Peerapper language

{{Short description|Extinct Western Tasmanian language of Australia}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2019}}

{{Infobox language

|name=Peerapper

|altname=Northwestern Tasmanian

|region=North-western coast of Tasmania

|ethnicity=Northwestern tribe of Tasmanians

|extinct=19th century

|familycolor=australian

|fam1=Northern–Western Tasmanian?

|fam2=Western Tasmanian

|dia1=West Point?

|iso3=xpw

|glotto=none

|glotto2=west2205

|glottoname2=included

|glottorefname2=Western Coastal Tasmanian

|aiatsis=T3

|aiatsisname=North-western (Tasmania)

|aiatsis2=T6

|aiatsisname2=Macquarie Harbour

|aiatsis3=T11

|aiatsisname3=Robbins Island

|aiatsis4=T12

|aiatsisname4=Circular Head

}}

Northwestern Tasmanian, or Peerapper ("Pirapa"), is an Aboriginal language of Tasmania in the reconstruction of Claire Bowern.Claire Bowern, September 2012, "The riddle of Tasmanian languages", Proc. R. Soc. B, 279, 4590–4595, doi: 10.1098/rspb.2012.1842 It was spoken along the west coast of the island, from Macquarie Harbour north to Circular Head and Robbins Island.

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.Bowern (2012), supplement

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.