Darwin Region languages

Darwin Region
(proposed)
Geographic
distribution		from Darwin area to the West Alligator River
Linguistic classificationProposed language family.
Subdivisions
Language codes
GlottologNone
lara1258  Laragia
limi1242  Limilngan-Wulna
umbu1235  Umbugarla
Darwin Region languages (red), among other non-Pama–Nyungan languages (grey).

Closeup. From west to east they are: Laragiya, Limilngan, and Umbugarlic.

The Darwin Region languages are a family of Australian Aboriginal languages of northern Australia proposed by linguist Mark Harvey[citation needed]. It unites the pair of Limilngan languages with two language isolates:

Ngurmbur and Bugurnidja are poorly attested extinct languages, which are joined with Umbugarla to form the Umbugarlic branch.

Tryon (2007) lists the following varieties of Umbugarla–Ngumbur:

Ngunbudj (Gonbudj), Umbugarla, Bugunidja, Ngarduk, Ngumbur.

However, nothing is known of Ngunbudj or Ngarduk, which were extinct by World War II.

References

  1. ↑ Bowern, Claire. 2011. "How Many Languages Were Spoken in Australia?", Anggarrgoon: Australian languages on the web, 23 December 2011 (corrected 6 February 2012)