The Morrobolam language, formerly known as Morrobalama and Umbuygamu, is a possibly extinct

Paman language The Paman languages are an Australian language family spoken on Cape York Peninsula, Queensland. First noted by Kenneth Hale, Paman is noteworthy for the profound phonological changes which have affected some of its descendants. Classifica ...

from

Princess Charlotte Bay Princess Charlotte Bay is a large bay on the east coast of Far North Queensland at the base of Cape York Peninsula, 350 km north northwest of Cairns. Princess Charlotte Bay is a part of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park and it is a habit ...

in far-north

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

in Australia which was spoken by a group the

Lamalama people Lama Lama or Lamalama may refer to: * Lama Lama people, an ethnic group of Australia * Lama-Lama language, a language of Australia * Lama Lama National Park, in Australia See also * Llama llama (disambiguation) * Lama (disambiguation) A lama ...

History

In 1898, the

Aboriginal Aborigine, aborigine or aboriginal may refer to: *Aborigines (mythology), in Roman mythology * Indigenous peoples, general term for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area *One of several groups of indigenous peoples, see ...

population of the Princess Charlotte Bay area numbered around 1,000. However, white settlement of the region caused them to lose almost all of their traditional lands. The many Aboriginal groups of the region were forcibly moved to

missions Mission (from Latin ''missio'' "the act of sending out") may refer to: Organised activities Religion * Christian mission, an organized effort to spread Christianity *Mission (LDS Church), an administrative area of The Church of Jesus Christ of ...

and were exposed to diseases like syphilis and

Spanish influenza The 1918–1920 influenza pandemic, commonly known by the misnomer Spanish flu or as the Great Influenza epidemic, was an exceptionally deadly global influenza pandemic caused by the H1N1 influenza A virus. The earliest documented case was ...

. This resulted in the Aboriginal population of the region declining by 90% from 1898 levels. In the 1930s many of the surviving Aboriginal people were moved to the Old Lockhart River Mission. Those Aboriginal people who remained in their territory were from the several language groups of the Lamalama people: Morrobalam, Lamalama (also known as Mba Rumbathama), and Umpithamu (Umbindhamu) peoples, and lived there until 1961. During that time, most of the Aboriginal people worked on local

cattle station In Australia and New Zealand, a cattle station is a large farm (station is equivalent to the American ranch), the main activity of which is the rearing of cattle. The owner of a cattle station is called a ''grazier''. The largest cattle statio ...

s or were killed by mounted police. In 1961 the Aboriginal people who had remained on their lands were moved to the tip of the

Cape York Peninsula Cape York Peninsula is a large peninsula located in Far North Queensland, Australia. It is the largest unspoiled wilderness in northern Australia.Mittermeier, R.E. et al. (2002). Wilderness: Earth’s last wild places. Mexico City: Agrupación ...

. By the 1990s, the total number of speakers was reduced to four elderly speakers. Only two of those speakers, Nancy Gunnawarra and Mabel Kullakulla, spoke the language on a regular basis. Most younger people of the community could understand the language but were unable to speak it.

Naming and language relationships

The

Austlang The Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS), established as the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies (AIAS) in 1964, is an independent Australian Government statutory authority. It is a collecting, ...

database formerly listed Morrobolam as Umbuygamu (an

exonym An endonym (from Greek: , 'inner' + , 'name'; also known as autonym) is a common, ''native'' name for a geographical place, group of people, individual person, language or dialect, meaning that it is used inside that particular place, group, o ...

; Morrobolam is a clan name). Quoting linguist Jean-Cristophe Verstraete (2018), it says that "Morrobalama" is a mistranscription, and that Lamalama, Rimanggudinhma (Mbariman-Gudhinma) and Morrobolam form a

genetic Genetic may refer to: *Genetics, in biology, the science of genes, heredity, and the variation of organisms **Genetic, used as an adjective, refers to genes ***Genetic disorder, any disorder caused by a genetic mutation, whether inherited or de nov ...

subgroup of Paman known as Lamalamic, "defined by shared innovations in phonology and morphology". Within this subgroup, "Morrobolam and Lamalama form a phonologically innovative branch, while Rumanggudinhma forms a more conservative branch".

Phonology

Vowels

Morrobolam's vowel system is typical of Australian Aboriginal languages in that it contains only five vowels. All vowels show contrastive vowel length.

Consonants

Unusually for an Australian language, Morrobolam has a relatively large consonantal inventory, including fricatives, prestopped consonants, and other consonants not normally found in

Aboriginal Australian languages The Indigenous languages of Australia number in the hundreds, the precise number being quite uncertain, although there is a range of estimates from a minimum of around 250 (using the technical definition of 'language' as non-mutually intellig ...

. In this table, the orthographic symbols are bolded where they differ from IPA orthography.

Morphology

Morrobolam is an ergative–absolutive language.

Nouns and Pronouns

Personal pronouns have two cases: nominative for intransitive and transitive subjects, and accusative for transitive objects. Nouns have an ergative case for transitive subject function and an absolutive case for intransitive subject and transitive object function. There are a total of at least 10 noun cases, and the case-marking suffix is dependent on the final consonant in the root word. The absolutive case is the only case suffix that is not final consonant-dependent, and has a zero as a suffix. atha -Ø la-ngan fire-ABS burn - 3sg0 "The fire is burning now." Pronouns are attached to the end of the verb as a suffix, either as nominal or possessive.

References

{{Pama–Nyungan languages, Paman Paman languages Extinct languages of the Northern Territory