Umbugarla language

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Wikipedia

Umbugarla
Mbukarla
Native toAustralia
RegionNorthern Territory
Extinctc. 1990s, with the death of Butcher Knight
Darwin
  • Umbugarlic
    • Umbugarla
Language codes
ISO 639-3umr
Glottologumbu1235
AIATSIS[1]N43
ELPUmbugarla
  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.

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]

Ngurmbur and Bugurnidja are poorly attested extinct languages, which are joined with Umbugarla to form the Umbugarlic branch.

Tryon (2007) lists the following varieties of Umbugarla–Ngumbur:

Ngunbudj (Gonbudj), Umbugarla, Bugunidja, Ngarduk, Ngumbur.

However, nothing is known of Ngunbudj or Ngarduk, which were extinct by World War II.

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
  • /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

Front Back
High i iː u uː
Mid ɛ ɔ
Low a aː
  • Vowels can be lengthened when in open syllables or in word-final position.[3]
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]

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, 23 December 2011 (corrected 6 February 2012)
  3. ↑ Davies, Jennifer (1989). Umbugarla: A Sketch Grammar. University of Melbourne.