Lardil language

Infobox Language
name=Lardil
nativename=Leerdil
familycolor=Australian
fam1= Macro-Pama-Nyungan
fam2=Greater Pama-Nyungan
fam3=Tankic
region=Bentinck Island, north west Mornington Island, Queensland
speakers=less than 10
iso3=lbz

Lardil or Leerdil is a nearly extinct Tangkic language spoken on Mornington Island, Queensland.

Initiated Lardil males were using Damin, the only click language outside of Africa.

Sounds

Note that APA notation is used, here and throughout.

Vowels

The Lardil vowel inventory consists of four contrastive dorsal positions, without labial contrasts.

	Front	Back
High	i	u
Low	e	a

Consonants

Bilabial	Dental	Alveolar	Retroflex	Velar
Plosive	p	t̪	t		k
Nasal	m		n	ṇ	ŋ
Rhotic			r	ṛ
Lateral			l

In addition, Lardil has the glide IPA|/w/, and IPA|/t/ has a contrastive palatalized IPA|/t^y/.

Vocabulary examples

* woman: "pirŋen"
* arm: "wanka"
* red cock rod: "yupur"
* mother's father: "t^yempe"
* husband: "yukar"
* kookaburra: "t̪alkur"
* bush mango: "wiwal"

References

* Dixon, R. M. W. 1980. "The Languages of Australia".
* Evans, Nicholas (with Paul Memmott and Robin Horsman). 1990. Chapter 16: Travel and communication. In P. Memmott & R. Horsman, A changing culture. The Lardil Aborigines of Mornington Island. Social Sciences Press, Wentworth Falls, NSW.
* Hale, Kenneth L. 1967. Some Productive Rules in Lardil (Mornington Island) Syntax, pp.63-73 in "Papers in Australian Linguistics" No. 2, ed. by C.G. von Brandenstein, A. Capell, and K. Hale. Pacific Linguistics Series A, No. 11.
* Hale, Kenneth L. . 1973. "Deep-Surface Canonical Disparities in Relation to Analysis and Change".
* Hale, Kenneth L. and D. Nash. 1997. "Damin and Lardil Phonotactics".
* McKnight, D. 1999. "People, Countries and the Rainbow Serpent".
* Memmott, P., N. Evans and R. Robinsi "Understanding Isolation and Change in Island Human Population though a study of Indigenous Cultural Patterns in the Gulf of Carpentaria".
* Ngakulmungan Kangka Leman and K.L. Hale. 1997. "Lardil dictionary : a vocabulary of the language of the Lardil people, Mornington Island, Gulf of Carpentaria, Queensland: with English-Lardil finder list." Gununa, Qld, Mornington Shire Council. ISBN 0 646 29052 5

External links

* [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=lbz Ethnologue reports on Lardil]