Kungkari language

Kungkari
Kungkari
Kuungkari of Barcoo River
Native to	Australia
Extinct	(date missing)
Language family	Pama–Nyungan (unclassified, ; possibly Karnic) Kungkari; ;
Language codes
ISO 639-3	lku
Glottolog	kuun1236
AIATSIS	L38
ELP	Kungkari

Last updated January 02, 2026

Kungkari (also Gunggari, Koonkerri, Kuungkari) is an extinct and unclassified Australian Aboriginal language.^[1] The Kungkari language region included the landscape within the local government boundaries of the Longreach Shire Council and Blackall-Tambo Shire Council.^[2]

Classification

Geographically it lay near the Barcoo River between the Karnic and Maric languages, but had no obvious connection to either; the data is too poor to draw any conclusions on classification.

Bowern (2001) mentions Kungkari as a possible Karnic language.^[3]^: 247

Wafer and Lissarrague (2008)^[4]^: 324 report that a description of Kungkari by Breen (1990)^[5]^: 22–64 is of Kungkari, not the similarly-named Gunggari, which was Maric.^[3]

Phonology

Consonants

	Peripheral		Laminal		Apical
	Labial	Velar	Dental	Palatal	Alveolar	Retroflex
Plosive	p	k	t̪	c	t	ʈ
Nasal	m	ŋ	n̪	ɲ	n	ɳ
Rhotic					r
Lateral			(l̪)	ʎ	l	ɭ
Approximant	w			j		ɻ

The dental lateral [l̪] mainly occurs as an allophone of /l/ within the consonant cluster /lt̪/.
/t/ may be realized as a voiced stop [d] when after /n/, or as a voiced tap [ɾ] in intervocalic positions.

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
High	i iː		u (uː)
Low		a aː

The long [uː] only rarely occurs.^[5]

References

1 2 L38 Kungkari at the Australian Indigenous Languages Database, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
↑ This Wikipedia article incorporates text from Kuungkari published by the State Library of Queensland under CC BY licence , accessed on 25 May 2022.
1 2 Bowern, Claire (2001). "Karnic classification revisited". In J Simpson; et al. (eds.). Forty years on. Canberra Pacific Linguistics. pp. 245–260. Archived from the original on 3 November 2021.
↑ Wafer, Jim; Lissarrague, Amanda (2008). A Handbook of Aboriginal Languages of New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory. Muurrbay Aboriginal Language & Culture Co-operative.
1 2 Breen, Gavan (1990). Salvage studies of Western Queensland Aboriginal languages (PDF). Pacific Linguistics B-105. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.

External links

Kuungkari, Bidjara, Inangai & Wangkangurru (Central West Region) community language journey digital story, at State Library of Queensland

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[AIATSIS-1] 1 2 L38 Kungkari at the Australian Indigenous Languages Database, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies

[:SLQ92-2] This Wikipedia article incorporates text from Kuungkari published by the State Library of Queensland under CC BY licence , accessed on 25 May 2022.

[:bowern2001-3] 1 2 Bowern, Claire (2001). "Karnic classification revisited". In J Simpson; et al. (eds.). Forty years on. Canberra Pacific Linguistics. pp. 245–260. Archived from the original on 3 November 2021.

[:wafer2008-4] Wafer, Jim; Lissarrague, Amanda (2008). A Handbook of Aboriginal Languages of New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory. Muurrbay Aboriginal Language & Culture Co-operative.

[:breen1990-5] 1 2 Breen, Gavan (1990). Salvage studies of Western Queensland Aboriginal languages (PDF). Pacific Linguistics B-105. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.

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