page_title: Arrernte language
section_title: Grammar
hierarchical_section_title: Arrernte language / Eastern/Central Arrernte / Grammar
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Kai Kai, a Western Arrernte man, Henbury station, Northern Territory, 1920 English: This Western Arrernte man's name was Kai Kai (in Basedow's spelling) and Basedow photographed him in the Aboriginal camp attached to Henbury station, Northern Territory, in 1920. He was a native doctor. Kai Kai told Basedow he remembered the first white people to reach that region, possibly in the 1860s. Unfortunately, Basedow does not provide any indication of who they may have been.
context_page_description: Arrernte or Aranda or sometimes referred to as Upper Arrernte, is a dialect cluster in the Arandic language group spoken in parts of the Northern Territory, Australia, by the Arrernte people. Other spelling variations are Arunta or Arrarnta, and all of the dialects have multiple other names.
  There are about 1,800 speakers of Eastern/Central Arrernte, making this dialect one of the widest spoken of any Indigenous language in Australia, the one usually referred to as Arrernte and the one described in detail below. It is spoken in the Alice Springs area and taught in schools and universities, heard on media and used in local government.
  The second biggest dialect in the group is Alyawarre. Some of the other dialects are spoken by very few people, leading to efforts to revive their usage; others are now completely extinct.
context_section_description: Eastern and Central Arrernte has fairly free word order but tends towards SOV. It is generally ergative, but is accusative in its pronouns. Pronouns may be marked for duality and skin group.
caption: Kai Kai Western Arrernte, likely a speaker of Upper Arrernte; c. 1900.
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