Lhotsky/Blackhouse Tasmanian language

(Lhotsky/Blackhouse)
RegionUnidentified location in northeastern Tasmania
EthnicityUnidentified tribe of Tasmanians
Extinct19th century
Northeastern Tasmanian
  • (Lhotsky/Blackhouse)
Language codes
ISO 639-3None (mis)
GlottologNone

"Lhotsky/Blackhouse" is an aboriginal Tasmanian language identified in the reconstructions of Claire Bowern.[1] It was presumably spoken somewhere in the northeast of Tasmania, but the original location of the speakers was not recorded.

The language has no name; "Lhotsky/Blackhouse" is a label based on the names of people associated with various word lists. Bowern finds several word lists that attest to this previously unidentified language: The "eastern" list of Jorgen Jorgenson (in one case published in 1846), 345 words, along with a second list of 68 words; manuscripts of James Backhouse and G.W. Walker, 148 words combined; and a 105-word list of Alexander McGeary, published by John Lhotsky in 1839.[2]

  1. ^ Claire Bowern, September 2012, "The riddle of Tasmanian languages", Proc. R. Soc. B, 279, 4590–4595, doi: 10.1098/rspb.2012.1842
  2. ^ Bowern (2012), supplement