The Yir languages are two language

Language

Language may refer either to the specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication...

s spoken on the Cape York peninsula

Cape York Peninsula

Cape York Peninsula is a large remote peninsula located in Far North Queensland at the tip of the state of Queensland, Australia, the largest unspoilt wilderness in northern Australia and one of the last remaining wilderness areas on Earth...

 of Queensland

Queensland

Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...

, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

. They are very closely related, and are therefore often mentioned as being sister dialects. The first part of both of the names, yir(rk) is from the word yirrq meaning speech or language, and the following is their ethnonym

Ethnonym

An ethnonym is the name applied to a given ethnic group. Ethnonyms can be divided into two categories: exonyms and autonyms or endonyms .As an example, the ethnonym for...

. The name of this language group, yir, is simply an anglicized

Anglicisation

Anglicisation, or anglicization , is the process of converting verbal or written elements of any other language into a form that is more comprehensible to an English speaker, or, more generally, of altering something such that it becomes English in form or character.The term most often refers to...

 version.

The Yir languages are:

• Yir-Yoront language
  Yir-Yoront language
  Yir-Yoront is a Paman language spoken in two settlements, Kowanyama and Pormpuraaw on the southwestern part of the Cape York Peninsula, Queensland in Australia, by the Yir-Yoront people. As of 1991 only 15 speakers remain, with the rest of the Yir-Yoront people speaking English or even Kuuk...
  
  
• Yirrk-Thangalkl language
  Yirrk-Thangalkl language
  Yirrk-Thangalkl is a Paman language spoken on the southwestern part of the Cape York Peninsula, Queensland in Australia, by the Yirrk-Thangalkl people...