The Nyulnyulan languages are a small family of closely related Australian Aboriginal languages spoken in northern Western Australia. Most languages in this family are extinct, with only three extant languages, all of which are almost extinct.

Internal classification

The languages form two branches established on the basis of lexical and morphological innovation.

Vocabulary

Capell (1940) lists the following basic vocabulary items for the Nyulnyulan languages: ! gloss ! Bard !! Njulnjul !! Jauor !! Njigina !! Warrwa ! man ! woman ! head ! eye ! nose ! mouth ! tongue ! stomach ! bone ! blood ! kangaroo ! opossum ! emu ! crow ! fly ! sun ! moon ! fire ! smoke ! water

Lexical isoglosses

Some lexical isoglosses between Proto-Western Nyulnyulan and Proto-Eastern Nyulnyulan: ! gloss !! Proto-Western Nyulnyulan !! Proto-Eastern Nyulnyulan

Proto-languages

Proto-Nyulnyulan

The following reconstruction of Proto-Nyulnyulan is from Stokes and McGregor (2003): ! no. !! gloss !! Proto-Nyulnyulan

Proto-Western Nyulnyulan

The following reconstruction of Proto-Western Nyulnyulan is from Stokes and McGregor (2003): ! no. !! gloss !! Proto-Western Nyulnyulan

Proto-Eastern Nyulnyulan

The following reconstruction of Proto-Eastern Nyulnyulan is from Stokes and McGregor (2003): ! no. !! gloss !! Proto-Eastern Nyulnyulan