| Mpakwithi | |
| Also Known As: | Anguthimri |
| Extinct: | 1985 |
| Ref: | e25 |
| Familycolor: | Australian |
| Iso3: | awg |
| Aiatsis: | Y186 |
| Glotto: | angu1242 |
| Glottorefname: | Anguthimri |
| Notice: | IPA |
Mpakwithi is an extinct Australian Aboriginal dialect of Queensland.
Mpakwithi is generally regarded as a dialect of a broader Anguthimri language, which is part of the Northern Paman family.
| Front | Back | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | pronounced as /ink/ pronounced as /ink/ pronounced as /ink/ pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ pronounced as /ink/ | |
| Close-mid | pronounced as /ink/ pronounced as /ink/ pronounced as /ink/ (pronounced as /ink/) | pronounced as /ink/ | |
| Open-mid | pronounced as /ink/ pronounced as /ink/ pronounced as /ink/ | ||
| Low | pronounced as /ink/ pronounced as /ink/ pronounced as /ink/ | ||
Mpakwithi has the most vowels of any Australian language, with 16–17. It also is the only Australian language to have nasal vowels.
While other Anguthimri dialects and Northern Paman languages have three fricatives, pronounced as //β ð ɣ//, Mpakwithi has a fourth, pronounced as //ʒ//. Its origin is uncertain. This is an extremely rare sound in Australian languages.
| Peripheral | Laminal | Apical | Glottal | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bilabial | Velar | Palatal | Dental | Alveolar/ Retroflex | Post- alveolar | ||||
| Plosives | voiceless | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /t̠ʳ/ | pronounced as /ink/ | |
| prenasal | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ⁿd̠ʳ/ | |||
| Fricatives | voiced | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | ||||
| voiceless | (pronounced as /ink/) | (pronounced as /ink/) | |||||||
| Nasals | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | ||||
| Rhotics | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | |||||||
| Approximants | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | ||||||
Sounds [s, ʃ] may also occur, but only rarely and in a small amount of words. The phonemic status is uncertain.
. R. M. W. Dixon . 2002 . Australian Languages: Their Nature and Development . Cambridge . Cambridge University Press .