Djeragan

The Djeragan, or Jarragan, languages are a small non-Pama Nyungan family of the East Kimberley in northern Western Australia, held between Halls Creek and Kununurra, including the Ord River and the Bungle Bungle Range. Their name comes from jarrag, the Gija word for language.

The family comprises three languages in two groups: Gija stands alone, while Miriwoong and Gajirrawoong form the second group, so close that some scholars treat them as one language; a fourth tongue, Doolboong, is too poorly recorded to place with certainty. When Dutch mariners made the first recorded European landing in Australia in 1606, the Djeragan languages were unwritten and sustained by oral tradition.