Martu Wangka Orthography

MARTU WANGKA ALPHABET AND
PRONUNCIATION GUIDE

Martu Wangka has 23 sounds with important differences between them. The sounds of
Martu Wangka are written Hke this:

a aa i ii j k 1 ly m n ng ny p r rl rn rr rt t u uu w y

This is the alphabet of Martu Wangka. It uses some of the same letters as the English
alphabet. The letters of the English alphabet are

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz

When the sounds in both languages are the same or approximately the same, the letters
in the two alphabets are written the same.

The Martu Wangka alphabet includes several sounds that are written with two letters
(also called digraphs): aa, ii, ly, ng, ny, rl, m, rr, rt, uu. English also uses two letters for
some sounds, for example ch in children and ng in sing, but these sounds are not written
as separate symbols in the English alphabet.

Most of the words in Martu Wangka begin with one of the following consonants: j, k, 1,
m, n, ng, ny, p, r, t, w, y. However, some Martu Wangka speakers say words which
begin with i or u.

In this dictionary the headwords of the entries are listed according to English
alphabetical order since most people using this dictionary are familiar with this system.
This means that for the purposes of arranging in alphabetical order, the fact that Martu
Wangka sometimes uses two letters to represent one sound is ignored. For example,
wangkangu [w a ng k a ng u] is alphabetised as if it were wangkangu. When the
headword has a hyphen in it, as in kirti-kirti, the word is alphabetised as if the hyphen
was not there, that is, k i r t i k i r t i.

Here is a pronunciation guide for people who do not speak Martu Wangka. However, a
person could not learn to say Martu Wangka words very well just by reading this guide.
A person would need to listen to the Martu saying these words and then copy their
pronunciation.

Sounds which are the same as English :

1 as in English lame; Martu Wangka lunki 'grub'

m as in English man; Martu Wangka mama 'father'

n as in English now; Martu Wangka nanpa 'hair belt'

r as in English run; Martu Wangka rawa 'a long time'
w as in English win; Martu Wangka wana 'digging stick'

y as in English you; Martu Wangka >'ww 'yes'

Martu Wangka vowel sounds :

a similar to a in English father, but with some variation. Martu Wangka
jamu 'grandfather/grandson'. After w it is rounded as in English watch;
Martu Wangka wangka 'language'.

i similar to i in English police, but with some variation; Martu Wangka miku
'jealous'

u similar to u in English put, but with some variation; Martu Wangka ywrra
'leave it!'

There are three long vowels, aa, ii, uu.

aa similar to Martu Wangka a but held longer; Martu Wangka nyaaku 'for
what reason?'

ii similar to Martu Wangka i but held longer; Martu Wangka y/mya 'that one
there'

uu similar to Martu Wangka u but held longer; Martu Wangka wuungku 'a
windbreak'

Other consonant sounds:

j similar to j in English y^r; Martu Wangka y^pw 'small' and majala 'wait!'

k almost the same as in English skid, not as in kid, which has a puff of air
accompanying k. In the middle of words it sounds almost like g. Martu
Wangka examples are kaja 'son' and jikila 'drink it!'

ly sounds a bit like the Hi in English million; Martu Wangka examples are
mulya 'nose' and palulyu 'that's all'. This sound never comes at the
beginning of a word.

ng as in English sing; Martu Wangka ywAzga 'correct/the right side'. Unlike in
English, this sound often comes at the beginning of words; Martu Wangka
ngala 'eat it!' and ngana 'who/what'

ny a bit like the sound of n in English new and nuisance and ni in onion.
Martu Wangka examples are nyupa 'husband/wife' and wanyu 'slow'.

p almost the same as in English spot, not as in pot which has a puff of air
accompanying p. In the middle of words it sounds almost like b. Martu
Wangka examples axtpuwa 'hit it!' and nyaparu 'substitute name'.

11

rl is a sound in which the tongue tip moves toward the roof of the mouth.
The sound is a bit like the sound of rl in American English curly. Martu
Wangka examples avepurli 'stone' and kurlu iater'. This sound never
comes at the beginning of a word.

m is a sound in which the tongue tip moves toward the roof of the mouth.
The sound is a bit like the sound of rn in American English corner. Martu
Wangka examples dLXtparna 'earth/ground' and purnu 'the bush'. This
sound never comes at the beginning of a word.

rr is a flapped or trilled r as in Scottish English turkey. Martu Wangka

examples are karru 'creek' and karrpu 'daytime'. This sound never comes
at the beginning of a word.

rt is a sound in which the tongue tip moves toward the roof of the mouth.
The sound is a bit like the sound of rd in American English pardon. Martu
Wangka examples are martu 'Aboriginal person' and mirta 'not'. This
sound never comes at the beginning of a word.

t almost the same as in English stop, not as in top which has a puff of air
accompanying t. In the middle of words it sounds almost like d. Martu
Wangka examples are takala 'climb up!' and yutirringu 'it became visible'

Word stress is almost always on the first syllable of a word in Martu Wangka: MA-rtu
'Aboriginal person'; YA-rra-rni 'come here!'; MA-ja-la-ju 'wait for me!'.

Marsh, James, compiler. 1992. Martu Wangka - English dictionary. Darwin:
Summer Institute of Linguistics. 441 p.