Pitta Pitta language

Pitta Pitta
Spoken in Queensland
Extinct by 2003
(2 cited in 1979)
Language family
Language codes
ISO 639-3 pit

Pitta Pitta (also known under several other spellings) is an extinct Australian Aboriginal language. It was spoken around Boulia, Queensland.

Contents

Pituri

The name pituri for the plant Duboisia hopwoodii and the narcotic drug obtained from it is thought to derive from the Pitta Pitta word pijiri.[1][2]

Status

In 1979, Barry J. Blake reported that Pitta Pitta was "virtually extinct", with only two speakers remaining – Ivy Nardoo of Boulia, and Linda Craigie of Mount Isa.[3] It is now considered unlikely that any speakers remain.[4]

Sign language

The Pitta Pitta had developed a sign form of their language.[5]

References

  1. ^ Philip A. Clarke (2007). "The power of plants". Aboriginal People and their Plants. Rosenberg Publishers. pp. 96–110. ISBN 9781877058516. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=BrQdF-uBCXgC&pg=PA107. 
  2. ^ Philip A. Clarke (2008). "Making plant names". Aboriginal Plant Collectors: Botanists and Australian Aboriginal People in the Nineteenth Century. Rosenberg Publishers. pp. 42–57. ISBN 9781877058684. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Usav1CwZaXEC&pg=PA55. 
  3. ^ Barry J. Blake (1979). "Pitta-Pitta". In Robert M. W. Dixon & Barry J. Blake. Handbook of Australian Languages. 1. John Benjamins Publishing Company. pp. 183–242. ISBN 90272-0512-4. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=xWdIU6sHiRoC&pg=PA183. 
  4. ^ "Pitta Pitta: an extinct language of Australia". Ethnologue. SIL International. http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=pit. Retrieved 28 July 2011. 
  5. ^ Adam Kendon (1988). Sign Languages of Aboriginal Australia: Cultural, Semiotic and Communicative Perspectives. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521360081. 

External links