Ngardi, also spelt Ngarti or Ngardilj, is an Australian Aboriginal language that is considered moribund. It was previously thought to be an alternative name for the Bunara language, but these are now classified as separate languages. It was/is spoken by the Ngardi people of the Northern Territory and northern Western Australia.
Classification Capell (1962) considered Ngardi, Warlpiri, and Warlmanpa to be dialects of a single language. R. M. W. Dixon (2002) grouped Ngardi together with Warlpiri and Warlmanpa in the Yapa group, but admitted that this was based on limited data. McConvell and Laughren (2004) showed that it was in Ngumbin, a closely related group, and this was followed in Honeyman (2005). However, Bowern (2011) listed it as a more distant Wati language.Bowern, Claire. 2011 "How Many Languages Were Spoken in Australia?", Anggarrgoon: Australian languages on the web, 23 December 2011 (corrected 6 February 2012)
Tindale shows Ngardi as an alternative name for Bunara language, but Lynette Oates and Arthur Capell showed that Bunara was a separate language. The two languages have now been assigned separate code in AIATSIS's AUSTLANG database.
Waringari Some old recordings and manuscripts refer to Waringari (or Waiangara) as a language related to Ngardi, but linguists have agreed that it is a geographical name and not the name of a language. Norman Tindale listed Waringari as a pejorative name for the Ngarti people, as well as for the Yeidji, the Worla and the Warlpiri, suggesting that they were cannibals.
Phonology
Vowels Front Back High Low
Consonants Peripheral Laminal Apical Bilabial Velar Palatal Alveolar Retroflex Occlusive Continuant
See also Ngururrpa, a grouping of peoples of language groups including Ngardi
References
Sources
McConvell and Laughren (2004) "The Ngumpin-Yapa subgroup". In Claire Bowern & Harold Koch, Australian Languages: Classification and the Comparative Method. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company.