Australian language isolate
Umbugarla |
---|
Mbukarla |
Region | Northern Territory |
---|
Extinct | ca. 2000; with the death of Butcher Knight |
---|
Language family | |
---|
Language codes |
---|
ISO 639-3 | umr |
---|
Glottolog | umbu1235 |
---|
AIATSIS[1] | N43 |
---|
ELP | Umbugarla |
---|
historic distribution of Umbugarla |
Umbugarla or Mbukarla is a possible Australian language isolate once spoken by three people in Arnhem Land, northern Australia, in 1981, and is now extinct.
Phonology
Consonants
- /ɡ/ can be heard as either stops [k] or [ʔ] when in word-final or word-medial position, and as a fricative [ɣ] when in intervocalic position.
- /ɽ/ can also be heard as an alveolar tap [ɾ] when in intervocalic position.
Vowels
- Vowels can be lengthened when in open syllables or in word-final position.[2]
Phoneme | Allophones |
/a/ | [ä], [äː], [æ], [ɛ], [ə], [ɒ], [o] |
/ɛ/ | [ɛ], [ɛː] |
/i/ | [i], [iː], [ɨ], [ʉ], [ə], [eː] |
/u/ | [u], [uː], [o], [oː], [ʉ], [ə] |
/uː/ | [uː], [oː] |
Classification
Umbugarla was once considered a language isolate (together with Ngurmbur as a dialect), but Mark Harvey has made a case for it being part of a family of Darwin Region languages.[3]
References
- ^ N43 Umbugarla at the Australian Indigenous Languages Database, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
- ^ Davies, Jennifer (1989). Umbugarla: A Sketch Grammar. University of Melbourne.
- ^ Bowern, Claire. 2011. "How Many Languages Were Spoken in Australia?", Anggarrgoon: Australian languages on the web, December 23, 2011 (corrected February 6, 2012)
External links
Wiktionary has a word list at
Appendix:Umbugarla word list