The Yiman language (also spelt Yeeman and Jiman) is an Australian Aboriginal language of

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , establishe ...

. Ethnically the speakers were Bidjara; that and geography suggests that it may have been a

Maric language Maran or Maric is an extinct branch of the Pama–Nyungan family of Australian languages formerly spoken throughout much of Queensland by many of the Murri peoples. The well attested Maric languages are clearly related; however, many language ...

, assuming it was a distinct language at all. It is attested in a word list collected by Meston and held in the State Library of Queensland, but as of 2014 the data had not been verified by the

Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies The Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS), established as the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies (AIAS) in 1964, is an independent Australian Government statutory authority. It is a collecting, ...

Language revival

Since 2017, the Central Queensland Language Centre has been working on helping to restore three languages from the region – Yiiman, Bayali (Byelle) and

Taribelang The Taribelang are an Aboriginal Australian people of central Queensland. Country The Taribelang lived on of territory around Bundaberg, and inland to near Walla, and north as far as Baffle Creek The Baffle Creek is a creek in Central Qu ...

. There is a

language revival Language revitalization, also referred to as language revival or reversing language shift, is an attempt to halt or reverse the decline of a language or to revive an extinct one. Those involved can include linguists, cultural or community groups, o ...

project under way to document and revive the language. "Yeeman" is listed as one of 20 languages prioritised as part of the Priority Languages Support Project, being undertaken by First Languages Australia and funded by the Department of Communications and the Arts. The project aims to "identify and document critically-endangered languages — those languages for which little or no documentation exists, where no recordings have previously been made, but where there are living speakers".

References

Bidjara (Warrego River) Maric languages Extinct languages of Queensland {{ia-lang-stub