Yugambal (Yugumbal, Jukambal), or Yugumbil (Jukambil), 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 northern

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

. Macpherson (1905) describes the Yugambal language as prevailing from Boggy Camp and Inverell, almost to Bingara on the west, Bundarra on the south, and Tingha on the south-east. He further notes that the Ngarrabul, Marbul, and Yugambal people understood each other, as did Ngarrabul, Kwiambal and Yugambal, so they are assumed to have spoken dialects of a single language. Dixon (1976; 2004) also gives Ngarrabul or Ngarrbal as a dialect of the Yugambal language. Yugambal may have been a Kuric language. However, it has been confused with the Bundjalung dialect of Yugambeh in the literature, muddling accounts of its classification. The status of the language is uncertain. Some known language speakers, including Sira Draper, Hughie Green and Archie Green, were alive in the mid-to-late 20th century. However, it is unknown whether there are any other speakers. There is little description of the language. RH Matthews published a basic grammar of the Yugambal language in 1902, while word lists for Tenterfield, Glen Innes and Ashford provide limited data of the Ngarrabul, Kwiambal and Marbul dialects. John Macpherson (1902; 1904; 1930; 1931; 1934; 1939) and Thomas Wyndham (1889; 1895)Wyndham, W.T. (1895). "The food of the Aborigines." ''The Queenslander,'' Saturday 16 November 1895, p. 938) lived amongst Yugambal and Ngarrabul people for some time, and published records of Yugambal and Ngarrabul vocabulary, as well as cultural and religious practices and traditions. There are also many unpublished notebooks of John Macpherson and other researchers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries that contain records of the Yugambal language.

References

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External links

Jukambal (NSW)
at SW Museum archives Extinct languages of New South Wales Yuin–Kuric languages