| Ngumbarl | |
|---|---|
| Region | Australia |
| Ethnicity | Ngombal |
| Extinct | documented late 1960s, with few speakers remaining; not known by 1984 |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | xnm |
08s | |
| Glottolog | ngum1253 |
| AIATSIS[2] | K4 |
| ELP | Ngumbarl |
 Traditional lands of Aboriginal tribes aroundDerby. Ngumbarl is in orange, in the bottom left | |
 Nyulnyulan languages (purple), of which Ngumbarl is one, among other non-Pama-Nyungan languages (grey) | |
Ngumbarl (Ngombaru, Ngormbal[3]) is an extinct, poorly-attestedNyulnyulan language formerly spoken inWestern Australia, north of the town ofBroome along the coast, by theNgumbarl people.[4]
The language was previously thought to beunattested. AlthoughDaisy Bates had recorded data, comprising a wordlist and a few sentences, in the early twentieth century with Ngumbarl/Jukun informantBillingee, it had previously been thought the data were only forJukun. The list contains about 800 words, but theorthography is inconsistent and the translations are somewhat unreliable (e.g.<jooa inja pindana>juwa inja bindana is translated "are you hunting kangaroo?" but actually means "you're going to thepindan").[5]: 1
It is difficult to infer much about Ngumbarl's phonology, because of the orthography used in itscorpus.Claire Bowern reconstructs a tentative sound change of word-final-i in theproto-language to-a (e.g. *yaŋki 'what' to<yanga>yaŋka).[5]: 2
Theergative suffix was-na; if this evolved from*-ni, it matches the previously mentioned sound change from-i to-a. Thelocative was-kun (compareProto-Nyulnyuylan's *-kun).[5]: 3
Very few verbs, and no fullparadigms, are found in the data, although there are some partial paradigms, e.g.:[5]: 3–4
| Ngumbarl | English |
|---|---|
| <kangalainbee> ngangalanybi | I steal |
| <ingalaimbee> ingalanybi | he steals |
| <yeeralanbee> yirrlanybi | they steal |
Eastern Nyulnyuylan languages have experienced a group of changes in its verbal morphology:[5]: 3
Ngumbarl's attested forms are consistent with these — assuming the verb forms were given in the same tense.[5]: 3
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