Kalaw Kawaw Ya
[aka Kala Yagaw Ya, Yagar Yagar, Mabuiag]Classification: Pama-Nyungan
·severely endangered
Classification: Pama-Nyungan
·severely endangered
Kala Yagaw Ya, Yagar Yagar, Mabuiag, Kala Lagau Langgus, Langus, West Torres |
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Pama-Nyungan |
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ISO 639-3 |
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mwp |
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As csv |
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Information from: “Kalaw Kawaw Ya (Saibai Island, Western Torres Strait Islands, Australia) - Language Snapshot” . Alistair Harvey (2021) , Peter K. Austin · ELPublishing
Cultural stories and songs are predominately transmitted in KKY, and passing elders mean a loss of knowledge and wisdom for the remaining community members.
Yumplatok (Torres Strait Creole)
Australian English
Information from: “Encyclopedia of the World's Endangered Languages” . Christopher Moseley (2007) Routledge
"Outside the Kala Lagaw Ya language area, those younger than thirty are likely to speak Torres Strait Creole. Kala Lagaw Ya is now potentially endangered."
Torres Strait Creole
"There are about 4,000 or so fluent speakers in the Torres Strait area. Others have moved to the Queensland mainland, particularly to cities such as Townsville and Brisbane."
Information from: “How many languages were spoken in Australia?” . Claire Bowern (2011)
Speaker numbers vary extensively for this language depending on whether the Western (and Central) Torres language is counted as a single language, or whether different numbers of speakers are given for Kalaw Kawaw Ya and Kala Lagaw Ya. There is a sizable ex-pat community in Brisbane and they are working on a language program. The language transmission is fragile, but speakers are strong. Younger speakers are texting in the language, for example.
Information from: “LL-MAP (Language and Location: A Map Accessibility Project)” . Anthony Aristar and Helen Aristar-Dry and Yichun Xie (2012)
Information from: “A sketch of Kalaw Kawaw Ya” (118-142) . Ford, Kevin and Ober, Dana (1991) , S. Romaine · Cambridge University Press
Torres Strait Creole (Broken)
English
Meriam Mer
Saibai Island, Dauan Island, Boigu Island, Bamada