Wik Mungkan language

Wik-Mungkan
Wik-Mungkan
Wik-Mungknh
Native to	Australia
Region	Cape York Peninsula, Queensland
Ethnicity	Wik-Mungkan, Mimungkum
Native speakers	450 (2016 census)
Language family	Pama–Nyungan Paman North Cape York Wik Wik-Mungkan; ; ; ;
Language codes
ISO 639-3	wim
Glottolog	wikm1247
AIATSIS	Y57
ELP	Wik-Mungkan

Wik-Mungkan, or Wik-Mungknh, is a Paman language spoken on the northern part of Cape York Peninsula of Queensland, Australia, by around 1,650 Wik-Mungkan people, and related peoples including the Wikalkan, Wik-Ngathana, Wikngenchera language groups.^[3] Wik Mungkan is healthier than most other languages on the peninsula, and is developing and absorbing other aboriginal languages very quickly.

Dixon thought there was a Wik-Iiyanh dialect, but it turned out to be the same as the Wik-Iiyanh dialect of Kugu Nganhcara.^[2]

The English language has borrowed at least one word from Wik-Mungknh, that for the taipan, a species of venomous snake native to the region.^[4]

A dictionary of Wik-Mungknh has been compiled by Christine Kilham.^[5]

Phonology

	Peripheral		Laminal		Apical	Glottal
	Labial	Velar	Palatal	Dental	Alveolar	Glottal
Stop	p	k	c (ch)	t̪ (th)	t	ʔ (')
Nasal	m	ŋ (ng)	ɲ (ny)	n̪ (nh)	n
Lateral					l
Rhotic					r
Approximant	w		j		(ɹ)

/ɹ/ does not appear frequently, only in some words. The same symbol for /r/ is used.^[5]

^ ABS. "Census 2016, Language spoken at home by Sex (SA2+)". stat.data.abs.gov.au. Australian Bureau of Statistics. Retrieved 29 October 2017.
^ ^a ^b Y57 Wik-Mungkan at the Australian Indigenous Languages Database, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
^ "Wik-Mungkan". Ethnologue. Retrieved 17 February 2019.
^ Sutton, Peter (1995). Wik-Ngathan Dictionary.
^ ^a ^b Kilham, Christine (1986). Dictionary and sourcebook of the Wik-Mungkan language.

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