Darwin Region languages

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Darwin Region
Geographic
distribution
Darwin, Australia
Linguistic classificationOne of the world's primary language families
Subdivisions
GlottologNone
lara1258  (Laragia)
limi1242  (Limilngan)
umbu1235  (Umbugarlic)
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. 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)