The Arnhem Land languages are a
language family
A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ''ancestral language'' or ''parental language'', called the proto-language of that family. The term "family" reflects the tree model of language origination in hist ...
proposed by Evans (1997) of
Australian 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 ...
spoken across northern
Arnhem Land
Arnhem Land is a historical region of the Northern Territory of Australia, with the term still in use. It is located in the north-eastern corner of the territory and is around from the territory capital, Darwin. In 1623, Dutch East India Compan ...
.
(The name "
Arnhem languages
The Macro-Gunwinyguan languages, also called Arnhem or Gunwinyguan, are a family of Australian Aboriginal languages spoken across eastern Arnhem Land in northern Australia. Their relationship has been demonstrated through shared morphology i ...
" is used by Green (2003) for what Evans calls "Ginwinyguan", and is only tangentially related to this proposal.)
The established language families included in this proposal are,
*
Burarran
*
Iwaidjan
*
Giimbiyu (†)
*
Gaagudju language (†)
*
Umbugarla language
Umbugarla or Mbukarla is a possible Australian language isolate once spoken by three people in Arnhem Land, northern Australia, in 1981, and is now extinct.
Classification
Umbugarla was once considered a language isolate (together with Ngur ...
(†)
References
*McConvell, Patrick and Nicholas Evans. (eds.) 1997. ''Archaeology and Linguistics: Global Perspectives on Ancient Australia.'' Melbourne: Oxford University Press.
Non-Pama-Nyungan languages
Proposed language families
Indigenous Australian languages in the Northern Territory
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