Barrow Point language
The Barrow Point or Mutumui language, called Eibole, is an extinct Australian Aboriginal language. 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
- Dixon, R. M. W. (2002). Australian Languages: Their Nature and Development. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521473780.
Further reading
- John Haviland and Roger Hart's Old Man Fog and the Last Aborigines of Barrow Point,ISBN 1-56098-928-9, a novel about the efforts of Hart, a native of the Cape York peninsula, to record and preserve Barrow Point language and culture.