The Darwin Region languages are a small
family of poorly attested
Australian Aboriginal languages
The Indigenous languages of Australia number in the hundreds, the precise number being quite uncertain, although there is a range of estimates from a minimum of around 250 (using the technical definition of 'language' as non-mutually intellig ...
of northern Australia proposed by linguist Mark Harvey. It unites the pair of Limilngan languages with two
language isolate
Language isolates are languages that cannot be classified into larger language families. Korean and Basque are two of the most common examples. Other language isolates include Ainu in Asia, Sandawe in Africa, and Haida in North America. The num ...
s:
[Bowern, Claire. 2011.]
How Many Languages Were Spoken in Australia?
, ''Anggarrgoon: Australian languages on the web'', December 23, 2011
corrected
February 6, 2012)
*
Laragiya (nearly extinct)
*Limilngan:
**
Limilngan
The Limilngan, also known by the exonym Minitja and (based on a language dialect) Buneidja, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the Northern Territory. Earlier ethnologists such as Norman Tindale referred to the group as Puneitja or variants o ...
†
**
Wulna †
*Umbugarlic:
**
Umbugarla †
**
Ngurmbur?
**
Bugurnidja?
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 WWII.
References
Proposed language families
Non-Pama-Nyungan languages
Extinct languages of the Northern Territory
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