Barrow Point language

Extinct Australian Aboriginal language

Barrow Point
Mutumui
Eibole
RegionQueensland, Australia
EthnicityMutumui
Extinctby 2005, with the death of Urwunjin Roger Hart[1]
Language family
Pama–Nyungan
Language codes
ISO 639-3bpt
Glottologbarr1247
AIATSIS[1]Y63.1
ELPBarrow Point
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The Barrow Point or Mutumui language, called Eibole, is a recently extinct Australian Aboriginal language. According to Wurm and Hattori (1981), there was one speaker left at the time.[3]

Classification

The language has one dialect in the north called Ongwara.[4]

Phonology

Unusually among Australian languages, Barrow Point had at least two fricative phonemes, /ð/ and /ɣ/. They usually developed from *t̪ and *k, respectively, when preceded by a stressed long vowel, which then shortened.[5]

References

  1. ^ a b Y63.1 Barrow Point 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. ^ Barrow Point language at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022) Closed access icon
  4. ^ "Mutumui (QLD)". www.samuseum.sa.gov.au. Retrieved 21 November 2023.
  5. ^ Dixon, R. M. W.; Dixon, Robert M. W.; Dixon, Adjunct Professor and Deputy Director of the Language and Culture Centre R. M. W. (14 November 2002). Australian Languages: Their Nature and Development. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521473781.
  • Dixon, R. M. W. (2002). Australian Languages: Their Nature and Development. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521473780.

Further reading

  • John Haviland and Roger Hart's Old Man Fog and the Last Aborigines of Barrow Point, ISBN 1-56098-928-9, a novel about the efforts of Hart, a native of the Cape York peninsula, to record and preserve Barrow Point language and culture.
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North
Northeast
Wik
Lamalamic
Yalanjic
Southwest
Norman
Thaypan
Southern
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Dyirbalic
Maric
Waka–Kabic
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Gumbaynggiric
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Gippsland
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Yotayotic
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Kulin
Drual
Lower Murray
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Mirniny
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Ngumpin–Yapa
Warumungu
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Mayi
Wati
Arandic
Karnic
Other
Yolŋu
Other
Macro-Gunwinyguan?
Maningrida
Mangarrayi-Marran
Gunwinyguan
Other
Tangkic
Garrwan


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