Yir-Yoront language

Yir-Yoront
Spoken in	Australia
Region	Cape York Peninsula, Queensland
Ethnicity	Yir-Yoront
Native speakers	15  (1991)
Language family	Pama–Nyungan Paman Western Coastal Yir Yir-Yoront
Language codes
ISO 639-3	yiy
This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters.

Yir-Yoront is a Paman language spoken in two settlements, Kowanyama and Pormpuraaw on the southwestern part of the Cape York Peninsula, Queensland in Australia, by the Yir-Yoront people. As of 1991 only 15 speakers remain,^[1] with the rest of the Yir-Yoront people speaking English or even Kuuk Thaayorre as many speakers of Yir-Yoront apparently are using Kuuk Thaayorre in daily conversation.^[2] Together with Yirrk-Thangalkl it forms the group of Yir languages.

Names

Yir-Yoront is written hyphenated as a way of indicating that the syllable following the hyphen is stressed. In the standard orthography, it is correctly spelled Yirr-Yorront, with "rr" representing the consonant /r/. There is a valid alternative pronunciation with stress on the first syllable; this can be written YirrqYorront. Other spellings encountered include Yir Yoront and Jir Joront.

Other names for the language include:

• Yirr-Thuchm: Meaning "from the sandridges"
• Kok-Minychen: The name of the Yir-Yoront in the Koko-Bera language
  • Koko-Minychena: Alternative spelling
  • Kokomindjen: Alternative spelling
  • Mandjoen: Alternative spelling
  • Mind'jana: Alternative spelling
  • Mundjun: Alternative spelling
  • Myunduno: Alternative spelling
• Kuuk-Thaanhon: The name of the Yir-Yoront in the Kuuk Thaayorre language
• Gwandera: A name incorrectly applied to the Yir-Yoront people and their language
• Millera: No source available

Phonology

Vowels

Yir-Yoront has 6 vowels:

	Front	Central	Back
	Unrounded	Unrounded	Rounded
Close	i		u
Close-mid	e		o
Mid		ə
Open		a

Consonants

Yir-Yoront has 20 consonants:

	Bilabial	Dental	Alveolar	Postalveolar	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Plosive	p /p/	th /t̪/	t /t/		rt /ʈ/		k /k/	q /ʔ/
Nasal	m /m/	nh /n̪/	n /n/		rn /ɳ/	ny /ɲ/	ng /ŋ/
Affricate				ch /t͡ʃ/
Trill			rr /r/
Tap			r /ɾ/
Approximant		lh /l̪/	l /l/		rl /ɭ/	y /j/	w /w/

Sign

The Yir Yoront had a developed sign form of their language.^[3]

References

Notes

1. ^ Ethnologue
2. ^ Gaby, Alice Rose (2006). A Grammar of Kuuk Thaayorre. p. 6. 
3. ^ Kendon, A. (1988) Sign Languages of Aboriginal Australia: Cultural, Semiotic and Communicative Perspectives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

General

Alpher, Barry (1991). Yir-Yoront lexicon: Sketch and dictionary of an Australian language. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.