Umbugarla language
Encyclopedia
The Umbugarla language is an Australian
language isolate
spoken by just three people in Arnhem Land
, northern Australia, as of 1981. It may now be extinct.
It had been suggested that Umbugarla may be related to the Ngurmbur
isolate, forming an Umbugarla–Ngurmbur language family
. In 1997, however, Nicholas Evans
proposed an Arnhem Land family
that includes Umbugarla without Ngurmbur.
Australian Aboriginal languages
The Australian Aboriginal languages comprise several language families and isolates native to the Australian Aborigines of Australia and a few nearby islands, but by convention excluding the languages of Tasmania and the Torres Strait Islanders...
language isolate
Language isolate
A language isolate, in the absolute sense, is a natural language with no demonstrable genealogical relationship with other languages; that is, one that has not been demonstrated to descend from an ancestor common with any other language. They are in effect language families consisting of a single...
spoken by just three people in Arnhem Land
Arnhem Land
The Arnhem Land Region is one of the five regions of the Northern Territory of Australia. It is located in the north-eastern corner of the territory and is around 500 km from the territory capital Darwin. The region has an area of 97,000 km² which also covers the area of Kakadu National...
, northern Australia, as of 1981. It may now be extinct.
It had been suggested that Umbugarla may be related to the Ngurmbur
Ngurmbur language
The Ngumbur language is an Australian language isolate spoken by just one person in Arnhem Land, northern Australia, as of 1981. By 2009 Ethnologue reported that it was extinct.Ngumbur is not known to be related to any other language...
isolate, forming an Umbugarla–Ngurmbur language family
Language family
A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ancestor, called the proto-language of that family. The term 'family' comes from the tree model of language origination in historical linguistics, which makes use of a metaphor comparing languages to people in a...
. In 1997, however, Nicholas Evans
Nicholas Evans (linguist)
Nicholas Evans is an Australian-American linguist.Holding a Ph.D. in Linguistics from the Australian National University , he is Head and Professor at the School of Culture, History and Language at the College of Asia and the Pacific, Australian National University...
proposed an Arnhem Land family
Arnhem Land languages
The Arnhem Land languages are a proposed Australian language family spoken over a large part of Arnhem Land in northern Australia. The languages within the group are distinctive and not mutually intelligible....
that includes Umbugarla without Ngurmbur.