Lardil language

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Lardil
Spoken in: Bentinck Island, north west Mornington Island, Queensland
Total speakers: less than 10
Language family:
 Lardil
Language codes
ISO 639-1: none
ISO 639-2:
ISO 639-3: lbz

Lardil is a nearly extinct Tangkic language spoken on Mornington Island, Queensland.

Initiated Lardil males were using Damin, the only click language outside of Africa.


Contents

[edit] Sounds

Note that APA notation is used, here and throughout.

[edit] Vowels

The Lardil vowel inventory consists of four contrastive dorsal positions, without labial contrasts.

  Front Back
High i u
Low e a

[edit] Consonants

  Bilabial Dental Alveolar Retroflex Velar
Plosive p t   k
Nasal m   n ŋ
Rhotic     r  
Lateral     l    

In addition, Lardil has the glide /w/, and /t/ has a contrastive palatalized /ty/.

[edit] Vocabulary examples

  • woman: pirŋen
  • arm: wanka
  • red cock rod: yupur
  • mother's father: tyempe
  • husband: yukar
  • kookaburra: t̪alkur
  • bush mango: wiwal


[edit] References

  • Dixon, R. M. W. 1980. The Languages of Australia.
  • Evans, Nicholas (with Paul Memmott and Robin Horsman). 1990. Chapter 16: Travel and communication. In P. Memmott & R. Horsman, A changing culture. The Lardil Aborigines of Mornington Island. Social Sciences Press, Wentworth Falls, NSW.
  • Hale, Kenneth L. 1967. Some Productive Rules in Lardil (Mornington Island) Syntax, pp.63-73 in Papers in Australian Linguistics No. 2, ed. by C.G. von Brandenstein, A. Capell, and K. Hale. Pacific Linguistics Series A, No. 11.
  • Hale, Kenneth L. . 1973. Deep-Surface Canonical Disparities in Relation to Analysis and Change.
  • Hale, Kenneth L. and D. Nash. 1997. Damin and Lardil Phonotactics.
  • McKnight, D. 1999. People, Countries and the Rainbow Serpent.
  • Memmott, P., N. Evans and R. Robinsi Understanding Isolation and Change in Island Human Population though a study of Indigenous Cultural Patterns in the Gulf of Carpentaria.
  • Ngakulmungan Kangka Leman and K.L. Hale. 1997. Lardil dictionary : a vocabulary of the language of the Lardil people, Mornington Island, Gulf of Carpentaria, Queensland: with English-Lardil finder list. Gununa, Qld, Mornington Shire Council. ISBN 0 646 29052 5

[edit] External links