Umbugarla language
Umbugarla or Mbukarla is a possible Australian language isolate once spoken by three people in Arnhem Land, northern Australia as of 1981, and is now extinct.
Classification
Umbugarla was once considered a language isolate, but Mark Harvey has made a case for it being part of a family of Darwin Region languages.Ngurmbur and Bugurnidja are poorly attested extinct languages, which are joined with Umbugarla to form the Umbugarlic branch.
Tryon lists the following varieties of Umbugarla–Ngumbur:
However, nothing is known of Ngunbudj or Ngarduk, which were extinct by World War II.
Phonology
Consonants
- /ɡ/ can be heard as either stops or when in word-final or word-medial position, and as a fricative when in intervocalic position.
- /ɽ/ can also be heard as an alveolar tap when in intervocalic position.
Vowels
- Vowels can be lengthened when in open syllables or in word-final position.
| Phoneme | Allophones |
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| , | |
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| , |