Amurdak, also rendered Amurdag, Amurdak, Amurag, Amarag and Wureidbug, is an
Aboriginal Australian language historically spoken in an area around the eastern coast of
Van Diemen Gulf, in the
Northern Territory
The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory shares its borders with Western Au ...
of Australia. It is a recently
extinct language
An extinct language is a language that no longer has any speakers, especially if the language has no living descendants. In contrast, a dead language is one that is no longer the native language of any community, even if it is still in use, ...
, the last recorded fluent speaker left being in 2021.
Status
According to a report by the
National Geographic Society
The National Geographic Society (NGS), headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States, is one of the largest non-profit scientific and educational organizations in the world.
Founded in 1888, its interests include geography, archaeology, ...
and the
Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages, it is an endangered language. The last living speaker,
Charlie Mungulda
Charlie Mungulda of Arnhem Land, in the Northern Territory of Australia, was the last native speaker of the Amurdak language
Amurdak, also rendered Amurdag, Amurdak, Amurag, Amarag and Wureidbug, is an Aboriginal Australian language historica ...
, worked with Australian linguists
Nick Evans, Robert Handelsmann and others, over several decades to record his language.
The Amurdak language and Charlie Mungulda were featured in
Language Matters with Bob Holman, a 2015
PBS documentary about endangered languages.
According to the
2016 Australian census
The 2016 Australian census was the 17th national population census held in Australia. The census was officially conducted with effect on Tuesday, 9 August 2016. The total population of the Commonwealth of Australia was counted as – an incr ...
, there were no speakers of Amurdak in 2016; however, Mungulda's death has not been reported, and he co-authored a paper published in May 2020.
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Phonology
Consonants
Evans but not Mailhammer identifies a palatal lateral in Amurdag.
Vowels
Mailhammer (2009) does not provide a vowel inventory but Evans (1998) briefly discusses vowels in his paper, noting that Iwaidjan languages including Amurdak have a three vowel (/a/, /i/, /u/) system.
References
Further reading
*Evans, Nicholas (1998). "Iwaidja mutation and its origins". In Anna Siewierska & Jae Jung Song. Case, Typology and Grammar: In honor of Barry J. Blake. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company. pp. 115–149.
*Handelsmann, R. (1991). Towards a description of Amurdak: a language of northern Australia. Honours thesis, University of Melbourne,
*Mailhammer, R. (2009) 'Towards an Aspect-Based Analysis of the Verb Categories of Amurdak', Australian Journal of Linguistics, vol. 29, no. 3, pp. 349–391.
*Neidjie, B., Mulurinj, N., Mailhammer, R., & Handelsmann, R. (2009). Amurdak inyman: Six stories in Amurdak.
{{Australian Aboriginal languages
Iwaidjan languages
Endangered indigenous Australian languages in the Northern Territory
Languages extinct in the 2010s
Extinct languages of the Northern Territory