Kalali language
Kalali, also written Kullili, Galali, Garlali, Kullilla and other variants, is an Australian Aboriginal language, of Queensland, Australia.
It is one of several geographically transitional "Karna–Mari fringe" languages that have not been convincingly classified, and is best considered an isolate branch within the Pama–Nyungan family. Gavan Breen provisionally includes Minkabari and the Ngura dialect Pitjara/Bidjara/Bitharra, which together have been called the Bulloo River language.
Breen is partly responsible for the variation in the spelling of the name 'Kalali'. The forms Garlali and Galarli are due to what he now considers a non-distinctive instance of retroflex rl, and he prefers the spelling Kalali.
People and language
Both the Kalali and the Wanggumara people apparently lived by the Bulloo River and the Wilson River in South West Queensland. There is some debate whether they originated by the Bulloo River and migrated to the Wilson River or vice versa. For instance, Breen posited that some groups in south-west Queensland had abandoned their original languages and adopted the Wilson River language in the early days of Australian colonial settlement, when people moved from Thargomindah and the middle Bulloo River to Nockatunga.The Bulloo River Kalali lived around the area from Thargomindah southward to the Currawinya Lakes and perhaps west to Bulloo Lakes and north to Norley Station. Bulloo River Kalali was studied by Breen. The informant Charlie Phillips aged 74 years, born at Backwood Station south of Hungerford in south-west Queensland, spoke the language fluently and confidently despite having not used the language conversationally for 40 years.
A language labelled "Wonkomarra" in Myles is a different language from modern Wangkumara, and may be a variety of Kalali. On the other hand, the language spoken by the Kalali people that Wurm labelled "Waŋkumara " was a variety of Wangkumara.