Southwest Pama–Nyungan languages explained

Southwest Pama–Nyungan
Familycolor:	Australian
Map:	File:SW Pama–Nyungan languages.png
Glotto:	sout3134
Glottorefname:	South-West Pama–Nyungan

The Southwest Pama–Nyungan or Nyungic language group is the most diverse and widespread, though hypothetical, subfamily of the Pama–Nyungan language family of Australia. It contains about fifty distinct languages.

Internal classification

The Kanyara and Mantharta languages appear to be the most divergent of the Southwest languages. The others are sometimes collected under the name Nyungic.

• Kanyara
• Mantharta
• Nyungic
  • Ngayarda
  • Kartu
  • Nyungar
  • Mangarla
  • Mirning (Mirniny)
  • Wati (Western Desert language)
  • Marrngu
  • Ngarrka–Ngumpin
  • Yura

Validity

The proposal has been largely abandoned. Bowern (2011) restricts "Southwest Pama–Nyungan" to Nyungar plus Kalaaku (See Nyungic languages). However, the language group does correspond to a clade identified in Bouckaert et al. (2018).

References

• Bouckaert, R. R., Bowern, C., & Atkinson, Q. D. (2018). The origin and expansion of Pama–Nyungan languages across Australia. Nature ecology & evolution, 2(4), 741-749.
• Dixon, R. M. W. (2002). Australian Languages: Their Nature and Development. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.