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Language Lineage

Western Desert

A single dialect chain spread over some 600,000 square kilometres of desert: Pitjantjatjara, Yankunytjatjara, Ngaanyatjarra, Pintupi, Martu and others, mutually intelligible between neighbours.

c. 1st millennium CE – presentThe deserts of Western Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory, about a sixth of the continent
On this page
  1. One Language Across the Desert
  2. A Language Still Growing
  3. In its own words
  4. Where it's spoken
  5. Turning points

01

One Language Across the Desert

The Western Desert language covers more territory than any other Australian language, from the Nullarbor Plain to the Pilbara and the Northern Territory. Its dialects (Pitjantjatjara, Yankunytjatjara, Ngaanyatjarra, Pintupi, Martu Wangka and more) form a chain in which neighbours understand each other easily. Its uniformity over such a vast area suggests that it spread relatively recently, perhaps within the last 1,000–2,000 years, though that is debated.

Western Desert people were among the last Australians to come into contact with the colonial world. In 1984 a group of nine Pintupi people who had never met outsiders walked out of the Gibson Desert, the last such first contact on the continent.

02

A Language Still Growing

Western Desert dialects are among the few Australian languages still learned by children. Pitjantjatjara was written in the 1940s at the Ernabella mission, where it was used in schooling. The 1981 Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Land Rights Act returned a large area of South Australia to its speakers. Today Pitjantjatjara is taught in schools and universities, used in media, and heard at Uluṟu, which lies in Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara country.

A sample

In its own words

Pitjantjatjara

Tjiḻpingku nyinara kapi tjikinu.
Tjiḻpingku
old.man-ERG
nyinara
sit-SERIAL
kapi
water
tjikinu.
drink-PAST
‘The old man sat drinking water.’
Sources (1)
  • Goddard, Cliff. English to Pitjantjatjara/Yankunytjatjara: Basic Wordlist. Alice Springs: Institute for Aboriginal Development, p. 74.

On the map

Where it’s spoken

Spoken todayShading marks whole countries, not the regions within them.
  1. Australiac. 7,500

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 CEContested

    Across the desert

    Western Desert speech spreads across the arid interior, and its low internal diversity suggests a relatively recent expansion. The date and its connection with changes in desert settlement are disputed.

    Sources (1)
    • Evans, Nicholas & Patrick McConvell. 1998. The enigma of Pama-Nyungan expansion in Australia. In Archaeology and Language II, ed. Roger Blench & Matthew Spriggs. London: Routledge.
  2. Writing1940s

    Pitjantjatjara in writing

    At the Ernabella mission, Pitjantjatjara is written in the Latin alphabet and used in teaching, the start of literacy in the language and, later, of bilingual education in the region.

    Sources (1)
    • Bowern, Claire, ed. 2023. The Oxford Guide to Australian Languages. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  3. Revitalization1981

    Land rights

    The Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Land Rights Act returns freehold title over a large area of northwest South Australia. Communities living on their own land keep the language strong.

    Sources (1)
    • Bowern, Claire, ed. 2023. The Oxford Guide to Australian Languages. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  4. Contact1984

    The last first contact

    Nine Pintupi people who had lived entirely in the traditional way in the Gibson Desert come into contact with outsiders, the last recorded first contact in Australia.

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