Australian language isolate
| Umbugarla |
|---|
| Mbukarla |
| Region | Northern Territory |
|---|
| Extinct | ca. 2000; with the death of Butcher Knight |
|---|
Language family | |
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| Language codes |
|---|
| ISO 639-3 | umr |
|---|
| Glottolog | umbu1235 |
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| AIATSIS[1] | N43 |
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| ELP | Umbugarla |
|---|
 historic distribution of Umbugarla |
Umbugarla or Mbukarla is a possible Australian language isolate once spoken by three people in Arnhem Land, northern Australia, in 1981, and is now extinct.
Phonology
Consonants
- /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
- Vowels can be lengthened when in open syllables or in word-final position.[2]
| 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] |
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.[3]
References
- ^ N43 Umbugarla at the Australian Indigenous Languages Database, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
- ^ Davies, Jennifer (1989). Umbugarla: A Sketch Grammar. University of Melbourne.
- ^ Bowern, Claire. 2011. "How Many Languages Were Spoken in Australia?", Anggarrgoon: Australian languages on the web, December 23, 2011 (corrected February 6, 2012)
External links
Wiktionary has a word list at
Appendix:Umbugarla word list 
