Proto-Pama–Nyungan language

Pama–Nyungan
Geographic distribution	most of mainland Australia, with the exception of northern parts of Northern Territory and Western Australia
Linguistic classification	Macro-Pama–Nyungan Greater Pama–Nyungan Pama–Nyungan
Proto-language	Proto-Pama–Nyungan
Subdivisions	Yolŋu, Warluwaric, Kalkatungic, Mayi, Paman, Kala Lagaw Ya, Yidiny, Dyirbalic, Maric, Waka–Kabic, Durubulic, Bandjalangic, Gumbaynggiric, Anewan, Wiradhuric, Yuin–Kuric, Gippsland, Yotayotic, Kulinic, Lower Murray, Thura-Yura, Mirniny, Nyungar, Kartu, Kanyara–Mantharta, Ngayarta, Marrngu, Ngumpin–Yapa, Warumungu, Wati, Arandic, Karnic, Yardli, Muruwari, Darling plus unclassified languages
Glottolog	pama1250
Pama–Nyungan languages (yellow) Other Macro-Pama–Nyungan (green and orange)

The Pama–Nyungan languages are the most widespread family of Indigenous Australian languages, containing perhaps 300 languages. The name "Pama–Nyungan" is derived from the names of the two most widely separated groups, the Pama languages of the northeast and the Nyungan languages of the southwest. The words pama and nyunga mean "man" in their respective languages.

The other language families indigenous to the continent of Australia are occasionally referred to, by exclusion, as non-Pama–Nyungan languages, though this is not a taxonomic term. The Pama–Nyungan family accounts for most of the geographic spread, most of the Aboriginal population, and the greatest number of languages. Most of the Pama–Nyungan languages are spoken by small ethnic groups of hundreds of speakers or fewer. Many, but not all, are considered endangered, and many have recently become extinct.

The Pama–Nyungan family was identified and named by Kenneth L. Hale, in his work on the classification of Native Australian languages. Hale's research led him to the conclusion that of the Aboriginal Australian languages, one relatively closely interrelated family had spread and proliferated over most of the continent, while approximately a dozen other families were concentrated along the North coast.

Evans and McConvell describe typical Pama–Nyungan languages such as Warlpiri as dependent-marking and exclusively suffixing languages which lack gender, while noting that some non-Pama–Nyungan languages such as Tangkic share this typology and some Pama–Nyungan languages like Yanyuwa, a head-marking and prefixing language with a complicated gender system, diverge from it.

Proto-Pama–Nyungan may have been spoken as recently as about 5,000 years ago, much more recently than the 40,000 to 60,000 years Indigenous Australians are believed to have been inhabiting Australia. How the Pama–Nyungan languages spread over most of the continent and displaced any pre-Pama–Nyungan languages is uncertain; one possibility is that language could have been transferred from one group to another alongside culture and ritual. Given the relationship of cognates between groups, it seems that Pama-Nyungan has many of the characteristics of a sprachbund, indicating the antiquity of multiple waves of culture contact between groups. Dixon in particular has argued that the genealogical trees found with many language families do not fit in the Pama-Nyungan family.