Guwa language explained

Guwa
Nativename:	Goa
States:	Australia
Region:	"Karna–Mari fringe", Queensland
Ethnicity:	Koa people
Extinct:	?
Familycolor:	Australian
Fam1:	Pama–Nyungan
Fam2:	(unclassified, possibly Maric)^[1] ^[2]
Fam3:	Guwa–Yanda
Iso3:	xgw
Aiatsis:	G9.1
Glotto:	guwa1242
Glottorefname:	Guwa

Guwa, also spelt Goa, Koa, and other variants, is an extinct and nearly unattested Australian Aboriginal language of Queensland spoken by the Koa people. It was apparently close to Yanda.

Phonology

Consonants

	Peripheral		Laminal		Apical
	Labial	Velar	Dental	Palatal	Alveolar	Retroflex
Plosive	p	k	t̪	c	t	ʈ
Nasal	m	ŋ	n̪	ɲ	n	ɳ
Rhotic					ɾ ~ r
Lateral			(l̪)	ʎ	l	(ɭ)
Approximant	w			j		ɻ

• Lateral sounds [l̪, ɭ] may have also been attested.

Vowels

Vowels are a three-vowel system /i, a, u/.^[3]

Notes and References

1. RMW Dixon (2002), Australian Languages: Their Nature and Development, p xxxiii
2. Bowern, Claire. 2011. "How Many Languages Were Spoken in Australia?", Anggarrgoon: Australian languages on the web, December 23, 2011 (corrected February 6, 2012)
3. Book: Blake, Barry J. . Guwa . Breen . Gavan . Canberra: Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University . 1990 . In Gavan Breen (ed.), Salvage studies of Western Queensland Aboriginal languages . 108-144.