The Yiman language (also spelt Yeeman and Jiman) is an
Australian Aboriginal 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 ...
of
Queensland. Ethnically the speakers were
Bidjara; that and geography suggests that it may have been a
Maric language, assuming it was a distinct language at all. It is attested in a word list collected by Meston and held in the
State Library of Queensland
The State Library of Queensland is the main reference and research library provided to the people of the State of Queensland, Australia, by the state government. Its legislative basis is provided by the Queensland Libraries Act 1988. It contai ...
, but as of 2014 the data had not been verified by the
Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies.
Language revival
Since 2017, the Central Queensland Language Centre has been working on helping to restore three languages from the region – Yiiman,
Bayali (Byelle) and
Taribelang.
There is a
language revival project under way to document and revive the language. "Yeeman" is listed as one of 20 languages prioritised as part of the Priority Languages Support Project, being undertaken by First Languages Australia and funded by the
Department of Communications and the Arts
The Australian Department of Communications and the Arts was a department of the Government of Australia charged with responsibility for communications policy and programs and cultural affairs.
In December 2019, prime minister Scott Morrison ...
. The project aims to "identify and document critically-endangered languages — those languages for which little or no documentation exists, where no recordings have previously been made, but where there are living speakers".
References
Bidjara (Warrego River)
Maric languages
Extinct languages of Queensland
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