Umbugarla language

Umbugarla or Mbukarla is a possible Australian language isolate once spoken by three people in Arnhem Land, northern Australia as of 1981, and is now extinct.

Classification

Umbugarla was once considered a language isolate (together with Ngurmbur as a dialect), but Mark Harvey has made a case for it being part of a family of Darwin Region languages.

Phonology

Consonants

	Peripheral		Laminal	Apical
	Labial	Velar	Palatal	Alveolar	Retroflex
Plosive	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
Nasal	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
Lateral			Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
Rhotic					Template:IPA link
Approximant	Template:IPA link		Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link

• /ɡ/ can be heard as either stops Template:IPAblink or Template:IPAblink when in word-final or word-medial position, and as a fricative Template:IPAblink when in intervocalic position.
• /ɽ/ can also be heard as an alveolar tap Template:IPAblink when in intervocalic position.

Vowels

	Front	Back
High	Template:IPA link Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link Template:IPA link
Mid	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
Low	Template:IPA link Template:IPA link

• Vowels can be lengthened when in open syllables or in word-final position.

Phoneme	Allophones
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Template:IPAslink	Template:IPAblink, Template:IPAblink
Template:IPAslink	Template:IPAblink, Template:IPAblink, Template:IPAblink, Template:IPAblink, Template:IPAblink, Template:IPAblink
Template:IPAslink	Template:IPAblink, Template:IPAblink, Template:IPAblink, Template:IPAblink, Template:IPAblink, Template:IPAblink
Template:IPAslink	Template:IPAblink, Template:IPAblink

External links

• Umbugarla Swadesh list at the Internet Archive

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