Evans notes that the only substantial Minkin (G26) language data comes from 18th century records, discusses the accuracy of the various historical sources. He argues that Minkin is a Tangkic language, not a family-level isolate as presented in other classifications (1990:173, 177).
The Tangkic language family, has genetic affiliation with the non-Pama Nyungan languages of Arnhem Land, but long term contact with Pama Nyungan languages led to morphological and lexical borrowing, and a 'typological convergence ... away from the non-Pama-Nyungan headmarking, prefixing type to a fairly typical Pama-Nyungan type ... (Evans, 1995: 30, 38).
Evans, Nicholas. 1995. A grammar of Kayardild, with historical-comparative notes on Tangkic: Mouton Grammar Library 15. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.
Barkly (Barclay) River south of Burketown; east to Leichhardt River on grassed plains; south to Augustus Downs and to Gregory Downs; to coast only at mouth of Albert River (Tindale 1974).
... as in Tindale possibly extending further east and/or whole Cloncurry River basin as far north as the Dismal Creek junction (Breen 1981).
The general associations were to the lower Leichhardt downstream from Augustus Downs and to the Nicholson, downstream from its junction with the Gregory. Westward limit: Gin Arm Creek (lower Lilly Creek) was associated with Minkin. Associations were with Ganggalida (Yukulta) west of this. There are no specifics on the eastward or southward limits of Minkin affiliations (Harvey ASEDA 802). near present-day Burketown, on the southern coast of the Gulf of Carpentaria, in the area containing the headwaters of the Leichhardt and Albert Rivers (Evans 1990:173).
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Speaker numbers were measured differently across the censuses and various other sources listed in AUSTLANG. You are encouraged to refer to the sources.
Speaker numbers for ‘NILS 2004’ and ‘2005 estimate’ come from 'Table F.3: Numbers of speakers of Australian Indigenous languages (various surveys)' in 'Appendix F NILS endangerment and absolute number results' in McConvell, Marmion and McNicol 2005, pages 198-230 (PDF, 2.5MB).
