Wik-Mungkan, or ''Wik-Mungknh'', is a

Paman language The Paman languages are an Australian language family spoken on Cape York Peninsula, Queensland. First noted by Kenneth Hale, Paman is noteworthy for the profound phonological changes which have affected some of its descendants. Classifica ...

spoken on the northern part of

Cape York Peninsula Cape York Peninsula is a large peninsula located in Far North Queensland, Australia. It is the largest unspoiled wilderness in northern Australia.Mittermeier, R.E. et al. (2002). Wilderness: Earth’s last wild places. Mexico City: Agrupación ...

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 , established_ ...

, Australia, by around 1,000

Wik-Mungkan people The Wik-Mungkan people were the largest branch of the Wik people, an Aboriginal Australian group of peoples, speaking several different languages, who traditionally ranged over an extensive area of the western Cape York Peninsula in northern Queen ...

, and related peoples including the Wikalkan, Wik-Ngathana, Wikngenchera language groups. Wik Mungkan is healthier than most other languages on the peninsula, and is developing and absorbing other Aboriginal languages very quickly. Dixon thought there was a Wik-Iiyanh dialect, but it turned out to be the same as the Wik-Iiyanh dialect of Kugu Nganhcara. The

English language English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to t ...

has borrowed at least one word from Wik-Mungkan, that for the

taipan Taipans are snakes of the genus ''Oxyuranus'' in the elapid family. They are large, fast-moving, highly venomous, and endemic to Australia and New Guinea. Three species are recognised, one of which, the coastal taipan, has two subspecies. Taipa ...

, a species of venomous

snake Snakes are elongated, limbless, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes . Like all other squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales. Many species of snakes have skulls with several more j ...

native to the region. In 1962, Marie Godfrey and Barbara Sayers of the Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL) started linguistic and translation work in the Wik-Mungkan language in Aurukun. They began a dictionary file, and added to it over several years. Their work was continued and expanded by other SIL members, namely, Christine Kilham and Ann Eckert and was eventually published by SIL/AAB as the Dictionary and source book of the Wik-Mungkan language. The dictionary has been published online by AuSIL as the Wik Mungkan-English Interactive Dictionary.

Phonology

Vowels

Consonants

/ɹ/ does not appear frequently, only in some words. The same symbol for /r/ is used.

External links

Open Language Archives Community resources in and about the Wik-Mungkan language

References

Wik languages {{ia-lang-stub