Mantharta language

Mantharta
Region	Western Australia
Ethnicity	Tharrkari, Wariangga, Tenma, Jiwarli, ?Malgaru
Native speakers	2 Dhargari (2005)[1]; (1 cited 2007)[2]
Language family	Pama–Nyungan Kanyara–Mantharta Mantharta; ;
Dialects	Dhargari; Warriyangga; Dhiin; Jiwarli;
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Variously:; dhr – Dhargari; wri – Warriyangga; iin – Thiin; dze – Djiwarli
Glottolog	mant1266
AIATSIS[1]	W21 Tharrkari, W22 Warriyangka, W25 Thiin, W28 Jiwarli
	Mantharta languages (green) among other Pama–Nyungan (tan).

Mantharta is a partly extinct dialect cluster spoken in the southern Pilbara region of Western Australia. There were four varieties, which were distinct but largely mutually intelligible. The four were:[3][4]

Tharrgari (Tharrkari, Dhargari), still spoken c. 2005
Warriyangka (Wadiwangga), still spoken c. 1973
Thiin, extinct by 2004
Jiwarli (Tjiwarli), extinct by 2004

The name mantharta comes from the word for "man" in all four varieties.

Language revival

As of 2020, the Warriyangga dialect is one of 20 languages prioritised as part of the Priority Languages Support Project, being undertaken by First Languages Australia and funded by the Department of Communications and the Arts. The project aims to "identify and document critically-endangered languages — those languages for which little or no documentation exists, where no recordings have previously been made, but where there are living speakers".[5]

References

W21 Tharrkari at the Australian Indigenous Languages Database, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (see the info box for additional links)
Dhargari at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
Dixon, R. M. W. (2002). Australian Languages: Their Nature and Development. Cambridge University Press. p. xxxviii.
Bowern & Koch (2004) Australian Languages: Classification and the Comparative Method
"Priority Languages Support Project". First Languages Australia. Retrieved 13 January 2020.

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[AIATSIS-1] W21 Tharrkari at the Australian Indigenous Languages Database, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (see the info box for additional links)

[2] Dhargari at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)

[3] Dixon, R. M. W. (2002). Australian Languages: Their Nature and Development. Cambridge University Press. p. xxxviii.

[4] Bowern & Koch (2004) Australian Languages: Classification and the Comparative Method

[5] "Priority Languages Support Project". First Languages Australia. Retrieved 13 January 2020.