| Pakanha | |
|---|---|
| Ayabakan | |
| Native to | Australia |
| Region | Cape York Peninsula, Queensland |
| Ethnicity | Ayabakan |
| Extinct | 1990s No known L1 speakers |
| Language family | Pama–Nyungan
|
| Dialects |
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | pkn |
| Glottolog | paka1251 |
| AIATSIS | Y64 Pakanh, Y181 Western Ayapathu |
| ELP | Pakanh |
| Coordinates: 14°30′S 142°25′E / 14.500°S 142.417°E / -14.500; 142.417 | |
| This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. | |
Pakanha (Bakanha), or Ayabakan, is a nearly extinct Paman language spoken on the Cape York Peninsula of Queensland, Australia. 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 qualities:
| Short | Long | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Front | Central | Back | Front | Central | Back | |
| Close | i ⟨i⟩ | u ~ ʊ ⟨u⟩ | iː ⟨ii⟩ | uː ⟨uu⟩ | ||
| Mid | e ~ e̞ ⟨e⟩ | o ~ ɔ ⟨o⟩ | ɛː ⟨ee⟩ | oː ⟨oo⟩ | ||
| Open | a ~ ə ⟨a⟩ | aː ⟨aa⟩ | ||||
Consonants
Pakanha has 15 consonants:
| Peripheral | Laminal | Apical | Glottal | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bilabial | Velar | Palatal | Dental | Alveolar | Retroflex | ||
| Plosive | p ⟨p⟩ | k ⟨k⟩ | c ⟨ch⟩ | t̪ ⟨th⟩ | t ⟨t⟩ | ʔ ⟨'⟩ | |
| Nasal | m ⟨m⟩ | ŋ ⟨ng⟩ | ɲ ⟨ny⟩ | n̪ ⟨nh⟩ | n ⟨n⟩ | ||
| Trill | r ⟨rr⟩ | ||||||
| Approximant | w ⟨w⟩ | j ⟨y⟩ | l ⟨l⟩ | ɻ ⟨r⟩ | |||
Vocabulary/Topical Index
 | This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (February 2011) |
The following is a sample of words from a comparative wordlist/topical index produced by Philip Hamilton. 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
- nhangka (P)
- idnhan (Olk, Oyk)
- elpan (Olk)
- Head
- wele (P)
- eka (Olk)
- e.g. (Oyk)
- Fontanel
- wele ngangka (P)
- ek ulpar (Olk)
- e.g. ulbar (Oyk)
- Skull
- yenkan (P)
- ek obher (Olk)
- e.g. opher (Oyk)
In popular culture
The Pakanha word for the eastern grey kangaroo, kucha, was used as the name of a tribe on the second season of the American reality television series, Survivor in 2001.
References
- ^ Pakanha at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
- ^ Y64 Pakanh at the Australian Indigenous Languages Database, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (see the info box for additional links)
- Wurm and Hattori 1981
- ^ Hamilton, Philip (1998), Uw Oykangand and Uw Olkola Multimedia Dictionary, retrieved 20 January 2011 {{grapheme|
- Hamilton, Philip (1998), Uw Oykangand and Uw Olkola Multimedia Dictionary, archived from the original on 23 March 2012, retrieved 22 February 2011
- "Kangaroo". Archived from the original on 2012-10-17.