Garrwa
[aka Karrwa, Garawa, Karawa]Classification: Garrwan
·severely endangered
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Severely endangered
100 percent certain, based on the evidence available
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59
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"The 2006 Australian Bureau of Statistics Census reports 35 people in the Borroloola area who speak Garrwa at home (cf. 69 Yanyuwa speakers), and 24 in the wider Gulf region (a region which includes the country east of Borroloola to the Queensland border)."
- DATE OF INFO
- 2006
- DOMAINS OF USE
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- SPEAKER NUMBER TRENDS
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- TRANSMISSION
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- MORE ON VITALITY
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"Almost all of the people who contributed language material for this study were over 50, and most were over 65 at the time of this writing. Children have not been learning the language as a first language since at least the 1980s, so there are now at least two generations who have low or no proficiency in Garrwa.... while Garrwa is still spoken spontaneously in conversations between older people and some younger people who are active in cultural maintenance, it is not spoken between most people under the age of 50."
- INSTITUTIONAL SUPPORT
- Li-Kurlurluwa Language Centre (funding discontinued in 2011)
- OTHER LANGUAGES USED BY THE COMMUNITY
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Kriol
- LANGUAGE CONTEXT COMMENTS
"While efforts at language maintenance are ongoing, which includes the teaching of songs, dances, and vocabulary, they depend largely on the initiative of the older generations."
- Scripts (Writing system)
- Latin
- More on Orthography
"The Furbys’ published work from the late 1960s and early 1970s uses a transcription system based on IPA symbols, but Garrwa orthography has been well established since at least the 1970s.... [T]he orthography was originally developed by SIL linguists in collaboration with Garrwa speakers as part of the translation of scripture into Garrwa. Biblical translations from 1976 show virtually the same writing conventions that are used in this grammar and other contemporary written Garrwa."
- PLACES
- Northern Territory, Australia
- LOCATION DESCRIPTION
Borroloola, Wandangula, Robinson River,
- ADDITIONAL COMMENTS
"At the time of this writing, people who identify as Garrwa live mostly in and around the Northern Territory town of Borroloola (population approximately 2000), a town which is itself nominally in Yanyuwa country, but which is close to traditional Garrwa country... Wandangula, an outstation some 26kms east of Borroloola, houses a small population who are of mostly mixed Garrwa and Yanyuwa heritage but who have strong Garrwa affiliations... The main population centre within Garrwa traditional territory is the community of Robinson River (approximately 300 people). There are also a number of Garrwa-identified families in the Queensland town of Doomadgee, a town considered to be Ganggalida territory (Trigger 1992), and some people of Garrwa ancestry live in other towns, predominantly in Queensland and the Northern Territory."