Data collected by AUSTLANG

Data on the Wik-Mungkan language

Alternatives names: Wikmunkan, Mimungkum, Wik-Mungkhn, Wik-Munkan.

Classification: Pama-Nyungan, Central Pama

Area: Australia, Queensland.

The boundary of their tribal territory extends to the coast at a couple of places, at Eramangk and at the mouth of the Archer River. It touches the Watson River in the north, and extends to the Kendall River in the south. Rokeby Station is usually considered the eastern limit (Kilham 1977:1).

The estates of Wik Mungkan-owning clans are, in fact, discontinuously distributes, falling into at least three areas separated by the estates of clans owing other languages. One Wik Mungkan-affiliated estate is on the coast just south of Cape Keerweer, another is on the coast just south of Know River, and others lie along certain inland stretches of the Archer, Love, Kirke and Know Rivers (Sutton 1995:135).

Number of speakers: The 2005 National Indigenous Languages Survey Report estimated approximately 1500 speakers of Wik-Mungkan, whereas the 2006 Australian Bureau of Statistics Census counted 1050 speakers.

Language vitality & transmission:

Wik Mungkan is considered a strong/safe language by Austlang, and a “vulnerable” language by UNESCO. Nonetheless it is fair to assume that this language is threatened in a middle-term.

Sources & Bibliography

Kilham, Christine. 1977. Thematic organization of Wik-Munkan discourse: Pacific Linguistics B52. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.

Kilham, Christine, Pamulkan, Mabel, Pootchemunka, Jennifer, and Wolmby, Topsy. 1986. Dictionary and source book of the Wik-Mungkan language. Darwin:SIL.

See Austlang and WALS websites for more bibliography on Wik-Mungkan

Maps

Sutton, Peter. 1978. Wik: Aboriginal society, territory and language at Cape Keerweer, Cape York Peninsula, Australia. University of Queensland: PhD.

Smith, Ian and Johnson, Steve. 2000. Kugu Nganhcara. In Handbook of Australian languages Vol. 5, eds. Dixon RMW and B Blake, 355-489. Melbourne: Oxford University Press.

Links

AUSTLANG website

WALS entry for Wik-Mungkan