apico- apico- lamino- dorso-The vowels are i, a, u. Long vowels are written ii, aa, uu.
bilabial alveolar domal alveolar velar
stops p t rt j k
nasals m n rn ny ng
laterals l rl ly
flap rr rd
glides w r y
This way of writing Warlpiri was worked out by †Lothar Jagst, †Paddy Patrick Jangala and †Maurice Luther Jupurrurla at Lajamanu in the late 60’s and 70’s. (Anon. 'Warlpiri karna Yirrarni. I can write Warlpiri. Puku 2'. n.d.)
1959 to early 1967 | late 1967 to 1974 | 1974 onwards, ‘practical’ |
---|---|---|
r | r | rr |
ṛ | ḍ | rd (rr initially, in 1974) |
R | ṛ | r |
ṭ | ṭ | rt (t initially) |
ṇ | ṇ | rn (n initially) |
ḷ | ḷ | rl (l initially) |
ty | tj | j |
ny | nj | ny (n, before j) |
ly | lj | ly (l, before j) |
ŋ | ŋ | ng |
a: | a: | aa |
i: | i: | ii |
u: | u: | uu |
Meggitt (1962)'s and Munn (1973)’s influential
ethnographies used a b-d-g
orthography which did not distinguish retroflex consonants, and used j for the palatal glide (y). That convention continued to an
extent in anthropological
writings, and the spelling Walbiri conforms
to that orthography. (Earlier
spellings such as Wailbry and
Wailbri were not derived from
a systematic
orthography.)
Created by 6 February 2012
Modified 21 March 2021
URL http://www.anu.edu.au/linguistics/nash/aust/wlp/wlp-orthography.html