| Kuku-Thaypan | |
|---|---|
| Awu Alaya | |
| Native to | Australia |
| Region | Cape York Peninsula, Queensland |
| Ethnicity | Kuku Thaypan, Gugu Rarmul |
| Extinct | 2016 (with the death of Tommy George) [1] |
| Dialects |
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 |
typ |
| Glottolog |
thay1248 |
| AIATSIS [2] |
Y84 Kuku Thaypan,
Y71 Gugu Rarmul |
| ELP | Awu Laya |
Kuku-Thaypan is an extinct Paman language spoken on the southwestern part of the Cape York Peninsula, Queensland in Australia, by the Kuku-Thaypan people. The language was sometimes called Alaya or Awu Alaya. [3] Koko-Rarmul may have been a dialect, [4] though Bowern (2012) lists Gugu-Rarmul and Kuku-Thaypan as separate languages. [5] The last native speaker, Tommy George, died on 29 July 2016 in Cooktown Hospital. [6]
Phonology
Vowels
Kuku-Thaypan has six vowels and two marginal vowels possibly only in loan words. [7]
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | ɨ | u |
| Mid | e | o | |
| ( ɔ) | |||
| Open | ( æ) | a |
- Sounds /æ/ and /ɔ/ are only marginal, as phonemes.
- /e/ is heard as [ ɛ] when after palatals and /j/.
Consonants
Kuku-Thaypan has 23 consonants. [7]
| Peripheral | Laminal | Apical | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labial | Velar | Dental | Palatal | Alveolar | Retroflex | ||
| Plosive | voiceless | p | k | t̪ | c | t | |
| prenasal | ᵐb | ᵑɡ | ⁿ̪d̪ | ᶮɟ | ⁿd | ||
| Fricative | β | ɣ | ð | ||||
| Nasal | m | ŋ | n̪ | ɲ | n | ||
| Rhotic | r | ||||||
| Lateral | l | ||||||
| Approximant | w | j | ɻ | ||||
- /r/ may be heard as a voiceless trill [ r̥] when in initial position.
- /r/ may freely be heard as a tap [ ɾ] or trill [ r].
References
- ^ A "legend", Indigenous Australian Leader, Knowledge Holder Tommy George Passes On.
- ^ Y84 Kuku Thaypan at the Australian Indigenous Languages Database, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (see the info box for additional links)
- ^ Jean-Christophe Verstraete, Diane Hafner, Land and Language in Cape York Peninsula and the Gulf Country ( ISBN 902726760X, 2016)
- ^ RMW Dixon (2002), Australian Languages: Their Nature and Development, p xxxii
- ^ Bowern, Claire. 2011. " How Many Languages Were Spoken in Australia?", Anggarrgoon: Australian languages on the web, December 23, 2011 ( corrected February 6, 2012)
- ^ A "legend", Indigenous Australian Leader, Knowledge Holder Tommy George Passes On.
- ^ a b Rigsby, Bruce (1976). "Kuku-Thaypan descriptive and historical phonology". In Sutton, P. (ed.). Languages of Cape York. Canberra: Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies. pp. 68–77.
External links
- Bibliography of Kuku Thaypan people and language resources, at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
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