Bardi (also Baardi, Baard) is an endangered Australian Aboriginal language in the Nyulnyulan family, mutually intelligible with Jawi and possibly other dialects.
It is spoken by the Bardi people at the tip of the Dampier peninsula and neighbouring islands (north of Broome, in Northwestern Australia).
There are few fluent speakers in the 21st century, but efforts are being made to teach the Bardi language and culture at at least one school.
Before European settlement at the end of the 19th century, the population size is estimated to have been ~1500 people, with essentially the entire community speaking Bardi.
Estimates vary as to how many fluent Bardi speakers remain, but as of 2012[update], many middle-aged people could still understand the language, and some of them could speak it to a limited degree.
[3] The language and culture is being taught at Christ the King Catholic School in Djarindjin community by Bardi/Jabirr Jabirr man Vincent McKenzie, who grew up speaking Bardi.
According to R. M. W. Dixon (2002), Bardi was mutually intelligible with the following dialects: Jawi, Nyulnyul, Jabirr-Jabirr, Ngumbarl, and Nimanburru.
[8] In 2012, an extensive reference grammar was written by Claire Bowern and published by De Gruyter Mouton.
This is distinct from the morpho-phonological processes involving lenition that occur in the morphological system, such as in allomorphs of the locative case (-goon ~ -yoon ~ -oon).
While otherwise quite similar to that of languages in the more well-known Pama-Nyungan family, the orthography of Bardi is exceptional in its transcribing of both high-back vowels as 'oo' rather than 'u'.
While one might suspect that this orthographic depth could lead to communication difficulties, /uː/ is by far the least common vowel in the language and bears little functional load.
There are four major word classes in Bardi: nominals, verb roots, preverbs, and particles.
This morpheme attaches to the end of a noun to denote a person who is heavily associated with that area or who has reached a level of expertise in it.
ool-alwater-INDFool-alwater-INDF'watery stuff, icemelt'[16]nyoongoorl-jinold person-GROUPnyoongoorl-jin{old person}-GROUP'old people'[17]iil-ardadog-PRIViil-ardadog-PRIV'without dogs'[16]ardi-ngarranorth-WARDSardi-ngarranorth-WARDS'to the north'[18]Nouns in Bardi also often inflect for case.
Bardi also uses local case markers to indicate spatial relations involving location, motion, and direction.
Simple verbal predicates in Bardi consist of a verb inflected with prefixes indicating number and person.
Consider the sentence "Inanggagaljin baawanim mayi aamba," which is ordered V-S-DO-IO: VerbI-na-ng-ga-gal-jin3-TR-PST-bring-REC.PST=3MIN.IOSubjectbaawa-nimchild-ERGDirect ObjectmayituckerIndirect ObjectaambamanVerb Subject {Direct Object} {Indirect Object}I-na-ng-ga-gal-jin baawa-nim mayi aamba3-TR-PST-bring-REC.PST=3MIN.IO child-ERG tucker man'The child brought tucker (food) for the man.