Language name and location: Ngarinyin, Australia [Refer to Ethnologue]

语言名称和分布地区: 恩加里宁语, 澳大利亚西部

1. /erri/, [ɛɾi] (masculine); /nyerri/, [ɲɛɾi] (feminine);

    /merri/, [mɛɾi] m-class neuter, /werri/, [wɛɾi] w-class neuter

2. /mejerri/, [mɛɟɛɾi]

3. /mejerri erri/, [mɛɟɛɾi ɛɾi]

3.  /mejerri a mejerri /, [mɛɟɛɾi a mɛɟɛɾi]

Linguist providing data and dateː Prof. Alan Rumsey, Department of Anthropology, College of Asia and the Pacific, Australian National University. October 10, 2012.
提供资料的语言学家: Prof. Alan Rumsey, 2012 年 10 月 10 日.

Other comments: Ngarinyin, is a non-Pama-Nyungan Australian Aboriginal language spoken the Kimberley region, in the northern part of the state of Western Australia.

1. The word for ‘one’ in Ngarinyin is an inflecting root that never occurs in bare form, but always take a prefix showing the noun class of the referent. The forms, shown in both phonemic form (/  /) and phonetic form ([  ])are: masculine  /erri/, [ɛri]，

feminine /nyerri/, [ɲɛri]， m- class neuter /merri/, [mɛri]，w- class neuter, /werri/,  [wɛri]. (for the semantics of Ngarinyin noun classes see Rumsey, Alan 1982. An Intra-sentence Grammar of Ungarinjin, Northwestern Australia. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. Pp. 37-41.)

2. The word for ‘two’ in Ngarinyin does not inflect for gender. It is: /mejerri/, [mjɛri]

3. The expression for ‘three’ in Ngarinyin consists of the word for ‘two’ followed by the word for one, e.g.: /mejerri erri /, [mjɛri ɛri]

For referents of other genders, the word for ‘one’ in this expression varies accordingly as shown in 1.

4. The expression for ‘four’ literally means ‘two and two’, i.e.

    /mejerri a mejerri /,   [mjɛri a mjɛri ]

5. As far as I have been able to determine there are no Ngarinyin words for numbers higher than four.

Phonological Inventory of Ngarinyin

Consonant Inventoriesː

Vowel inventoriesː