110-item wordlists for the Pitta Pitta group (Pama-Nyungan family).
Languages included: Pitta Pitta.
Pitta Pitta
Pitta Pitta is a language spoken in the area of Burke River near the town of Boulia (Queenland) until the 1970s. Pitta Pitta is member of a group of
several closely related lects: Ringu-Ringu, Mayawarli, Kunkalanya, Ngulupulu, Karanya, Rakaya (data for Ringu-Ringu and Ngulupulu are optionally
quoted in the notes). Our Pitta Pitta wordlist is based on the Blake’s (1979) grammar sketch with vocabulary. The material for this sketch was collected
by Gavan Breen and Barry J. Blake primarily from Nora Jacks (died in 1977) and two other speakers: Ivy Nardoo and Linda Craigia. The list,
additionally includes data from the Pitta Pitta descriptions of the 19th c.: short wordlist by Curr (1886: 364-365) and Roth’s (1897) grammar sketch
with vocabulary. We use Roth’s and Curr’s data with caution, since, strictly speaking, it is not entirely clear whether these descriptions are based on the
same lect as Blake’s Pitta Pitta. Nevertheless we fill some gaps in Blake’s vocabulary with Roth’s data. Unfortunately, Roth and Curr’s transcriptions
are unreliable in some details, especially it concerns the three-way opposition of dentals.
Blake 1979
Roth 1897
MosLex
p
p
p
b
b
b
m
m
m
w
w
w
t
t
t
d
d
d
n
n, nn
n
l
l
l
r
r
ɾ
rr
r
r
ṭ
t
ʈ
ḍ
d
ɖ
ṇ
n, nn
ɳ
ḷ
l, r
ɭ
ṛ
r
ɻ
t
t
t
d
d
d
n
n, nn
n
l
l
l
tʸ
ch, j
ȶ
dʸ
j
ȡ
nʸ
n, ng
ɲ
lʸ
l
ʎ
y
y, i, sometimes no sign
y
k
k
k
g
g
g
ng
ng, sometimes no sign
ŋ
a
u, a, e, i ?
a
i
i, e, ee
i
u
u, oo
u
References
Blake, Barry J. 1979. Pitta-Pitta. In Robert M. Dixon & Barry J. Blake (eds.), Handbook of Australian languages, vol. 1, 183–244. Amsterdam:
Benjamins.
Curr, Edward M. 1886. The Australian race: its origin, languages, customs, place of landing in Australia, and the routes by which it spread itself over
that continent. Vol. 2. Melbourne: John Farres, Government Printer.
Roth, Walter E. 1897. Ethnological studies among the north-west-central Queensland aborigines. Brisbane, Qld.: Edmund Gregory, Government
Printer.
Author:
Pitta Pitta: Ilya Egorov, August 2021.
