Mbabaram language

Last updated
Mbabaram
Barbaram
Region Queensland
Ethnicity Mbabaram
Extinct 1979[ citation needed ]
Language codes
ISO 639-3 vmb
Glottolog mbab1239
AIATSIS [1] Y115
ELP Mbabaram
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

Mbabaram (Barbaram) is an extinct Australian Aboriginal language of north Queensland. It was the traditional language of the Mbabaram people. Recordings are held in the Audiovisual Archive of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies. R. M. W. Dixon described his hunt for a native speaker of Mbabaram in his book Searching for Aboriginal Languages: Memoirs of a Field Worker. Most of what is known of the language is from Dixon's field research with speaker Albert Bennett.

Contents

Classification

Until R. M. W. Dixon's work on the language, "Barbaram" (as it was then known) was thought to be too different from other languages to be part of the Pama–Nyungan language family. Dixon revealed it to have descended from a more typical form, that was obscured by subsequent changes. Dixon (2002) himself, however, still regards genetic relationships between Mbabaram and other languages as unproven.

Traditional lands of the Aboriginal peoples around Cairns Traditional lands of the Australian aboriginal tribes around Cairns.png
Traditional lands of the Aboriginal peoples around Cairns

Geographic distribution

Mbabaram was spoken by the Mbabaram tribe in Queensland, southwest of Cairns ( 17°20′S145°0′E / 17.333°S 145.000°E / -17.333; 145.000 ).

Nearby tribal dialects were Agwamin, Djangun (Kuku-Yalanji), Muluridji (Kuku-Yalanji), Djabugay, Yidiny, Ngadjan (Dyirbal), Mamu (Dyirbal), Jirrbal (Dyirbal), Girramay (Dyirbal), and Warungu. While these were often mutually intelligible, to varying degrees, with the speech of the adjacent tribes, none were even partially intelligible with Mbabaram. The Mbabaram would often learn the languages of other tribes rather than vice versa, because Mbabaram was found difficult.

Phonology

Vowels

Front Central Back
High i ɨ u
Low-mid ɛ ɔ
Low a

Consonants

Peripheral Laminal Apical
Bilabial Velar Palatal Dental Alveolar Retroflex
Plosive b ɡ      ɡʷ ɟ d     
Nasal m ŋ ɲ n     
Lateral l
Rhotic r ɻ
Semivowel w j

Phonological history

Vowels

Mbabaram would have originally had simply three vowels, /iau/, like most Australian languages, but several changes occurred to add ɨɔ/ to the system:

  • [ɔ] developed from original */a/ in the second syllable of a word if the first syllable began with */ɡ/, */ŋ/, or */wu/.
  • [ɛ] developed from original */a/ in the second syllable of a word if the first syllable began with */ɟ/. (It may have also occurred with /ɲ/ or /ji/, but no examples are known.)
  • [ɨ] developed from original */i/ in the second syllable of a word if the first syllable began with */ɡ/, */ŋ/, or */w/.
  • [ɨ] also developed from original */u/ in the second syllable of a word if the first syllable began with */ɟ/, */ɲ/, or */j/.

The first consonant of each word was then dropped, leaving the distribution of ɛɨ/ unpredictable.

Word for "dog"

Mbabaram is famous in linguistic circles for a striking coincidence in its vocabulary. When Dixon finally managed to meet Bennett, he began his study of the language by eliciting a few basic nouns; among the first of these was the word for "dog". Bennett supplied the Mbabaram translation, dog. Dixon suspected that Bennett had not understood the question, or that Bennett's knowledge of Mbabaram had been tainted by decades of using English. But it turned out that the Mbabaram word for "dog" was in fact dúg, [2] pronounced almost identically to the Australian English word (compare true cognates such as Yidiny gudaga, Dyirbal guda, Djabugay gurraa and Guugu Yimidhirr gudaa, for example [3] ). The similarity is a complete coincidence: the English and Mbabaram languages developed on opposite sides of the planet over the course of tens of thousands of years. This and other false cognates have been cited by typological linguist Bernard Comrie as a caution against deciding that languages are related based on a small number of lexical comparisons. [4]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dyirbal language</span> Australian Aboriginal language

Dyirbal is an Australian Aboriginal language spoken in northeast Queensland by the Dyirbal people. In 2016, the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported that there were 8 speakers of the language. It is a member of the small Dyirbalic branch of the Pama–Nyungan family. It possesses many outstanding features that have made it well known among linguists.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Australian Aboriginal languages</span> Indigenous languages of Australia

The Indigenous languages of Australia number in the hundreds, the precise number being quite uncertain, although there is a range of estimates from a minimum of around 250 up to possibly 363. The Indigenous languages of Australia comprise numerous language families and isolates, perhaps as many as 13, spoken by the Indigenous peoples of mainland Australia and a few nearby islands. The relationships between the language families are not clear at present although there are proposals to link some into larger groupings. Despite this uncertainty, the Indigenous Australian languages are collectively covered by the technical term "Australian languages", or the "Australian family".

Guugu Yimithirr, also rendered Guugu Yimidhirr, Guguyimidjir, and many other spellings, is an Australian Aboriginal language, the traditional language of the Guugu Yimithirr people of Far North Queensland. It belongs to the Pama-Nyungan language family. Most of the speakers today live at the community of Hope Vale, about 46 kilometres (29 mi) from Cooktown. However, as of June 2020 only about half of the Guugu Yimithirr nation speak the language. As such, efforts are being made to teach it to children. Guugu Yimithirr is the source language of the word kangaroo.

Robert Malcolm Ward "Bob" Dixon is a Professor of Linguistics in the College of Arts, Society, and Education and The Cairns Institute, James Cook University, Queensland. He is also Deputy Director of The Language and Culture Research Centre at JCU. Doctor of Letters, he was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Letters Honoris Causa by JCU in 2018. Fellow of British Academy; Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities, and Honorary member of the Linguistic Society of America, he is one of three living linguists to be specifically mentioned in The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Linguistics by Peter Matthews (2014).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yidiny language</span> Australian Aboriginal language

Yidiny is a nearly extinct Australian Aboriginal language, spoken by the Yidinji people of north-east Queensland. Its traditional language region is within the local government areas of Cairns Region and Tablelands Region, in such localities as Cairns, Gordonvale, and the Mulgrave River, and the southern part of the Atherton Tableland including Atherton and Kairi.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Far North Queensland</span> Region in Queensland, Australia

Far North Queensland (FNQ) is the northernmost part of the Australian state of Queensland. Its largest city is Cairns and it is dominated geographically by Cape York Peninsula, which stretches north to the Torres Strait, and west to the Gulf Country. The waters of Torres Strait include the only international border in the area contiguous with the Australian mainland, between Australia and Papua New Guinea.

Djabugay is an endangered Australian Aboriginal language spoken by the Djabugay people with 46 native speakers at the 2016 census. The Djabugay language region includes Far North Queensland, particularly around the Kuranda Range and Barron River catchment, and the landscape within the local government boundaries of the Cairns Regional Council.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Meriam language</span> Trans-Fly language of the Australian Torres Strait Islands

Meriam or the Eastern Torres Strait language is the language of the people of the small islands of Mer, Waier and Dauar, Erub, and Ugar in the eastern Torres Strait, Queensland, Australia. In the Western Torres Strait language, Kalaw Lagaw Ya, it is called Mœyam or Mœyamau Ya. It is the only Papuan language in Australian territory.

Kalkatungu is an extinct Australian Aboriginal language formerly spoken around the area of Mount Isa and Cloncurry, Queensland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paman languages</span> Australian Aboriginal language family

The Paman languages are an Australian language family spoken on Cape York Peninsula, Queensland. First noted by Kenneth Hale, Paman is noteworthy for the profound phonological changes which have affected some of its descendants.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shire of Cook</span> Local government area in Queensland, Australia

The Shire of Cook is a local government area in Far North Queensland, Australia. The Shire covers most of the eastern and central parts of Cape York Peninsula, the most northerly section of the Australian mainland.

The Kuku Nyungkal dialect is an Australian Aboriginal language and the language of the Kuku Nyungkal people of Far North Queensland. It is a variety of Kuku Yalanji still being spoken. Most of the speakers today live in the communities of Wujal Wujal and Mossman.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wujal Wujal Aboriginal Shire</span> Local government area in Queensland, Australia

The Wujal Wujal Aboriginal Shire is a local government area in Far North Queensland, Australia. It is managed as a Deed of Grant in Trust under the Local Government Act 2004.

Mbariman-Gudhinma, one of several languages labelled Gugu Warra 'unintelligible speech' as opposed to Gugu Mini 'intelligible speech', is an extinct dialect cluster of Aboriginal Australian languages of the Cape York Peninsula in northern Queensland, Australia. Another one in the group is Wurangung, also known as Yadaneru or Jeteneru.

Guugu Yalandji, also spelt Kuku-Yalanji, is an Australian Aboriginal language of Queensland. It is the traditional language of the Kuku Yalanji people.

Warrgamay is an extinct Australian Aboriginal language of northeast Queensland. It was closely related to Dyirbal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wamin language</span> Australian Aboriginal language

Wamin, also known as Agwamin or Ewamian, is an Australian Aboriginal language of North Queensland spoken by the Ewamian people. Wamin was traditionally spoken in the Etheridge region, in the areas around Einasliegh, Georgetown, and Mount Surprise.

The Yidiny, are an Aboriginal Australian people in Far North Queensland. Their language is the Yidiny language.

Mbabaram or Mbabaɽam, also (M)Barbaram, often referred to as the Barbaram people, were an Indigenous Australian people living in Queensland in the rainforests of the Atherton Tableland.

The Wakaman people, also spelt Wagaman, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the state of Queensland. According to some authorities, they may be interchangeable with the group identified by ethnographers as the Agwamin.

References

  1. Y115 Mbabaram at the Australian Indigenous Languages Database, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
  2. Dixon, Robert M. W. (1966). "Mbabaram: A Dying Australian Language". Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. 29 (1): 97–121. doi:10.1017/S0041977X00060833. ISSN   0041-977X. JSTOR   611096.
  3. Black, Paul (2004). "The Failure of the Evidence of Shared Innovations in Cape York peninsula". In Bowern, Claire; Koch, Harold James (eds.). Australian languages: classification and the comparative method. Amsterdam Studies in the Theory and History of Linguistic Science. Series 4, Current Issues in Linguistic Theory. Vol. 249. John Benjamins. p. 264. ISBN   978-1-58811-512-6 . Retrieved 2010-01-08.
  4. Comrie, Bernard (1987). "Introduction". The World's Major Languages. Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon; New York, NY: Routledge. p. 6. doi:10.4324/9781315644936-1. ISBN   978-1-315-64493-6.

Bibliography