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Darwin Region languages

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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 2a02:2c40:100:b206::1:dfa0 (talk) at 15:40, 30 October 2019 (updated family status (source still needs to be verified), specified geographical distribution). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Darwin Region
Geographic
distribution
from Darwin area to the West Alligator River
Linguistic classificationProposed language family.
Subdivisions
GlottologNone
lara1258  (Laragia)
limi1242  (Limilngan-Wulna)
umbu1235  (Umbugarla)
Darwin Region languages (red), among other non-Pama–Nyungan languages (grey).

Closeup. From west to east they are: Laragiya, Limilngan, and Umbugarlic.

The Darwin Region languages are a small family of poorly attested Australian Aboriginal languages of northern Australia proposed by linguist Mark Harvey[citation needed]. It unites the pair of Limilngan languages with two language isolates:[1]

Ngurmbur and Bugurnidja are poorly attested extinct languages, which are joined with Umbugarla to form the Umbugarlic branch.

Tryon (2007) lists the following varieties of Umbugarla–Ngumbur:

Ngunbudj (Gonbudj), Umbugarla, Bugunidja, Ngarduk, Ngumbur.

However, nothing is known of Ngunbudj or Ngarduk, which were extinct by WWII.

References

  1. ^ Bowern, Claire. 2011. "How Many Languages Were Spoken in Australia?", Anggarrgoon: Australian languages on the web, December 23, 2011 (corrected February 6, 2012)