Umpila language
| Umpila | |
|---|---|
| Northeastern Paman | |
| Native to | Australia |
| Region | Cape York Peninsula, Queensland |
|
Native speakers
|
12 (2005) |
|
Pama–Nyungan
|
|
| Umpila Sign Language | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | Variously: |
| Glottolog | nort2759 |
| AIATSIS |
Y45 Umpila, Y211* Uutaalnganu, Y169* Kuuku Iyu |
Umpila is an aboriginal Australian language, or dialect cluster, of the Cape York Peninsula. It is spoken by about 100 aborigines, many of them elderly.
The land territory associated with the Umpila language group is located along the northeastern coast of Cape York Peninsula and stretches from the northern end of Temple Bay south to the Massey Creek region at the top of Princess Charlotte Bay, and west of the Great Dividing Range towards the township of Coen. Most of the remaining Umpila and Kuuku Ya'u speakers reside in Lockhart River Aboriginal Community, which is located at Lloyd Bay, roughly at the boundary between Umpila and Kuuku Ya'u lands.
The chief varieties of Umpila, variously considered dialects or distinct languages, are:
Typologically, Umpila is agglutinative, suffixing, dependent-marking language, with a preference for Subject-Object-Verb constituent order. Grammatical relations are indicated by a split ergative case system: nominal inflections are ergative/absolutive, pronominals are nominative/accusative. Features of note include: historical dropping of initial consonants, complex verbal reduplication expressing progressivity and habitual aspect, 'optional' ergative marking.
The Umpila have (or had) a well-developed signed form of their language.
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