| Umpila | |
| Nativename: | Northeastern Paman |
| States: | Australia |
| Region: | Cape York Peninsula, Queensland |
| Ethnicity: | Umpila, Pakadji, Kaantju, Uutaalnganu (Kawadji) |
| Speakers: | 12 |
| Date: | 2005 |
| Ref: | aiatsis |
| Familycolor: | Australian |
| Fam1: | Pama–Nyungan |
| Fam2: | Paman |
| Fam3: | North Cape York |
| Sign: | Umpila Sign Language |
| Lc1: | kbe |
| Ld1: | Kanju |
| Lc2: | kuy |
| Ld2: | Kuuku-Yaʼu |
| Lc3: | ump |
| Ld3: | Umpila |
| Aiatsis: | Y45 |
| Aiatsisname: | Umpila |
| Aiatsis2: | Y211 |
| Aiatsisname2: | Uutaalnganu |
| Aiatsis3: | Y169 |
| Aiatsisname3: | Kuuku Iʼyu |
| Glotto: | nort2759 |
| Glottorefname: | Umpilaic |
| Elp2: | 3785 |
| Elpname2: | Kuuku-Ya'u |
| Elp3: | 4345 |
| Elpname3: | Kaanju |
| Map2: | Lang Status 40-SE.svg |
| Map: | Lang Status 20-CR.svg |
| Notice: | IPA |
Umpila, also known as Ompeila, Ompela, Oom-billa, or Koko-umpilo, is an Aboriginal Australian language, or dialect cluster, of the Cape York Peninsula in northern Queensland.[1] It is spoken by about 100 Aboriginal people, many of them elderly.[2]
The land territory associated with the Umpila language group is located along the northeastern coast of Cape York Peninsula and stretches from the northern end of Temple Bay south to the Massey Creek region at the top of Princess Charlotte Bay, and west of the Great Dividing Range towards the township of Coen. Most of the remaining Umpila and Kuuku Ya'u speakers reside in Lockhart River Aboriginal Community, which is located at Lloyd Bay, roughly at the boundary between Umpila and Kuuku Ya'u lands.
The chief varieties of Umpila, variously considered dialects or distinct languages, are:
| Plosive | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | ||
| Lateral | pronounced as /ink/ | ||||||
| Rhotic | pronounced as /ink/ | ||||||
| Approximant | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ |
| High | pronounced as /ink/ pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ pronounced as /ink/ | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Low | pronounced as /ink/ pronounced as /ink/ | ||
Typologically, Umpila is an agglutinative, suffixing, dependent-marking language, with a preference for Subject-Object-Verb constituent order. Grammatical relations are indicated by a split ergative case system: nominal inflections are ergative/absolutive, pronominals are nominative/accusative. Features of note include: historical dropping of initial consonants, complex verbal reduplication expressing progressivity and habitual aspect, 'optional' ergative marking.[5]
See main article: Australian Aboriginal sign languages.
The Umpila have (or had) a well-developed signed form of their language.[6] It is one of the primary components of Far North Queensland Indigenous Sign Language.