The language of the western and central islands of Torres Strait is related to languages of the Australian mainland and is a member of the Pama-Nyungan family of languages, which covers most of Australia. This language, like many others in the world, does not have its own name although its dialects do.

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  • The language of the western and central islands of Torres Strait is related to languages of the Australian mainland and is a member of the Pama-Nyungan family of languages, which covers most of Australia. This language, like many others in the world, does not have its own name although its dialects do. The four major ones are: Kalaw Lagaw Ya, Kalau Kawau Ya, Kulkalgau Ya and Kawalgau Ya (this latter also called Kowrareg, which is from the mid-1800s Kowrareg dialect form kauraraiga/kaurarega islander. Kalaw Lagaw Ya is often called Kala Lagaw Ya in the literature - the form is the colloquial version of Kalaw Lagaw Ya . The four dialects of the Western-Central Language are very close to each other, somewhat like Standard American and Standard British English are to each other. Its vocabulary is potentially 80% non-Australian; at least some of the non-Australian content is demonstrably Papuan and Austronesian . It is an interesting language in having feminine and masculine gender, though no neuter gender - and the difference is semantically significant in that many words can be masculine or feminine according to basic reference or culturally significant reference. For example, za as masculine means 'an important topic/subject', and as feminine is 'thing, object'. Gœiga when masculine means 'sun', and when feminine means 'day'.
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  • The language of the western and central islands of Torres Strait is related to languages of the Australian mainland and is a member of the Pama-Nyungan family of languages, which covers most of Australia. This language, like many others in the world, does not have its own name although its dialects do.
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  • Torres Strait Island languages
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