes subsequent additions by CB directly into ElCat							http://anggarrgoon.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/austlangs-masterlanguagelist-dec2011.xlsx	Claire Bowern	Claire Bowern. 2011. "How Many Languages Were Spoken in Australia?" Online: http://anggarrgoon.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/austlangs-masterlanguagelist-dec2011.xlsx.																-16.31666942,135.2617924
																																-18.16780391,135.2714652
				Austlang: Australian Indigenous Languages Database					AIATSIS		Canberra			http://austlang.aiatsis.gov.au		AUSTLANG: Australian Indigenous Languages Database. (19 October, 2009.)	ll_pub	20		10-99					Severely Endangered (20 percent certain, based on the evidence available)
		3rd	2010	Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger					UNESCO Publishing		Paris			http://www.unesco.org/culture/en/endangeredlanguages/atlas	Christopher Moseley (ed.)	Moseley, Christopher (ed.). 2010. Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger, 3rd edn. http://www.unesco.org/culture/en/endangeredlanguages/atlas. (03 June, 2011.)	ll_pub	20		10-99					Severely Endangered (20 percent certain, based on the evidence available)
2008 Association for Computational Linguistics	June		2008	Evaluating a Crosslinguistic Grammar Resource: A Case Study of Wambaya		977-985				Proceedings of ACL-08: HLT				https://aclweb.org/anthology/P/P08/P08-1111.pdf	Emily Bender	Bender, Emily M. 2008. "Evaluating a crosslinguistic grammar resource: a case study of Wambaya". Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics and ... Conference of the European Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics : Proceedings of the Conference. 46: 977-985		“Wambaya is a recently extinct language of the West Barkly family from the Northern Territory in Australia”							Dormant ()
	August		1993	A Grammar of Wambaya					Pacific Linguistics				University of Melbourne	http://cryptm.org/~nort/linguistics/Wambaya.pdf	Rachel Nordlinger	Nordlinger, Rachel. 1998. A grammar of Wambaya, Northern Australia. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.		“My estimates are that there are only between 15 and 20 really competent speakers of Wambaya left…”		10-99	“A recent survey of language speakers undertaken by Robert Hoogenraad lists 32 people who claim to be full speaks of Wambaya…” “...One old (now deceased) Wambaya man is reported as claiming there are only two fluent Wambaya speakers left (of which he was one) as all the other speakers have mixed the language up with Gudanji.”	32		“There is, however, some interest among some of the younger people in learning to read and write Wambaya, with the possible intention of teaching some to the children in school.”	Severely Endangered (100 percent certain, based on the evidence available)	13	“All of the competent speakers of Wambaya and Gudanji are over about 55 years old, and most of them would be over 60.” “None of the younger generations can speak the language at all, apart from the subsection terms, kinship terms and some lexical items.”	14	15
				World Oral Literature Project										http://www.oralliterature.org		"World Oral Literature Project." Online: http://www.oralliterature.org.		12		10-99					Severely Endangered (20 percent certain, based on the evidence available)
			2007	Australasia and the Pacific	Encyclopedia of the World's Endangered Languages	425-577		Christopher Moseley	Routledge		London and New York				Stephen Wurm	Stephen Wurm. 2007. "Australasia and the Pacific." In Encyclopedia of the World's Endangered Languages, edited by Christopher Moseley. 425-577. Routledge.		2-3		1-9			Kriol		Critically Endangered (20 percent certain, based on the evidence available)

Wambaya

Language metadata

Language information by source

Critically endangered

20 percent certain, based on the evidence available

2-3

Severely endangered

100 percent certain, based on the evidence available

“My estimates are that there are only between 15 and 20 really competent speakers of Wambaya left…”

Severely endangered

20 percent certain, based on the evidence available

12

Severely endangered

20 percent certain, based on the evidence available

20

Dormant

“Wambaya is a recently extinct language of the West Barkly family from the Northern Territory in Australia”

Severely endangered

20 percent certain, based on the evidence available

12

Severely endangered

20 percent certain, based on the evidence available

12

Severely endangered

20 percent certain, based on the evidence available

20

Discussion

Wambaya

Language metadata

Language information by source

Critically endangered

20 percent certain, based on the evidence available

2-3

Severely endangered

100 percent certain, based on the evidence available

“My estimates are that there are only between 15 and 20 really competent speakers of Wambaya left…”

Severely endangered

20 percent certain, based on the evidence available

12

Severely endangered

20 percent certain, based on the evidence available

20

Dormant

“Wambaya is a recently extinct language of the West Barkly family from the Northern Territory in Australia”

Severely endangered

20 percent certain, based on the evidence available

12

Severely endangered

20 percent certain, based on the evidence available

12

Severely endangered

20 percent certain, based on the evidence available

20

Discussion

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Sources of information

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