Southwestern Paman languages

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Southwest Pama
Geographic
distribution
Cape York Peninsula, Queensland
Linguistic classification Pama–Nyungan
Subdivisions
  • Upper
  • Coastal
Glottolog sout3141
Southwestern Paman languages.png
Southwestern Paman languages (green) among other Pama–Nyungan (tan)

The Southwestern Paman languages are a family of the Paman languages spoken on the western part of the Cape York Peninsula of Queensland, Australia.

Alpher (1972) accepts Southwestern Pama as a valid node; the classification below is his. [1] R. M. W. Dixon, on the other hand, only accepts a connections between pairs of languages: Yir, as two dialects of a single language, and Koko Bera with Kok Thawa. [2]

Bowern (2011) also lists the extinct Kokiny and Kok-Papángk.

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Proto-Pama–Nyungan is a hypothetical ancestral language from which all Pama–Nyungan languages are supposed to have derived. It may have been spoken as recently as about 5,000 years ago, much more recently than Aboriginal Australian peoples are believed to have been inhabiting various parts of Australia.

References

  1. Alpher, Barry (1972). "On the genetic subgrouping of the languages of southwestern Cape York Peninsula, Australia". Oceanic Linguistics. 11 (2): 67–87. doi:10.2307/3622803. JSTOR   3622803.
  2. Dixon, R. M. W. (2002). Australian Languages: Their Nature and Development. p. xxxii.