Peerapper language

Northwestern Tasmanian, or Peerapper ("Pirapa"), is an aboriginal language of Tasmania in the reconstruction of Claire Bowern.[2] It was spoken along the west coast of the island, from Macquarie Harbour north to Circular Head and Robbins Island.

Peerapper
Northwestern Tasmanian
RegionNorth-western coast of Tasmania
EthnicityNorthwestern tribe of Tasmanians
Extinct19th century
Northern–Western Tasmanian?
Dialects
  • West Point?
Language codes
ISO 639-3xpw
GlottologNone
west2205  included
AIATSIS[1]T3 North-western (Tasmania), T6 Macquarie Harbour, T11 Robbins Island, T12 Circular Head

Northwestern Tasmanian is poorly attested from four word lists: The "west coast" vocabularies of Charles Robinson and George Augustus Robinson, with 246 words combined; the Robbins Island list of George Augustus Robinson, with 162 words; and the Macquarie Harbour vocabularies of Allan Cunningham (222 words), collected in 1819.[3]

The list collected by George Augustus Robinson at West Point ("Western Tribes") is divergent, and falls out as a separate language in Bowern. However, it includes only 28 words, so little can be definitively said.

References
  1. T3 North-western (Tasmania) 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


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