Editing Dyirbal language (section)

==Dialects==
There are many different groups speaking dialects of Dyirbal language. Researcher Robert Dixon estimates that Dyirbal had, at its peak, 10 dialects.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Dixon|first=R. M. W.|date=1991|title=A Changing Language Situation: The Decline of Dyirbal, 1963-1989|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4168229|journal=Language in Society|volume=20|issue=2|pages=183–200|doi=10.1017/S0047404500016262|jstor=4168229|s2cid=145363699 |issn=0047-4045|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

Dialects include:<ref name=":1"/><ref name=":32"/>

* Dyirbal (or Jirrbal<ref name=":32">{{Cite book|last=Dixon |first=Robert M. W. |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/70724682|title=Australian Languages: Their Nature and Development|date=2002|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=0-521-47378-0|location=Cambridge, U.K.|oclc=70724682}}</ref>) spoken by the Dyirbalŋan<ref name=":1">{{Citation|date=1972|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/dyirbal-language-of-north-queensland/dyirbal-the-language-and-its-speakers/62D8D9F83D08FA8877D86EA1E7C1A487|work=The Dyirbal Language of North Queensland|pages=22–38|editor-last=Dixon|editor-first=R. M. W.|series=Cambridge Studies in Linguistics|place=Cambridge|publisher=Cambridge University Press|doi=10.1017/cbo9781139084987.003|isbn=978-0-521-09748-2|access-date=2020-12-09|title=Dyirbal: The Language and ITS Speakers|url-access=subscription}}</ref>
* Mamu, spoken by the Waɽibara, Dulgubara, Bagiɽgabara, Dyiɽibara, and Mandubara<ref name=":1" /> (There are also different types of Mamu spoken by individual groups, such as Warribara Mamu, and Dulgubara Mamu<ref name=":32" />)
* [[Giramay]] (Or Girramay<ref name=":32" />), spoken by the Giramaygan<ref name=":1" />
* [[Gulŋay]] (or Gulngay<ref name=":32" />), spoken by the  Malanbara<ref name=":1" />
* [[Dyiru]] (or Djirru<ref name=":32" />), spoken by the Dyirubagala<ref name=":1" />
* [[Ngadyan]] (or Ngadjan<ref name=":32" />), spoken by the Ngadyiandyi<ref name=":1" />
* [[Walmalbarra]]<ref name=":32" />

The speakers of these dialects largely regard their dialects as different languages. They were classified as dialects by researcher Robert Dixon, who classified them as such based on linguistic criteria and their similarities, some dialects sharing as much as 90% of their vocabularies. Since the dialects were viewed by speakers as different languages, the language had no formal name, so Dixon assigned the language the name Dyirbal, naming it after Jirrbal, which was the dialect with the largest number of speakers at the time he was studying it.<ref name=":0"/>