Ilgar language explained

Ilgar
Nativename:	Garig
States:	Australia
Region:	Cobourg Peninsula, Northern Territory
Ethnicity:	Ilgar, Gaari
Extinct:	2003
Familycolor:	Australian
Fam1:	Iwaidjan
Fam2:	Iwaidjic
Fam3:	Warrkbi
Dia1:	Ilgar
Dia2:	Garig
Iso3:	ilg
Glotto:	gari1253
Glottorefname:	Garig-Ilgar
Aiatsis:	N184
Aiatsisname:	Ilgar
Aiatsis2:	N188
Aiatsisname2:	Garig

Ilgar, also known as Garig-Ilgar after its two dialects, is an extinct Iwaidjan language spoken in the mainland of Cobourg Peninsula, around Port Essington, Northern Territory.

Phonology

Consonant inventory

	Peripheral		Laminal	Apical
	Bilabial	Velar	Palatal	Alveolar	Retroflex
Plosive	p	k	c	t	ʈ
Nasal	m	ŋ	ɲ	n	ɳ
Approximant	w	ɣ	j		ɻ
Trill				r
Flap					ɽ
Lateral			(ʎ)	l	ɭ
Lateral flap				ɺ

^[1]

Unlike many Australian languages, Ilgar does not have lamino-alveolars.

Vowels

Evans (1998) briefly discusses vowels in his paper noting that Iwaidjan languages including Ilgar have a three vowel (/a/, /i/, /u/) system typical of most Australian languages.

	Front	Back
High	pronounced as /ink/	pronounced as /ink/
Low	pronounced as /ink/

Further reading

• Evans, N. (2007). Pseudo-argument affixes in Iwaidja and Ilgar: a case of deponent subject and object agreement. In M. Baerman, G. G. Corbett, D. Brown, & A. Hippisley (Eds.), Deponency and morphological mismatches (pp. 271–296). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Evans,N. (1994). Ilgar Field Notes, Recorded from Charlie Wardaga.

Notes and References

1. Evans, Nicholas (1998). "Iwaidja mutation and its origins". In Anna Siewierska & Jae Jung Song. Case, Typology and Grammar: In honor of Barry J. Blake. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company. pp. 115–149.