| Eastern Tasmanian | |
|---|---|
| Oyster Bay – Bruny | |
| Geographic distribution | Eastern coast ofTasmania and interior |
| Ethnicity | Oyster Bay, Big River, and Bruny tribes ofTasmanians |
| Extinct | 19th century |
| Linguistic classification | Possibly one of the world's primarylanguage families (seeTasmanian languages) |
| Subdivisions | |
| Language codes | |
| Glottolog | oyst1235 (Oyster Bay)sout1293 (Bruny/Southeast) |
.png) Eastern Tasmanian language families per Bowern (2012) Oyster Bay Southeast Tasmanian | |
Eastern Tasmanian is an Aboriginallanguage family ofTasmania in the reconstructed classification ofClaire Bowern.[1]
Bayesian phylogenetic analysis suggests that four (at p < 0.20) to five (at p < 0.15) Eastern Tasmanian languages are recorded in the 26 unmixed Tasmanian word lists (out of 35 lists known). These cannot be shown to be related to other Tasmanian languages based on existing evidence. The languages are:[2]
Two of the lists reported to be from Oyster Bay contain substantial Northeastern admixture (seeNortheastern Tasmanian languages), which Bowern believes to be responsible for several classifications linking the languages of the east coast. However, once that admixture is accounted for, the apparent links disappear.[1]
TheFlinders Island lingua franca was based primarily on Eastern andNortheastern Tasmanian languages.[3] The English-basedBass Strait Pidgin continued some vocabulary from the lingua franca.[4] The constructed languagePalawa kani is based on many of the same languages as the lingua franca.[5]