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.Bowern, Claire. 2011. "How Many Languages Were Spoken in Australia?", Anggarrgoon: Australian languages on the web, 23 December 2011 (corrected 6 February 2012)
Ngurmbur and Bugurnidja are poorly attested extinct languages, which are joined with Umbugarla to form the Umbugarlic branch.
Tryon (2007) lists the following varieties of Umbugarla–Ngumbur: Ngunbudj (Gonbudj), Umbugarla, Bugunidja, Ngarduk, Ngumbur. However, nothing is known of Ngunbudj or Ngarduk, which were extinct by World War II.
Phonology
Consonants PeripheralLaminalApicalLabialVelarPalatalAlveolarRetroflexPlosiveNasalLateralRhoticApproximant
/ɡ/ can be heard as either stops or when in word-final or word-medial position, and as a fricative when in intervocalic position. /ɽ/ can also be heard as an alveolar tap when in intervocalic position.
Vowels FrontBackHigh MidLow
Vowels can be lengthened when in open syllables or in word-final position.
PhonemeAllophones, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
References
External links
Umbugarla Swadesh list at the Internet Archive