Ngarnka language
| Ngarnji | |
|---|---|
| Ngarnka | |
| Native to | Australia |
| Region | Barkly Tableland, Northern Territory |
| Ethnicity | Ngarnji |
| Extinct | 1997–1998 |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | included in [nji] Gudanji |
| Glottolog |
Noneguda1242 (included in Gudanji)
|
| AIATSIS | N121 |
The Ngarnji (Ngarndji) language, Ngarnka (Ngarnga, Ngarnku), is the language traditionally spoken by the Ngarnji people of the Barkly Tablelands in the Northern Territory of Australia. The last fluent speaker of the language died between 1997 and 1998. Ngarnka belongs to the Mirndi language family, in the Ngurlun branch. It is closely related to its eastern neighbours Binbinka, Gudanji and Wambaya. It is more distantly related to its western neighbour Jingulu, and three languages of the Victoria River District, Jaminjung, Ngaliwurru and Nungali. There is very little documentation and description of Ngarnka, however there have been several graduate and undergraduate dissertations written on various aspects of Ngarnka morphology, and a sketch grammar and lexicon of Ngarnka is currently in preparation.
Ngarnka possesses two kinds of verb: inflecting verbs and uninflecting verbs. These two word classes are common in many languages of northern Australia. Inflecting verbs are finite, bear bound pronouns, inflect for tense, aspect and mood, and usually occur in second position. Uninflecting verbs bear only minimal tense inflection (distinguishing non-present tense), and are less distributionally restricted than inflecting verbs, although often occurring clause-initially. Inflecting verbs can constitute an independent predicate in a simple verb construction, whereas uninflecting verbs must occur with an inflecting verb in a light verb construction (although they occur independently in non-finite subordinate clauses). There are only three inflecting verbs in Ngarnka: a general 'do' inflecting verb, a centrifugal locomotion inflecting verb 'go', and a centripetal locomotion inflecting verb 'come'. Examples of inflecting verbs and uninflecting verbs are provided below.
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