Gugu Thaypan language

Kuku-Thaypan is an extinct Paman language spoken on the southwestern part of the Cape York Peninsula, Queensland in Australia, by the Kuku-Thaypan people. The language was sometimes called Alaya or Awu Alaya.^[3] Koko-Rarmul may have been a dialect,^[4] though Bowern (2012) lists Gugu-Rarmul and Kuku-Thaypan as separate languages.^[5] The last native speaker, Tommy George, died on 29 July 2016 in Cooktown Hospital.^[6]

Kuku-Thaypan
Awu Alaya
Native to	Australia
Region	Cape York Peninsula, Queensland
Ethnicity	Kuku Thaypan, Gugu Rarmul
Extinct	2016 (with the death of Tommy George)[1]
Language family	Pama–Nyungan Paman Thaypan Kuku-Thaypan
Dialects	Koko-Rarmul
Language codes
ISO 639-3	typ
Glottolog	thay1248
AIATSIS[2]	Y84 Kuku Thaypan, Y71 Gugu Rarmul
ELP	Awu Laya
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Phonology

Vowels

Kuku-Thaypan has six vowels and two marginal vowels possibly only in loan words.^[7]

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i	ɨ	u
Mid	e		o
			(ɔ)
Open	(æ)	a

• Sounds /æ/ and /ɔ/ are only marginal, as phonemes.
• /e/ is heard as [ɛ] when after palatals and /j/.

Consonants

Kuku-Thaypan has 23 consonants.^[7]

		Peripheral		Laminal		Apical
		Labial	Velar	Dental	Palatal	Alveolar	Retroflex
Plosive	voiceless	p	k	t̪	c	t
	prenasal	ᵐb	ᵑɡ	ⁿ̪d̪	ᶮɟ	ⁿd
Fricative		β	ɣ	ð
Nasal		m	ŋ	n̪	ɲ	n
Rhotic						r
Lateral						l
Approximant		w			j		ɻ

• /r/ may be heard as a voiceless trill [r̥] when in initial position.
• /r/ may freely be heard as a tap [ɾ] or trill [r].