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 (together with Ngurmbur as a dialect), 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 (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.

Phonology

Consonants

PeripheralLaminalApical
LabialVelarPalatalAlveolarRetroflex
Plosivebɡɟdɖ
Nasalmŋɲnɳ
Lateralʎlɭ
Rhoticɽ
Approximantwjɹ
  • /ɡ/ can be heard as either stops [k] or [ʔ] when in word-final or word-medial position, and as a fricative [ɣ] when in intervocalic position.
  • /ɽ/ can also be heard as an alveolar tap [ɾ] when in intervocalic position.

Vowels

FrontBack
Highi iːu uː
Midɛɔ
Lowa aː
  • Vowels can be lengthened when in open syllables or in word-final position.
PhonemeAllophones
/a/[ä], [äː], [æ], [ɛ], [ə], [ɒ], [o]
/ɛ/[ɛ], [ɛː]
/i/[i], [iː], [ɨ], [ʉ], [ə], [eː]
/u/[u], [uː], [o], [oː], [ʉ], [ə]
/uː/[uː], [oː]

External links

  • at the Internet Archive