The data for Mbabaram language are scarce, but enough to glean phonological changes such as: deletion of first syllables and final vowels of words; monosyllabic words which commence with a consonant cluster; two laminal series and labialised versions of apico-alveolars and dorso-velar consosnats; six vowels.
Agwamin Y132 spoken to the south-west of Mbabaram has undergone similar phonological changes, and is the language most similar to Mbabaram, it is not known if this similarity is genetically or regionally based. Other neighbouring languages are unrelated to Mbabaram (Dixon, 1991:250-351).
... around the upper Walsh River, in north-east Queensland, just to the west of the Great Dividing Range. Its territory included the present settlements of Irvinebank, Petford and Lappa (but did not extend as far as Almaden, Mount Garnet or Mareeba) (Dixon 1991:350).
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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).
Dixon, R. M. W. 1991 Mbabaram. In The handbook of Australian languages vol 4, eds. Dixon RMW and B Barry, 348-402. Oxford University Press.
