Mpakwithi dialect
| Mpakwithi | |
|---|---|
| Anguthimri | |
| Region | Cape York Peninsula, Queensland, Australia |
| Extinct | 1985[1] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | awg |
| Glottolog | angu1242 |
| AIATSIS[2] | Y186 |
Mpakwithi is an extinct Australian Aboriginal dialect of Queensland.
Classification
[edit]Mpakwithi is generally regarded as a dialect of a broader Anguthimri language, which is part of the Northern Paman family.
Phonology
[edit]Vowels
[edit]| Front | Back | |
|---|---|---|
| Close | i iː ĩ y | u uː |
| Close-mid | e eː ẽ (ø) | o |
| Open-mid | æ æː æ̃ | |
| Low | a aː ã | |
/ø/ is found in only one word.
Mpakwithi has the most vowels of any Australian language, with 16–17. It also is the only Australian language to have nasal vowels.
Consonants
[edit]While other Anguthimri dialects and Northern Paman languages have three fricatives, /β ð ɣ/, Mpakwithi has a fourth, /ʒ/. Its origin is uncertain. This is an extremely rare sound in Australian languages.
| Peripheral | Laminal | Apical | Glottal | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bilabial | Velar | Palatal | Dental | Alveolar/ Retroflex |
Post- alveolar | |||
| Plosives | voiceless | p | k | c | t̪ | t | t̠ʳ | ʔ |
| prenasal | ᵐb | ᵑɡ | ᶮɟ | ⁿ̪d̪ | ⁿd | ⁿd̠ʳ | ||
| Fricatives | voiced | β | ɣ | ʒ | ð | |||
| voiceless | (ʃ) | (s) | ||||||
| Nasals | m | ŋ | ɲ | n̪ | n | |||
| Rhotics | ɻ | ɾ | ||||||
| Approximants | w | j | l | |||||
The flap /ɾ/ may occasionally also be heard as a trill [r].
Sounds [s, ʃ] may also occur, but only rarely and in a small amount of words. The phonemic status is uncertain.
References
[edit]- ^ Mpakwithi at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
- ^ Y186 Mpakwithi at the Australian Indigenous Languages Database, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
- Crowley, T. (1981). "The Mpakwithi dialect of Anguthimri". In Dixon, R. M. W.; Blake, B. J. (eds.). Handbook of Australian Languages. Vol 2. Canberra and Amsterdam: Australian National University Press and John Benjamins. pp. 146–194.
- Dixon, R. M. W. (2002). Australian Languages: Their Nature and Development. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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