Nyangumarta, also written Njaŋumada, Njangamada, Njanjamarta and other variants, is a language spoken by the Nyangumarta people and other Aboriginal Australians in the region of Western Australia to the south and east of Lake Waukarlykarly, including Eighty Mile Beach, and part of the Great Sandy Desert inland to near Telfer.
Allophones of the consonants tend to vary in manner of articulation rather than place of articulation – e.g. plosives are usually voiceless word-initially, but voiced intervocalically and following nasals, and some plosives have fricative allophones.
As is typical of Pama-Nyungan languages, Nyangamurta uses suffixes to show case, person, number, TAM.
Unusually for a language of the Pilbara region,[7] Nyangumarta has pronominal suffixes that attach to the verb in addition to independent pronouns.
'Some nominals are bound, and have no meaning independent of their use in complex verbs Wurang?karri-nyiSTAT-NFUTWurang karri-nyi?
STAT-NFUT'duck out of sight'Nyangumarta uses a split ergative system of alignment: while case marking is done on an ergative-absolutive basis, pronouns (including pronominal marking on verbs) use a nominative-accusative system[6]: 120–124, 140, 322 Ngaju-lu1SG-ERGkampa-rna-rnacook-NFUT-1SG.SUBmayivegetable.foodNgaju-lu kampa-rna-rna mayi1SG-ERG cook-NFUT-1SG.SUB vegetable.food'I cooked the food.
There are also a few verb roots that encode a semantic distinction by alternating between the classes (e.g. jupa-NY, 'diminish' and jupa-RN, 'extinguish').
Additional case markers (dative, accusative, and locative) can be added on along with the ablative to produce more specific effects.
'Martuwara-jadish-ABLjurti-nikinyi-yirnipour-IMPF-1PL.EXC.SUBparlkarra-ngaflat-LOCjarnti-na-ja-ngaclear-NM-ABL-LOCMartuwara-ja jurti-nikinyi-yirni parlkarra-nga jarnti-na-ja-ngadish-ABL pour-IMPF-1PL.EXC.SUB flat-LOC clear-NM-ABL-LOC'We poured it from the dish onto the flat which is cleared.