Umbugarla language

Last updated

Umbugarla
Mbukarla
Native to Australia
Region Northern Territory
Extinct c.1990s, with the death of Butcher Knight
Darwin
  • Umbugarlic
    • Umbugarla
Language codes
ISO 639-3 umr
Glottolog umbu1235
AIATSIS [1] N43
ELP Umbugarla
Arnhem Land languages.png
  historic distribution of Umbugarla

Umbugarla or Mbukarla is a possible Australian language isolate once spoken by three people in Arnhem Land, northern Australia as of 1981, and is now extinct.

Contents

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. [2]

Phonology

Consonants

Peripheral Laminal Apical
Labial Velar Palatal Alveolar Retroflex
Plosive b ɡ ɟ d ɖ
Nasal m ŋ ɲ n ɳ
Lateral ʎ l ɭ
Rhotic ɽ
Approximant w j ɹ

Vowels

Front Back
High i u
Mid ɛ ɔ
Low a
PhonemeAllophones
/a/[ ä ], [ äː ], [ æ ], [ ɛ ], [ ə ], [ ɒ ], [ o ]
/ɛ/[ ɛ ], [ ɛː ]
/i/[ i ], [ ], [ ɨ ], [ ʉ ], [ ə ], [ ]
/u/[ u ], [ ], [ o ], [ ], [ ʉ ], [ ə ]
//[ ], [ ]

References

  1. N43 Umbugarla at the Australian Indigenous Languages Database, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
  2. Bowern, Claire. 2011. "How Many Languages Were Spoken in Australia?", Anggarrgoon: Australian languages on the web, December 23, 2011 (corrected February 6, 2012)
  3. Davies, Jennifer (1989). Umbugarla: A Sketch Grammar. University of Melbourne.