Giimbiyu is an extinct Aboriginal Australian language isolate once spoken by the Giimbiyu people of northern Australia.
Name The name is a Gaagudju word for 'of the stoney country'. It was introduced in Harvey (1992) as a cover term for the named dialects,
Mangerr (Mengerrdji) Urningangga (Wuningak) Erri (Arri)
Classification In 1997 Nicholas Evans proposed an Arnhem Land family that includes the Giimbiyu languages. However, they are not included in Bowern (2011).Bowern, Claire. 2011. "How Many Languages Were Spoken in Australia?", Anggarrgoon: Australian languages on the web, 23 December 2011 (corrected 6 February 2012)
Phonology
Consonants PeripheralLaminalApicalLabialVelarPalatalAlveolarRetroflexplainpal.PlosiveNasalFricativeTapLateralApproximant
Coarticulation among consonants is also present. Among consonant-coarticulation, /ɣ/ when preceding sounds /l, ɾ/ may result in being heard as a voiceless palatal [ç].
Vowels FrontBackHighMidLow
may also be heard as . Coarticulation among a preceding , may result in the vowel sound becoming more central or as a diphthong .
Vocabulary Capell (1942) lists the following basic vocabulary items:Capell, Arthur. 1941-1942, 1942-1943. Languages of Arnhem Land, North Australia. Oceania 12: 364-392, 13: 24-51.
{| class="wikitable sortable" ! gloss !! Mangeri !! Uningangk |- ! man
! woman
! head
! eye
! nose
! mouth
! tongue
! stomach
! bone
! blood
! kangaroo
! opossum
! emu
! crow
! fly
! sun
! moon
! fire
! smoke
! water
References
McConvell, Patrick and Nicholas Evans. (eds.) 1997. Archaeology and Linguistics: Global Perspectives on Ancient Australia. Melbourne: Oxford University Press