Pitjantjatjara Language
Pitjantjatjara /pɪtʃəntʃəˈtʃɑːrə/ ( or ) is a dialect of the Western Desert language traditionally spoken by the Pitjantjatjara people of Central Australia. It is mutually intelligible with other varieties of the Western Desert language and is particularly closely related to Yankunytjatjara language. Features distinctive to Pitjantjatjara include -pa endings on words that would otherwise end with consonants, a preference to not have y at the start of most words, and the use of pitjantja to mean coming/going (as opposed to yankunytja in Yankunytjatjara). This last distinction is how the language gets its name.
Only about 20% of Pitjantjatjara speakers know English. This caused controversy in May 2007, when the Australian government launched a plan to force Aboriginal children to learn English. Between 50% and 70% are literate in their own language. There is a lot of resentment among Aboriginal people about the lack of recognition of their languages from the government and the Australian population.
The longest official place name in Australia is a Pitjantjatjara word, Mamungkukumpurangkuntjunya Hill in South Australia, which means "where a devil urinates".
Read more about Pitjantjatjara Language: Segmental Phonology and Orthography, Pronunciation of The Name, Unicode, External Links, References
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