Pyemmairre language

Pyemmairre
Northeastern Tasmanian
RegionNorth-eastern corner of Tasmania
EthnicityNortheastern and Ben Lomond tribes of Tasmanians
Extinct19th century
Language codes
ISO 639-3xpb
Glottologbenl1235
AIATSIS[1]T7 Ben Lomond, T9 Cape Portland, T14 Piper River

Northeastern Tasmanian, or Pyemmairre, is an Aboriginal language of Tasmania.

It is identified in the reconstruction of Claire Bowern.[2] It was spoken in the northeastern corner of the island.

Northeastern Tasmanian is attested from three word lists of Charles Robinson and George Augustus Robinson: From Cape Portland (366 words), Ben Lomond (195 words), and Pipers River (126 words).[3] Bowern also includes the language of the Port Dalrymple vocabulary (125 words) collected by J.-P. Gaimard in the Tamar River region of the North Midlands; however, it is divergent, and Dixon & Crowley consider it to be a distinct language.[4]

The name Pyemmairre may not include the highland people of Ben Lomond, for which Plangermaireener ("Plangamerina") has been used.

  1. ^ T7 Ben Lomond at the Australian Indigenous Languages Database, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies  (see the info box for additional links)
  2. ^ Claire Bowern, September 2012, "The riddle of Tasmanian languages", Proc. R. Soc. B, 279, 4590–4595, doi: 10.1098/rspb.2012.1842
  3. ^ Bowern (2012), supplement
  4. ^ Crowley, T; Dixon, R. M. W. (1981). "Tasmanian". In Dixon, R. M. W.; Blake, B. J. (eds.). Handbook of Australian languages. Vol 2. Canberra: Australian National University Press. pp. 394–421.