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Language Lineage

Kulin

The languages of the Kulin nations of Victoria, among them Woiwurrung (the language of Melbourne), Boonwurrung, Wathawurrung, Dja Dja Wurrung and Wemba Wemba, many of which have names ending in 'wurrung' ('mouth, speech').

c. 1st millennium BCE – presentCentral and western Victoria, including the Melbourne area (Narrm)
On this page
  1. The Kulin Nations
  2. Colonisation and Return
  3. Where it's spoken
  4. Turning points

01

The Kulin Nations

The Kulin languages were spoken across central Victoria, around Port Phillip Bay, where Melbourne now stands, and along the Murray River. Many of their names contain wurrung 'mouth, speech': Woiwurrung, Boonwurrung, Wathawurrung. The peoples of the five Kulin nations shared ceremonies and marriage ties across the language boundaries.

02

Colonisation and Return

Melbourne was founded in 1835 on Wurundjeri land, and within a few decades disease, violence and confinement on reserves such as Coranderrk had devastated the Kulin population. By the early 20th century few people spoke the languages fluently. Since the 1990s Kulin communities, supported by the Victorian Aboriginal Corporation for Languages, have been reviving them from 19th-century records and the memories of elders. Woiwurrung words are now heard in welcomes to country across Melbourne, where the city itself is often called Narrm.

On the map

Where it’s spoken

Formerly spokenShading marks whole countries, not the regions within them.
  1. Australiaformerly

Figures are rough first-language estimates, rounded, from censuses and Ethnologue. Counts for small or scattered communities are especially uncertain.

Rings along the limb

Turning points

Oldest first.

  1. Splitc. 1st millennium BCEContested

    The Kulin group forms

    The Kulin languages diverge across central Victoria. They belong to the southeastern Pama-Nyungan languages, but their closer relationships are uncertain.

    Sources (1)
    • Blake, Barry J. 1991. Woiwurrung, the Melbourne language. In Handbook of Australian Languages, vol. 4, ed. R. M. W. Dixon & Barry J. Blake. Melbourne: Oxford University Press.
  2. Contact1835 onward

    Melbourne founded

    The settlement of Port Phillip and rapid pastoral expansion across Victoria bring dispossession, epidemics and the removal of Kulin people to reserves such as Coranderrk.

    Sources (1)
    • Blake, Barry J. 1991. Woiwurrung, the Melbourne language. In Handbook of Australian Languages, vol. 4, ed. R. M. W. Dixon & Barry J. Blake. Melbourne: Oxford University Press.
  3. ExtinctionLate 19th – 20th centuryContested

    Fluent speakers pass away

    The last fluent speakers of the Kulin languages die, leaving word lists, grammatical notes and remembered words and songs. The dates for individual languages are poorly recorded.

    Sources (1)
    • Blake, Barry J. 1991. Woiwurrung, the Melbourne language. In Handbook of Australian Languages, vol. 4, ed. R. M. W. Dixon & Barry J. Blake. Melbourne: Oxford University Press.
  4. Revitalization1994 onward

    Reviving the Kulin languages

    The Victorian Aboriginal Corporation for Languages is founded to support revival, and Kulin communities rebuild their languages for ceremony, schools and public life.

    Sources (1)
    • Bowern, Claire, ed. 2023. The Oxford Guide to Australian Languages. Oxford: Oxford University Press.