Darumbal, also spelt Dharambal, is an

Aboriginal Australian language 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 ...

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 declared extinct. It was spoken in the

Rockhampton Rockhampton is a city in the Rockhampton Region of Central Queensland, Australia. The population of Rockhampton in June 2021 was 79,967, Estimated resident population, 30 June 2018. making it the fourth-largest city in the state outside of ...

area of Queensland. Dialects were Guwinmal, Karunbara, Rakiwara, and Wapabura. It is classified with Bayali as a

Kingkel language Kingkel is a putative small branch of the Pama–Nyungan family in Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , s ...

, but the two are not close, with a low 21% shared vocabulary. Indeed, Angela Terrill states that "there is no evidence on which to base a claim of a low-level genetic group including Dharumbal with any other language". Tribes around Gladstone1

Name

Spelling and Pronunciation

There is some variation in the naming of the language community.

Walter Roth Walter Edmund Roth (2 April 1861 – 5 April 1933) was a British people, British colonial administrator, anthropology, anthropologist and physician, medical practitioner, who worked in Queensland, Australia and British Guiana between 1898 and 1 ...

spells ''Ta-rum-bal'' and ''Taroombal'' while

Norman Tindale Norman Barnett Tindale AO (12 October 1900 – 19 November 1993) was an Australian anthropologist, archaeologist, entomologist and ethnologist. Life Tindale was born in Perth, Western Australia in 1900. His family moved to Tokyo and lived ...

records ''Dharumbal'' and cites the alternatives ''Tarumbul'', ''Tarambol'', ''Tarmbal'' and ''Charumbul''. Nils Holmer, who undertook the first modern field study of the language uses Darumbal, as does th
Darumbal-Noolar Murree Aboriginal Corporation for Land and Culture
However, Holmer also uses ⟨D⟩ to indicate an interdental stop (where others have used ⟨dh⟩), and indeed, he alphabetises ''Darumbal'' along with other words beginning with an interdental stop, making his ''Darumbal'' equivalent in pronunciation to ''Dharumbal''. From the available material then, Angela Terrill justifiably uses Dharumbal.

Phonology

Consonant inventory

Voicing distinction of stops

Dharumbal possesses a rare distinction (among Pama-Nyungan languages) between voiced and voiceless stops, which seems to be maintained intervocalically, but not in other environments, where voicing seems to be in free variation. This observation, posited by Holmer and maintained by Terrill, is supported by the consistency to which older authors transcribed certain words; intervocalically, there is greater consistency in the use of a certain symbol, while in other environments (word-initially, after liquids), there is more variation. Other Pama-Nyungan languages with a voicing distinction of stops include Thangatti, Marrgany-Gunya, Wangkumara, and Diyari.

Laminals

Laminal consonant A laminal consonant is a phone (speech sound) produced by obstructing the air passage with the blade of the tongue, the flat top front surface just behind the tip of the tongue in contact with upper lip, teeth, alveolar ridge, to possibly, as ...

s are often realised interdentally, but may also be realised palatally in any position, except for the laminal nasal, which must be realised palatally in word-final position.

Laterals

Lateral consonants may not appear word-initially.

Rhotics

From the existing material, Terrill concludes that there were likely three phonemically distinct rhotic consonants: a retroflex continuant, and two trills, distinguished by voicing. The two trills only appear intervocalically and never word-initially. The (near) minimal pairs given by

Stephen Wurm Stephen Adolphe Wurm ( hu, Wurm István Adolf, ; 19 August 1922 – 24 October 2001) was a Hungarian-born Australian linguist. Early life Wurm was born in Budapest, the second child to the German-speaking Adolphe Wurm and the Hungarian- ...

are: *''wuru'' "son" *''wurhu'' "nose" *''gurru'' "fly" Additional minimal pairs were observed by Holmer.

Vowel inventory

Dharumbal has three phonemic vowels. Terrill finds no evidence for contrastive vowel length. Roth used various diacritics in his transcriptions, but no explanation for their function was provided.

People

The

Koinmerburra people The Koinmerburra people, also known as Koinjmal, Guwinmal, Kungmal and other variants, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the state of Queensland. They are the traditional owners of an area which includes part of the Great Barrier Reef. Co ...

(Koinjmal, Guwinmal) spoke the Guwinmal dialect, while the

Wapabara The Wapabara, also known as Woppaburra, are an Aboriginal Australians, Aboriginal Australian people whose traditional lands are on Great Keppel Island, Greater and South Keppel islands. They are known in their speech as ''Ganumi Bara.'' They are o ...

(Woppaburra) probably spoke their own dialect.

Notes

Citations

Sources

* * *

External links

Bibliography of Darumbal people and language resources
at the

Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies 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, ...

Kingkel languages Extinct languages of Queensland {{ia-lang-stub