Gugu Thaypan language
Appearance
(Redirected from Kuku-Thaypan)
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
[edit]Vowels
[edit]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
[edit]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
[edit]- ^ 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
[edit]- Bibliography of Kuku Thaypan people and language resources Archived 29 May 2015 at the Wayback Machine, at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies