This book is a guide to the sounds, words and structure of the Warumungu language. I hope that it will be useful for anyone who wants to learn the language and so I have tried to explain grammar clearly, using few technical words. I have made comparisons with English, because I expect that most learners will be English speakers.
Reading this book should help you, the learner, to learn Warumungu on your own. However, if you can work with Warumungu speakers you will gain far more information than a book of this size can provide. You'll learn a great deal, and you'll also find that some things in the book have been simplified.
One important thing to keep in mind is that the Warumungu language belongs to the Warumungu people. This idea is probably strange to speakers of a world language like English, because hundreds of millions of people from different countries and different cultures have English as a first or second language. No one group owns English. Warumungu, however, is spoken in one area by a small group who are proud of their language and see it as part of this Wirnkarra
(dreaming), the timeless creation for which they are responsible. Respect the rights of Warumungu people over the Warumungu language is essential to understanding and speaking Warumungu well.
