Wik-Mungknh language

Wik-Mungknh
Spoken in Australia
Region Cape York Peninsula, Queensland
Native speakers 840  (1996)
Language family
Language codes
ISO 639-3 wim

Wik-Mungknh, also often called Wik-Mungkan, is a Paman language spoken on the northern part of Cape York Peninsula of Queensland, Australia, by the Wik-Mungknh people. It is closely related to the other Wik-Mungknh language, Wik-Iiyanh, and more distantly to the Wik languages. As of 1996 there were 480 speakers of the languages, and another 600 speakers who had Wik-Mungknh as their second language.[1]

The English language has borrowed at least one word from Wik-Mungknh, that for the taipan, a species of venomous snake native to the region.[2]

A dictionary of Wik-Mungknh has been compiled by Christine Kilham.[3]

References

  1. ^ Ethnologue
  2. ^ Sutton, Peter (1995). Wik-Ngathan Dictionary. 
  3. ^ Kilham, Christine (1986). Dictionary and sourcebook of the Wik-Mungkan language.