Wergaia language

Wergaia
Region	Victoria
Ethnicity	Muthi Muthi people
Extinct	(date missing)
Language family	Pama–Nyungan Kulinic Kulin Wemba-Wemba Wergaia
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Either:  – Wergaia  – Wotjobaluk
Glottolog	None
AIATSIS	S17
Map of Victorian Aborigines language territories

Wergaia or Werrigia is an indigenous Australian language group in the Wimmera region of north-Western Victoria. Twenty clans made up the Wergaia language, which consisted of four distinct dialects: Wudjubalug/Wotjobaluk; Djadjala/Djadjali; Buibadjali; Biwadjali. Wergaia was apparently a dialect of the Wemba Wemba language The people were known as the Maligundidj, which means the people belonging to the mali (mallee) eucalypt bushland which covers much of their territory.

Before European settlement in the nineteenth century, the Wergaia-occupied the area that included Lake Hindmarsh, Lake Albacutya, Pine Plains Lake, Lake Werringrin, Lake Coorong, Warracknabeal, Beulah, Hopetoun, Dimboola, Ouyen, Yanac, Hattah Lakes and the Wimmera River.

The various groups within the Wergaia speak dialects of Wemba-Wemba, a member of the Kulinic branch of Pama–Nyungan.

The following is the Djadjala dialect.

Vowels given are /a e i u/.

Thomas Mitchell, exploring the territory over which the Wergaia dwelt, wrote in 1836:

Every day we passed over land which for natural fertility and beauty could scarcely be surpassed; over streams of unfailing abundance and plains covered with the richest pasturage. Stately trees and majestic mountains adorned the ever-varying scenery of this region, the most southern of all Australia and the best.