Barrow Point language

Barrow Point
Mutumui
Eibole
RegionQueensland, Australia
EthnicityMutumui
Extinctby 2005, with the death of Urwunjin Roger Hart
Dialects
  • Ongwara
Language codes
ISO 639-3bpt
Glottologbarr1247
AIATSISY63.1
ELPBarrow Point
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The Barrow Point or Mutumui language, called Eibole, is an extinct Australian Aboriginal language from the Cape York Peninsula in Queensland. According to Wurm and Hattori (1981), there was one speaker left at the time.

Classification

The language has one dialect in the north called Ongwara.

Phonology

Unusually among Australian languages, Barrow Point had at least two fricative phonemes, /ð/ and /ɣ/. They usually developed from *t̪ and *k, respectively, when preceded by a stressed long vowel, which then shortened.

References

  1. 1 2 Y63.1 Barrow Point at the Australian Indigenous Languages Database, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
  2. ↑ Bowern, Claire. 2011. "How Many Languages Were Spoken in Australia?", Anggarrgoon: Australian languages on the web, 23 December 2011 (corrected 6 February 2012)
  3. ↑ Barrow Point language at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022) Closed access icon
  4. ↑ "Mutumui (QLD)". www.samuseum.sa.gov.au. Retrieved 21 November 2023.
  5. ↑ Dixon, R. M. W.; Dixon, Robert M. W.; Dixon, Adjunct Professor and Deputy Director of the Language and Culture Centre R. M. W. (14 November 2002). Australian Languages: Their Nature and Development. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521473781.

Further reading