Nganʼgityemerri—or Nganʼgi for short—is an Australian Aboriginal language spoken in the Daly Riverregion of Australiaʼs Northern Territory. The language is spoken in three mutually intelligible dialects: Nganʼgikurunggurr, Ngenʼgiwumirri, and Nganʼgimerri, which are 90% cognate but distinct languages sociolinguistically. Nganʼgi is spoken by about 150-200 people in the region around the Daly River and in a number of smaller outstations on traditional lands. Official census data, however, states only 26 at homespeakers.
Spelling variants
Nganʼgi is sometimes also referred to by its speakers as Ngan'gityemerri. The varieties of this language have using widely differing spellings, including Nangikurrunggurr, Ngankikurungkurr, Ngenkikurrunggur, Ngangikarangurr, Ngankikurrunkurr, Nangikurunggurr, Nanggikorongo, Nangikurungguru, Nangikurungurr, Nangikurunurr, Nangityemer, Nganʼgikurunggurr, Ngangikurongor, Ngangikurrunggurr, Ngangikurrungur, Ngan'gikurunggurr, Ngangikurunggurr, Tyemeri, Moil, Moiil, Moyl, Moyle, Ngangi-Wumeri, Ngenkiwumerri, Nangumiri, Nangiomeri, Nangimera, Mariwumiri, Mariwunini, Murin-wumiri, Nanggiomeri, Nanggiwumiri, Nanggumiri, Nangimeri, Nangiomera, Nangi-wumiri, Ngan'giwumirri, Ngengewumiri, Ngen'giwumirri, Ngengomeri, Ngen-gomeri and Wumiri. Sometimes it is referred to by the names it is called by neighbouring languages, such as Marityemeri, Marri Sjemirri and Murrinh Tyemerri.
Nganʼgi is a non-Pama-Nyungan language with stronghead-marking properties. It has 31 finite verbs, which combine with a large class of coverbs to form morphologically complex verb words with the type of information requiring a sentence to convey in English. Nganʼgi also has a system of 16 noun classes, which exhibit agreement properties on modifying words. Nganʼgi also has sound features which are unusual by Australian standards, including a three-way obstruent contrast; it has two series of stops, as well as phonemic fricatives.
Relationship to other languages
The first major study of Nganʼgi was Darrell Tryonʼs 1974 work, a broad discussion of Nganʼgi as one of a dozen or so "Daly family languages". Tryon viewed Nganʼgikurunggurr and Ngenʼgiwumirri as two languages of the "Tyemeri subgroup" of the Daly family. They are now classified with Murrinh-Patha as a Southern Daly family, a position not without problems; see Southern Daly languages for details.
