Eastern Arrernte

Eastern Arrernte (autonymously Mparntwe Arrernte, after the Aboriginal name for Alice Springs) is a Pama-Nyungan language of the Arandic sub-branch, spoken by around 4,000 people in the Alice Springs region of central Australia. The Mparntwe Arrernte people are the traditional owners of Alice Springs, having occupied the MacDonnell Ranges and surrounding country for at least 30,000 years. Linguistically, Eastern Arrernte is famous in linguistic typology for its highly unusual phonology: it has only 14 phonemic consonants but a very complex syllable structure, plus the typologically rare features of pre-stopped nasals and labio-velar consonants. Despite a long history of European contact since 1860s, the Arrernte have maintained strong intergenerational transmission and the language is one of the more vibrant indigenous languages of central Australia.