Arnhem Land languages facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Arnhem Land |
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| Geographic distribution: |
northern Australia |
| Linguistic classification: | Proposed language family |
| Subdivisions: | |
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The Arnhem Land languages are a group of Australian languages that some experts believe are related. They are spoken in the northern part of Arnhem Land, which is a region in the Northern Territory of Australia.
What is a Language Family?
A language family is like a family tree for languages. It means that different languages probably came from a single older language. Think of it like how you and your cousins are part of the same family.
Languages of Arnhem Land
The idea of the Arnhem Land language family was suggested by a researcher named Nicholas Evans in 1997. He thought these languages might share a common ancestor. This is still a "proposed" family, which means scientists are still studying it. They want to see if all the evidence supports this idea.
Languages in the Proposed Family
Here are the language groups that are part of this proposed family:
- Burarran
- Iwaidjan
- Giimbiyu (†)
- Gaagudju language (†)
- Umbugarla language (†)
The symbol (†) next to a language means it is no longer spoken. These languages are now extinct.
