Pakanha language

Pakanha (Bakanha), or Ayabakan, is a nearly extinct Paman language spoken on the Cape York Peninsula of Queensland, Australia. In 1981, there were 10 speakers of the language, originally spoken by the aboriginal Pakanha people in the central part of the Cape York Peninsula.[1]

Pakanha
Ayabakan
Native toAustralia
RegionCape York Peninsula, Queensland
EthnicityAyabakan
Extinctuncertain, 10 reported 1981[1]
not reported since[2]
Dialects
  • Western Ayapathu
Language codes
ISO 639-3pkn
Glottologpaka1251[3]
AIATSIS[2]Y64 Pakanh, Y181 Western Ayapathu
Coordinates: 14°30′S 142°25′E

Phonology

Vowels

Pakanha has 5 vowel qualities:[4]

Short Long
Front Central Back Front Central Back
Close i /i/ u /u ~ ʊ/ ii /iː/ uu /uː/
Mid e /e ~ e̞/ o /o ~ ɔ/ ee /ɛː/ oo /oː/
Open a /a ~ ə/ aa /aː/

Consonants

Pakanha has 15 consonants:[4]

Peripheral Laminal Apical Glottal
Bilabial Velar Palatal Dental Alveolar Retroflex
Plosive p /p/ k /k/ ch /c/ th /t̪/ t /t/ ' /ʔ/
Nasal m /m/ ng /ŋ/ ny /ɲ/ nh /n̪/ n /n/
Trill rr /r/
Approximant w /w/ y /j/ l /l/ r /ɻ /

Vocabulary/Topical Index

The following is a sample of words from a comparative wordlist/topical index produced by Philip Hamilton.[5] The Pakanha words are accompanied by corresponding words from the distantly related Uw Olkola and Uw Oykangand languages:

(P) = Pakanha, (Olk) = Uw Olkola, (Oyk) = Uw Oykangand.

The Body:

  • Body
    • nhangka (P)
    • idnhan (Olk, Oyk)
    • elpan (Olk)
  • Head
    • wele (P)
    • eka (Olk)
    • e.g. (Oyk)
  • Fontanel
    • wele ngangka (P)
    • ek ulpar (Olk)
    • e.g. ulbar (Oyk)
  • Skull
    • yenkan (P)
    • ek obher (Olk)
    • e.g. opher (Oyk)

The Pakanha word for the eastern grey kangaroo, kucha, was used as the name of a tribe on the second season of the American reality television series, Survivor in 2001.[6]

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gollark: The UK is also doing bad things nominally but not really in opposition to technology companies.
gollark: Australis is doing rather bad things seemingly not driven by and not desired by any tech companies.
gollark: Much of that seems to be from governments now.
gollark: It's a shame there isn't very good micropayments stuff available for most people. I would donate small amounts of money toward arbitrary internet people if possible.

References
  1. Pakanha at Ethnologue (16th ed., 2009)
  2. Y64 Pakanh at the Australian Indigenous Languages Database, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies  (see the info box for additional links)
  3. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Pakanha". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  4. Hamilton, Philip (1998), Uw Oykangand and Uw Olkola Multimedia Dictionary, retrieved 20 January 2011
  5. Hamilton, Philip (1998), Uw Oykangand and Uw Olkola Multimedia Dictionary, archived from the original on 23 March 2012, retrieved 22 February 2011
  6. https://web.archive.org/web/20121017120459/http://www.oocities.org/athens/delphi/2970/kangaroo.htm
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