Badimaya

Badimia/Badimaya is a Pama-Nyungan language, of the Kartu sub-group (Voegelin & Voegelin 1966: 128), traditionally spoken across a large region spanning from Lake Moore, Nhingan Station and Paynes Find in the south, to Mt Magnet, Wynyangoo Station and Kirkalocka Station in the north. Traditional Badimia/Badimaya country is bordered by Western Desert (Tjuparn, Wanmala) to the east, Noongar to the south-west, and Wajarri to the north-west (Bednall 2022: 3).

Badimaya and surrounding languages (Bednall 2014: 7)


Badimia/Badimaya is an endangered language, with very few speakers remaining. However, there are many Badimia/Badimaya people who know some Badimia/Badimaya words or phrases, and some can understand language when it is spoken. There is a passionate language revival movement currently underway in the Badimia/Badimaya community, with community members actively involved in relearning and re-awakening their language (Bednall 2022: 3). A recent community-led initiative has been the development of an online learning portal (currently in development), available at https://badimialanguage.com.au.

Badimaya is typologically fairly standard of many Western Australian Pama-Nyungan languages. It is a suffixing language with fairly free word order and a split-ergative case marking system. Unlike neighbouring languages, it doesn’t have a bound pronominal system. It is the most southerly Western Australian language to show evidence for inflectional switch-reference marking (Bednall n.d.: 20).

There appear to have been at least two (unnamed) varieties of the language, displaying some lexical and grammatical differences: a northern dialect and a southern dialect (Bednall 2022: 94).

Below is a list of key linguistic research that has been undertaken over the last half century:

  • O’Grady, G. N., C. F. Voegelin & F. M. Voegelin. 1966. Languages of the world: Indo-Pacific casicle 6. Anthropological Linguistics, 8(2).
  • Kingsford, R. J. 1982. Yamadyi Law: The continuing significance of traditional Aboriginal culture in the Murchison Region, WA. MA thesis, University of Western Australia.
  • Dunn, Leone. 1982. Badimaya, a Western Australian language. MA thesis, University of Western Australia.
  • Dunn, Leone. 1988. Badimaya, a Western Australian language. Papers in Australian Linguistics No.17: 19-149.
  • Bednall, James. n.d. Lexical and morphosyntactic variation in Badimaya. Bundiyarra – Irra Wangga Language Centre, Geraldton, Australia.

Archived language collections are available at:

Useful community-focused language resources are available from Bundiyarra Aboriginal Community Aboriginal Corporation:

  • Benjamin, Joe. 2012. Joe Benjamin Stories: Story about the Mallee Hen. Irra Wangga Language Centre: Geraldton, Australia.
  • Benjamin, Joe. 2012. Joe Benjamin Stories: The Porcupine Story. Irra Wangga Language Centre: Geraldton, Australia.
  • Bednall, James (ed.) 2013. Bush Yarns from Mt Magnet Series: Ngalimi wadha marun.gu = looking for quandongs. Bundiyarra - Irra Wangga Language Centre: Geraldton, Australia.
  • Bednall, James (ed.) 2013. Bush Yarns from Mt Magnet Series: Ngalimi yan.guwa wadha bimbawu = looking for bimba. Bundiyarra - Irra Wangga Language Centre: Geraldton, Australia.
  • Bednall, James (ed.) 2013. Bush Yarns from Mt Magnet Series: Wandi guwiyarl yuga? = where is the goanna? Bundiyarra - Irra Wangga Language Centre: Geraldton, Australia.
  • Wagner, Johanna and James Bednall (eds.) 2013. Badimaya Seasonal Calendar. Combined Universities Centre for Rural Health (CUCRH): Geraldton, Australia.
  • Wagner, Johanna and James Bednall (eds.) 2013. On Badimaya Country. Combined Universities Centre for Rural Health (CUCRH): Geraldton, Australia.
  • Bednall, James (ed.) 2014. Badimaya Guwaga = Talking Badimaya: An Illustrated Wordlist of the Badimaya Language of Western Australia. Bundiyarra - Irra Wangga Language Centre: Geraldton, Australia.
  • George, Ollie. 2017. Nganang Badimaya Wangga: Yarns with Gami Ollie George. Bundiyarra - Irra Wangga Language Centre: Geraldton, Australia.
  • Bednall, James (compiler). 2022. Badimaya dictionary: An Aboriginal language of Western Australia (2nd ed.). (1st ed. published 2014). Bundiyarra - Irra Wangga Language Centre: Geraldton, Australia.

Other useful websites relating to Badimaya language include:




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