Mantharta is a dialect cluster of Australian Aboriginal languages spoken in the southern Pilbara region of Western Australia.
Dialects There are four varieties, which are distinct but largely mutually intelligible. The four are:
Tharrgari (Tharrkari, Dhargari), still spoken Warriyangka (Wadiwangga), still spoken Thiin (Thiinma), still spoken as of 2026 Jiwarli (Tjiwarli), extinct 1986
The name mantharta comes from the word for "man" in all four varieties.
Language revival , Warriyangga is one of 20 languages prioritised as part of the Priority Languages Support Project, being undertaken by First Languages Australia and funded by the Department of Communications and the Arts. The project aims to "identify and document critically-endangered languages — those languages for which little or no documentation exists, where no recordings have previously been made, but where there are living speakers".
Phonology Consonants +Consonants in the Thargari dialectPeripheralLaminalApicalLabialVelarDentalPalatalAlveolarRetroflexPlosivep/bk/ɡt̪/d̪c/ɟt/dʈ/ɖNasalmŋn̪ɲnɳRhoticɾLaterall̪ʎlɭApproximantwjɻ
/d̪/ can also be lenited as a fricative [ð] in intervocalic positions. /ɾ/ can also be heard as a trill [r].
+Consonants in all other dialectsPeripheralLaminalApicalLabialVelarDentalPalatalAlveolarRetroflexPlosivepkt̪ctʈNasalmŋn̪ɲnɳRhoticɾLaterall̪ʎlɭApproximantwjɻ
Stops may also be voiced as [b, ɡ, d̪, ɟ, d, ɖ] in medial position.
Vowels FrontBackClosei, iːu, uːOpena, aː
References