Yiman language facts for kids

The Yiman language (also spelled Yeeman or Jiman) is an Aboriginal language from Queensland, Australia. The people who spoke Yiman were ethnically connected to the Bidjara people. This language is known from a list of words collected by a person named Meston. This list is kept at the State Library of Queensland. As of 2014, the information about the language had not been fully checked by the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies.

Bringing the Yiman Language Back

Since 2017, a group called the Central Queensland Language Centre has been working hard. They are helping to bring back three languages from their region. These languages are Yiiman, Bayali (also called Byelle), and Taribelang.

As of 2020, there is a special project happening to help document and revive the Yiman language. To "document" means to write down and record everything known about it. To "revive" means to help people learn and use the language again. The "Yeeman" language is one of 20 languages chosen for the Priority Languages Support Project. This project is run by First Languages Australia and gets money from the Department of Communications and the Arts. The main goal of this project is to find and record languages that are "critically-endangered." These are languages where very little or no information has been written down before. The project also looks for languages where no recordings have been made, but where there are still people who speak them.