Smith and Johnson describe six closely related patrilects Kugu Muminh Y43; Kugu Uwanh Y176; Kugu Ugbanh Y175; Kugu Mu'inh Y224; Kugu Yi'anh Y178 and Wik Iyanh Y172 under the language name Kugu Nganhcara Y59. Their grammar of this language is based primarily on Kugu Uwanh Y176 (2000:358).
This language belongs to a genetic language family (shared origins) which includes: Wik-Mungkan Y57; Wik-Iiyanh Y177 and Y172; Wik-Ngathan Y54 and Y56; Wik-Ngatharr Y51; Wik-Ep Y52; Wik-Me'anh Y53; Wik-Keyangan Y173; Mungkanho; Kugu-Uwanh Y176; Kugu-Ugbanh Y175 and Kugu-Mu'inh Y53 (Sutton, 1993:32).
Coastal area south of mouth of Holroyd River (Oates 1975:274). Kugu Nganhcara: between Kendall River and Moonkan Creek. Today, it is spoken chiefly at Edward River and Aurukun (Smith & Johnson 2000).
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A documentation project funded by Hans Rausing Endangered Languages Project is carried out from December 2006 to December 2009 (http://wwwling.arts.kuleuven.be/fll/hrelp/).
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).
Smith, Ian & Johnson, Steve. 2000. Kugu Nganhcara. In Handbook of Australian languages, vol. 5, eds. RMW Dixon and B Blake, 355-489. Melbourne: Oxford University Press.