Kawalgaw Ya (Y5) is a variety of the Western Torres Strait language known as Kala Lagaw Ya Y1. The other vairieties are: Mabuyag Y239, Kalaw Kawaw Ya Y2 and Kulkalgaw Ya Y4. See also Torres Strait Creole P2 and Meriam Mir Y3.
Muralag group of islands which include Horn Island, Prince of Wales Island, Hammond Island and Thursday Island. It is also spoken on Kubin Island - because Muralag people were moved to Kubin island from the above mentioned islands when the Queensland government established administration on Thursday Island (Ober 2007 p.c.). Kawalgaw Ya, also know as Kawrareg. This dialect is the language of the people of Muralag group of islands which include Horn Island, Prince of Wales Island, Hammond Island, Thursday Island. This dialect is also spoken at Kubin because Muralag people were moved there from these group of islands when the Queensland government established the administration on Thursday Island. (Ober 2007 p.c.). Kubin and Noerupay [Horne Island] (Ober ASEDA 0485).
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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).
