Pakanha (Bakanha), or Ayabakan, is a nearly

extinct Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...

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. Classificat ...

spoken on the

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

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. In 1981, there were 10 speakers of the language, originally spoken by the aboriginal Pakanha people in the central part of the Cape York Peninsula.

Phonology

Vowels

Pakanha has 5

vowel A vowel is a speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract, forming the nucleus of a syllable. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness a ...

qualities: {{grapheme, {, class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;" ! rowspan=2 , ! colspan="3" , Short ! colspan="3" ,

Long Long may refer to: Measurement * Long, characteristic of something of great duration * Long, characteristic of something of great length * Longitude (abbreviation: long.), a geographic coordinate * Longa (music), note value in early music mens ...

, - !

Front Front may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''The Front'' (1943 film), a 1943 Soviet drama film * '' The Front'', 1976 film Music * The Front (band), an American rock band signed to Columbia Records and active in the 1980s and ...

! Central !

Back The human back, also called the dorsum (: dorsa), is the large posterior area of the human body, rising from the top of the buttocks to the back of the neck. It is the surface of the body opposite from the chest and the abdomen. The vertebral c ...

! Central !

, - !

Close Close may refer to: Music * ''Close'' (Kim Wilde album), 1988 * ''Close'' (Marvin Sapp album), 2017 * ''Close'' (Sean Bonniwell album), 1969 * "Close" (Sub Focus song), 2014 * "Close" (Nick Jonas song), 2016 * "Close" (Rae Sremmurd song), 201 ...

, {{IPAlink, i {{grapheme, i , , {{IPAlink, u ~ {{IPAlink, ʊ {{grapheme, u , {{IPAlink, iː {{grapheme, ii , , {{IPAlink, uː {{grapheme, uu , - ! Mid , {{IPAlink, e ~ {{IPAlink, e̞ {{grapheme, e , , {{IPAlink, o ~ {{IPAlink, ɔ {{grapheme, o , {{IPAlink, ɛː {{grapheme, ee , , {{IPAlink, oː {{grapheme, oo , - !

Open Open or OPEN may refer to: Music * Open (band), Australian pop/rock band * The Open (band), English indie rock band * ''Open'' (Blues Image album), 1969 * ''Open'' (Gerd Dudek, Buschi Niebergall, and Edward Vesala album), 1979 * ''Open'' (Go ...

, , {{IPAlink, a ~ {{IPAlink, ə {{grapheme, a , , , {{IPAlink, aː {{grapheme, aa ,

Consonants

Pakanha has 15

consonants In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract, except for the h sound, which is pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Examples are and pronou ...

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Peripheral A peripheral device, or simply peripheral, is an auxiliary hardware device that a computer uses to transfer information externally. A peripheral is a hardware component that is accessible to and controlled by a computer but is not a core compo ...

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Laminal 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, ...

!colspan=2,

Apical Apical means "pertaining to an apex". It may refer to: *Apical ancestor, refers to the last common ancestor of an entire group, such as a species (biology) or a clan (anthropology) *Apical (anatomy), an anatomical term of location for features loc ...

!rowspan=2, Glottal , - !

Bilabial In phonetics, a bilabial consonant is a labial consonant articulated with both lips. Frequency Bilabial consonants are very common across languages. Only around 0.7% of the world's languages lack bilabial consonants altogether, including Tling ...

Velar Velar may refer to: * Velar consonant Velar consonants are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue (the dorsum) against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth (also known as the "velum"). Since the velar region ...

Palatal The palate () is the roof of the mouth in humans and other mammals. It separates the oral cavity from the nasal cavity. A similar structure is found in crocodilians, but in most other tetrapods, the oral and nasal cavities are not truly sepa ...

! Dental !

Alveolar Alveolus (; pl. alveoli, adj. alveolar) is a general anatomical term for a concave cavity or pit. Uses in anatomy and zoology * Pulmonary alveolus, an air sac in the lungs ** Alveolar cell or pneumocyte ** Alveolar duct ** Alveolar macrophage * M ...

Retroflex A retroflex () or cacuminal () consonant is a coronal consonant where the tongue has a flat, concave, or even curled shape, and is articulated between the alveolar ridge and the hard palate. They are sometimes referred to as cerebral consona ...

, - !

Plosive In phonetics, a plosive, also known as an occlusive or simply a stop, is a pulmonic consonant in which the vocal tract is blocked so that all airflow ceases. The occlusion may be made with the tongue tip or blade (, ), tongue body (, ), lip ...

, {{IPAlink, p {{grapheme, p , {{IPAlink, k {{grapheme, k , {{IPAlink, c {{grapheme, ch , {{IPAlink, t̪ {{grapheme, th , {{IPAlink, t {{grapheme, t , , {{IPAlink, ʔ {{grapheme, ' , - !

Nasal Nasal is an adjective referring to the nose, part of human or animal anatomy. It may also be shorthand for the following uses in combination: * With reference to the human nose: ** Nasal administration, a method of pharmaceutical drug delivery * ...

, {{IPAlink, m {{grapheme, m , {{IPAlink, ŋ {{grapheme, ng , {{IPAlink, ɲ {{grapheme, ny , {{IPAlink, n̪ {{grapheme, nh , {{IPAlink, n {{grapheme, n , , , - !

Trill TRILL (Transparent Interconnection of Lots of Links) is a networking protocol for optimizing bandwidth and resilience in Ethernet networks, implemented by devices called TRILL switches. TRILL combines techniques from bridging and routing, and ...

, colspan=2, , , , {{IPAlink, r {{grapheme, rr , , , - !

Approximant Approximants are speech sounds that involve the articulators approaching each other but not narrowly enough nor with enough articulatory precision to create turbulent airflow. Therefore, approximants fall between fricatives, which do prod ...

, colspan=2, {{IPAlink, w {{grapheme, w , {{IPAlink, j {{grapheme, y , , {{IPAlink, l {{grapheme, l , {{IPAlink, ɻ {{grapheme, r ,

Vocabulary/Topical Index

{{Expand section, date=February 2011 The following is a sample of words from a comparative wordlist/topical index produced by Philip Hamilton.{{Citation , last = Hamilton , first = Philip , title = Uw Oykangand and Uw Olkola Multimedia Dictionary , year = 1998 , url = http://reocities.com/Athens/delphi/2970/dict2.htm , access-date = 22 February 2011 , archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120323155530/http://reocities.com/Athens/delphi/2970/dict2.htm , archive-date = 23 March 2012 , url-status = dead The Pakanha words are accompanied by corresponding words from the distantly related Uw Olkola and Uw Oykangand languages: (P) = Pakanha, (Olk) = Uw Olkola, (Oyk) = Uw Oykangand. The Body: * Body ** {{lang, pkn, nhangka, italic=no (P) ** {{lang, olk, idnhan, italic=no (Olk, Oyk) ** {{lang, olk, elpan, italic=no (Olk) * Head ** {{lang, pkn, wele, italic=no (P) ** {{lang, olk, eka, italic=no (Olk) ** {{lang, kjn, e.g., italic=no (Oyk) * Fontanel ** {{lang, pkn, wele ngangka, italic=no (P) ** {{lang, olk, ek ulpar, italic=no (Olk) ** {{lang, kjn, e.g. ulbar, italic=no (Oyk) * Skull ** {{lang, pkn, yenkan, italic=no (P) ** {{lang, olk, ek obher, italic=no (Olk) ** {{lang, kjn, e.g. opher, italic=no (Oyk)

In popular culture

The Pakanha word for the

eastern grey kangaroo The eastern grey kangaroo (''Macropus giganteus'': gigantic large-foot; also great grey kangaroo or forester kangaroo) is a marsupial found in the eastern third of Australia, with a population of several million. Although a large ''M. giganteus ...

, {{lang, pkn, kucha, italic=yes, was used as the name of a tribe on the second season of the American reality television series,

Survivor Survivor(s) may refer to: * one who survives Arts, entertainment and media Fictional entities * Survivors, characters in the 1997 KKnD series#Armies, ''KKnD'' video-game series * ''The Survivors'', or the ''New Survivors Foundation'', a fictional ...

in 2001.{{Cite web, url=http://www.oocities.org/athens/delphi/2970/kangaroo.htm, archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20121017120459/http://www.oocities.org/athens/delphi/2970/kangaroo.htm, archive-date = 2012-10-17, title = Kangaroo

References

{{Reflist {{Pama–Nyungan languages, Paman Wik languages