Blythe Joseph. Yuwurriyangem Kijam. A Phrasebook of the Kija Language

Kimberley Language Resource Centre, 2001. — 96 p.Today, Kija is an endangered language spoken in East Kimberley in Western Australia. Like most Kimberley languages it is not actively spoken by children. The majority of Kija speakers are elderly or middle aged. Most young Kija adults and children speak Kriol as their first language as well as varieties of Aboriginal English.
Due to the particular linguistic situation and the differing needs of the would-be Kija learners, this phrase book had to be different from those for mainstream languages. It is not targeting the backpacker, nor the tourist who needs assistance decoding the menu. It is first and foremost an aid to language maintenance. Because at present the majority of school programmes in Kija are aural, there are very few people able to read and write Kija. For this reason. rather than follow each phrase (as many phrasebooks do) with a confusing approximation of how it should be pronounced. it was decided to make an audio recording of all of the phrases to accompany the book. Thus. the audio cassettes. in addition to being a guide to pronunciation. can assist the learner with reading Kija.
The package is intended to equip the learner with some vocabulary to deal with everyday life in the Kija region, to deal with practical problems and to talk about some of the things that Kija people talk about. All of the phrases were provided by Kija speakers and approved by them for inclusion in the book.
Being of a practical nature, the phrases themselves should allow the student to plunge straight into using the language. After a while. questions may arise as to why you can say this and why you can't say that, so a section with grammatical information has been included. This section has been worded as simply as possible. so don't be frightened off. It is not meant to be the last word on Kija grammar. If you can't find the answers you are looking for there is a number of other resources for Kija available through the Kimberley language Resource Centre. This package will complement those resources rather than replace them.