Yir-Yoront was a Paman language spoken in two settlements, Kowanyama and Pormpuraaw on the southwestern part of 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 ...

, by the Yir-Yoront people. In 1991 only 15 speakers remained,Ethnologue
/ref> with the rest of the Yir-Yoront people speaking English or even Kuuk Thaayorre as many speakers of Yir-Yoront apparently are using Kuuk Thaayorre in daily conversation. At present it is thought to be extinct.Moseley, Christopher (ed.). 2010. Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger, 3rd edn. Paris, UNESCO Publishing. Online version: http://www.unesco.org/culture/en/endangeredlanguages/atlas There are two sister dialects, Yir-Yoront proper and Yirrk-Thangalkl, which are very close. The shared name Yir is sometimes used for both taken together.

Names

The first part of both of the name, ''Yir'', is from the word ''yirrq'' meaning ''speech'' or ''language''. Following is the

ethnonym An ethnonym () is a name applied to a given ethnic group. Ethnonyms can be divided into two categories: exonyms (whose name of the ethnic group has been created by another group of people) and autonyms, or endonyms (whose name is created and used ...

. Yir-Yoront is written

hyphen The hyphen is a punctuation mark used to join words and to separate syllables of a single word. The use of hyphens is called hyphenation. The hyphen is sometimes confused with dashes (en dash , em dash and others), which are wider, or with t ...

ated as a way of indicating that the syllable following the hyphen is stressed. In the standard

orthography An orthography is a set of convention (norm), conventions for writing a language, including norms of spelling, punctuation, Word#Word boundaries, word boundaries, capitalization, hyphenation, and Emphasis (typography), emphasis. Most national ...

, it is correctly spelled ''Yirr-Yorront'', with "rr" representing the consonant /r/. There is a valid alternative pronunciation with stress on the first syllable; this can be written ''YirrqYorront''. Other spellings encountered include ''Yir Yoront'' and ''Jir Joront''. Other names for the language include: * Yirr-Thuchm: Meaning ''"from the sandridges"'' * Kok-Minychen: The name of the Yir-Yoront in the

Koko-Bera language Gugubera (Koko Pera), or Kok-Kaper, is a Paman language of the Cape York Peninsula, Queensland in Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Austral ...

** Koko-Minychena: Alternative spelling ** Kokomindjen: Alternative spelling ** Mandjoen: Alternative spelling ** Mind'jana: Alternative spelling ** Mundjun: Alternative spelling ** Myunduno: Alternative spelling * Kuuk-Thaanhon: The name of the Yir-Yoront in the

Kuuk Thaayorre language Kuuk Thaayorre (Thayore) is a Paman languages, Paman language spoken in the settlement Pormpuraaw, Queensland, Pormpuraaw on the western part of the Cape York Peninsula, Queensland in Australia by the Thaayorre people. As of 2006, 250 of the 350 ...

* Gwandera: A name incorrectly applied to the Yir-Yoront people and their language * Millera: No source available

Phonology

The following description is for Yir-Yoront proper. For another dialect, see

Yirrk-Thangalkl dialect Yirrk-Thangalkl (Yir Thangedl) is a dialect of Yir-Yoront, a Paman language spoken on the southwestern part of the Cape York Peninsula, Queensland in Australia, by the Yirrk-Thangalkl people. The language is also known as ''Yirr-Thangell'' and ...

Vowels

Yir-Yoront has 6

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 ...

Consonants

Yir-Yoront has 20

consonant 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 ...

Sign language

The Yir Yoront have (or had) a well-developed signed form of their language. Kendon, A. (1988) ''Sign Languages of Aboriginal Australia: Cultural, Semiotic and Communicative Perspectives.'' Cambridge: Cambridge University Press It may have had some influence in the broader Far North Queensland Indigenous Sign Language, though it may have gone extinct too early for that.

External links

* Paradisec has language materials for Yir Yoront as part of the

Arthur Capell Arthur Capell (28 March 1902 – 10 August 1986) was an Australian linguist, who made major contributions to the study of Australian languages, Austronesian languages and Papuan languages. Early life Capell was born in Newtown, New South W ...

collection (AC1) and the Barry Alpher collection
BA1

References

Notes

General

: {{Pama–Nyungan languages, Paman Southwestern Paman languages Extinct languages of Queensland Indigenous Australian languages in Queensland