Mpakwithi dialect

Mpakwithi is an extinct Australian Aboriginal dialect of Queensland.

Mpakwithi
Anguthimri
Region	Cape York Peninsula, Queensland, Australia
Extinct	1985
Language family	Pama–Nyungan Paman North Cape York Northern Anguthimri Mpakwithi
Language codes
ISO 639-3	awg
Glottolog	angu1242
AIATSIS	Y186

Classification

Mpakwithi is generally regarded as a dialect of a broader Anguthimri language, which is part of the Northern Paman family.

Phonology

Vowels

	Front	Back
Close	i iː ĩ y	u uː
Close-mid	e eː ẽ (ø)	o
Open-mid	æ æː æ̃
Low	a aː ã

/ø/ is found in only one word.

Mpakwithi has the most vowels of any Australian language, with 16–17. It also is the only Australian language to have nasal vowels.

Consonants

While other Anguthimri dialects and Northern Paman languages have three fricatives, /β ð ɣ/, Mpakwithi has a fourth, /ʒ/. Its origin is uncertain. This is an extremely rare sound in Australian languages.

		Peripheral		Laminal		Apical		Glottal
		Bilabial	Velar	Palatal	Dental	Alveolar/ Retroflex	Post- alveolar
Plosives	voiceless	p	k	c	t̪	t	t̠ʳ	ʔ
	prenasal	ᵐb	ᵑɡ	ᶮɟ	ⁿ̪d̪	ⁿd	ⁿd̠ʳ
Fricatives	voiced	β	ɣ	ʒ	ð
	voiceless			(ʃ)		(s)
Nasals		m	ŋ	ɲ	n̪	n
Rhotics						ɻ	ɾ
Approximants		w		j		l

The flap /ɾ/ may occasionally also be heard as a trill [r].

Sounds [s, ʃ] may also occur, but only rarely and in a small amount of words. The phonemic status is uncertain.

References

• Crowley, T. (1981). "The Mpakwithi dialect of Anguthimri". In Dixon, R. M. W.; Blake, B. J. (eds.). Handbook of Australian Languages. Vol 2. Canberra and Amsterdam: Australian National University Press and John Benjamins. pp. 146–194.
• Dixon, R. M. W. (2002). Australian Languages: Their Nature and Development. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.