L68: Wangkumara

AIATSIS code: 
L68
AIATSIS reference name: 
Wangkumara

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Name
Thesaurus heading language
Wangkumara language L68
Thesaurus heading people
ABN name
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ABS name
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Horton name
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Ethnologue name
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ISO 639-3 code
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Tindale name
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Tindale (1974)
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O'Grady et al (1966)
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Other sources
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Synonyms
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Comment
Comments: 
According to Breen (1971:12, 27), McDonald and Wurm (1979:1-3), Bowern (2001:256, note 25) and Wafer and Lissarrague (2008:286), there are two varieties of Wangkumara: original Wangkumara, associated with the Bulloo River languages, and Modern Wangkumara, associated with the Wilson River languages. It appears that some speakers of Bulloo River Wangkumara moved from the Bulloo River area (Thargomidha) to the Wilson River area (Nockatunga area) and adopted some features of the Wilson River languages (Breen 1971:12). McDonald and Wurm (1979:2), however, claim that the linguistic evidence supports Tindale's (1940) hypothesis of a migration in the opposite direction. Wilson River Wangkumara is a member of the Karnic languages while the Bulloo River Wangkumara is member of 'Karna-Mari fringe' languages (Wafer and Lissarrague 2008:286-287). Breen (2007:18) describes Karna-Mari fringe languages as 'a discontinuous group of languages, mostly poorly attested, scattered between Karnic and Mari languages but not showing much connection with either or with one another. The only one well attested is also the most remote geographically, Kalkutungu.' In this database, the code L25 was previously used to refer to both varieties of Wangkumara, given that the Wilson River (or modern) Wangkumara variety originated in Bulloo River Wangkumara (or vice versa), even though the two varieties are considered to belong to different language groups. However, as there is evidence of both varieties and they are distinct, they hare differentiated in this database and the Thesaurus. Bulloo River Wangkumara retains the L25 code, while Wilson River Wangkumara (or Modern Wangkumara) has a new code, L68. Given the confusion between the two varieties, though, documentation for Wangkumara L25 may also be relevant.
References: 
  • Bowern, Claire. 2001. Karnic classification revisited. In Forty years on: Ken Hale and Australian languages, ed. Jane Simpson, et al., 245-261. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.
  • Breen, Gavan. 1971. Aboriginal languages of western Queensland. Linguistic Communications, vol. 5, pp. 1-88. (p BRE)
  • Breen, Gavan. 2007. Reassessing Karnic. Australian Journal of Linguistics 27(2):175-199.
  • McDonald, Maryalyce & Stephen A. Wurm. 1979. Basic materials in Wangkumara (Galali): grammar, sentences and vocabulary: Pacific Linguistics B-65. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.
  • Tindale, Norman B. 1940. Distribution of Australian Aboriginal tribes: a field survey. Transactions of the Royal Society of SA 64:140-231.
  • Tindale, Norman B. 1974. Aboriginal tribes of Australia: their terrain, environmental controls, distribution, limits, and proper names. Berkeley: University of California Press/Canberra: Australian National University Press.
  • Wafer, Jim, and Amanda Lissarrague. 2008. A handbook of Aboriginal languages of New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory. Nambucca Heads: Muurrbay Aboriginal Language and Culture Co-operative.
Status: 
Confirmed
Location
State / Territory: 
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Location information: 
Northwest of Annandale, at Kalidawarry, lower portion of Field and Cooper Creek east of Nappa Merrie and Orientos to the Wilson River at Nockatunga. In postcontact times at Chastleton and NCarcowlah where they mixed with uncircumcised Kalali. Mathews (1905) used the tribal term as a general name for several tribes with similar languages along Cooper Creek (Tindale 1974).
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Speakers
Year Source Speaker numbers
1975Oates-
1984Senate-
1990Schmidt-
1996Census-
2001Census-
2004NILS1-
2005Estimate-
2006Census-
2011Census-
2014NILS2
2016Census-
2018-2019NILS3

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).

Documentation
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Dictionary: 
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Classification
Source Family Group Sub-group Name Language-dialect relationships
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