Word.ws English Dictionary

Pama-Nyungan

/ˌpʌməˈnjʊŋən/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Australia/ˌpamə-ˈnjʊŋən/

Pama-Nyungan proper noun: a proposed language family encompassing most Australian Aboriginal languages, including Pitjantjatjara and Warlpiri, but excluding those spoken in the northwest.

Proper noun

Pama-Nyungan

  1. A proposed language family encompassing most Australian Aboriginal languages, including Pitjantjatjara and Warlpiri, but excluding those spoken in the northwest.

Origin of Pama-Nyungan

From pama (“man, person”) (in several northeast Australian Aboriginal languages) + nyungaa (“man, person”) (in several southwestern Australian Aboriginal languages) + -an. Apparently coined by American linguist Kenneth L. Hale (1934-2001), to show the vast geographical extent of the family.

Words formed from Pama-Nyungan

Questions about Pama-Nyungan

What does Pama-Nyungan mean?
Pama-Nyungan means a proposed language family encompassing most Australian Aboriginal languages, including Pitjantjatjara and Warlpiri, but excluding those spoken in the northwest.
What part of speech is Pama-Nyungan?
Pama-Nyungan is a proper noun.
How do you pronounce Pama-Nyungan?
Pama-Nyungan is pronounced /ˌpamə-ˈnjʊŋən/ (Australia).

Words near Pama-Nyungan in the dictionary

  1. Palézieux
  2. pam
  3. pam off
  4. pama
  5. Pama-Maric
  6. Pama-Nyungan
  7. Pama-Nyunganist
  8. Pama-Nyunganists
  9. pamabrom
  10. pamakani
  11. Pamampangin

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Pama-Nyungan (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-Pama-Nyungan.wav.

Cite this entry: “Pama-Nyungan.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/pama-nyungan. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.