According to Rigsby (2005), Yintjingka, a language name reported by Thomson, is the Indigenous name for the area around Port Stewart; and the language Thomson reported in this area is coastal Ayapathu.
Previously, coastal Ayapathu was not included as a separate record in AUSTLANG. Verstraete and Rigsby (2015) explain that coastal Ayapathu is a closely related dialect of the same language as (inland) Ayapathu Y60. After in-depth study of all available materials, they adopt the use of Yintyingka as the name of both the variety previously identified as coastal Ayapathu (Y236) and as the language name, of which Ayapathu Y60 and Yintyingka (previously Coastal Ayapathu) are dialects. They reason (pp.14-15) that Yintyingka is connected with the 'earliest and largest body of work', it is 'best established in ethnographic literature', and it avoids ambiguity with the 'structurally different' Western Ayapathu Y181.
In modern times people associated with this language variety often identify as Lamalama, along with Y50: Umpithamu, Y55: Morrobolam, Y195: Rimanggudinhma, Y136: Mbarrumbathama.
in the plains and savannahs ... as well as the coastal areas and waters at the northern end of Princess Charlotte Bay, a large sheltered bay along the middle section of the east coast of Cape York Peninsula. (Verstraete & Rigsby 2015:1).
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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).
