Lower Burdekin languages
| Lower Burdekin | |
|---|---|
| (geographic) | |
| Native to | Australia |
| Region | Queensland |
| Ethnicity | Juru, Bindal? |
| Extinct | ca. 1900 |
| Dialects |
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | xbb – inclusive codeIndividual code: ljx – Yuru |
xbb | |
| Glottolog | bind1234 Cunningham listbind1235 Gorton listbind1236 Mount Elliot (O'Connor) listyuru1264 Yuru |
| AIATSIS | E62 Yuru |
Lower Burdekin languages (green) among other Pama–Nyungan (tan) | |
The Lower Burdekin languages were probably three distinct Aboriginal languages, or alternatively dialects of a single language, spoken around the mouth of the Burdekin River in north Queensland. One short wordlist in each was collected in the 19th century, and published in the second volume of The Australian Race in 1886. These languages have since gone extinct, with no more having been recorded. Due to the paucity of the available data, almost nothing of their grammatical structure is known.
The O'Connor language goes by the name Yuru, and may have been Dyirbalic; others may have been Maric. However, Breen analysed two of the lists and concluded that they were different languages, neither Maric. He presumes that one of them was Bindal.