Pitta Pitta language

In 1979, Barry J. Blake reported that Pitta Pitta was "virtually extinct", with only three speakers remaining – Ivy Nardoo of Boulia, Ted Marshall and Linda Craigie of Mount Isa.{{cite book |editor=Robert M. W. Dixon & Barry J. Blake |year=1979 |title=Handbook of Australian Languages |volume=1 |publisher=John Benjamins Publishing Company |isbn=90-272-0512-4 |chapter=Pitta-Pitta |author=Barry J. Blake |pages=183–242 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xWdIU6sHiRoC&pg=PA183}} It is now considered unlikely that any speakers remain.{{cite web |url=http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=pit |work=Ethnologue |title=Pitta Pitta: an extinct language of Australia |publisher=SIL International |access-date=28 July 2011}}

Below is a basic vocabulary list from Blake (1981).{{cite book |last=Blake |first=Barry J. |author-link=Barry Blake |title=Australian Aboriginal languages: a general introduction |publisher=Angus & Robertson Publishers |publication-place=London |date=1981 |isbn=0-207-14044-8}}

:

The name pituri for the leaves chewed as a stimulant by traditional Aboriginal people has been claimed to be derived from the Pitta Pitta word {{lang|pit|pijiri}}.{{cite book |author=Philip A. Clarke |year=2007 |title=Aboriginal People and their Plants |publisher=Rosenberg Publishers |isbn=978-1-877058-51-6 |chapter=The power of plants |pages=96–110 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BrQdF-uBCXgC&pg=PA107}}{{cite book |author=Philip A. Clarke |year=2008 |title=Aboriginal Plant Collectors: Botanists and Australian Aboriginal People in the Nineteenth Century |publisher=Rosenberg Publishers |isbn=978-1-877058-68-4 |chapter=Making plant names |pages=42–57 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Usav1CwZaXEC&pg=PA55}} though Walter Roth pointed out in 1897 that the word 'pituri', thus pronounced, was the term used by the neighbouring Yurlayurlanya people, and added that the Pitta Pitta people called it "{{lang|pit|tarembola}}".{{sfn|Roth|1897|p=51}}

The Pitta Pitta had well-developed a signed form of their language.{{cite book |author=Adam Kendon |year=1988 |title=Sign Languages of Aboriginal Australia: Cultural, Semiotic and Communicative Perspectives |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-36008-1}}

{{reflist|32em}}

• Blake, Barry J. (1979). Pitta-Pitta. In R.M.W. Dixon and Barry Blake (eds.), Handbook of Australian Languages, Vol. 1. 183–244. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
• {{cite book|title = Ethnological Studies among the North-West-Central Queensland Aborigines

|last= Roth|first= W. E.

|author-link= Walter Roth

|publisher =Edmund Gregory, Government Printer

|location= Brisbane

|year=1897

|url = https://archive.org/details/cu31924029890328

}}

• Roth, Walter E. (1897). The expression of ideas by manual signs: a sign-language. (p. 273–301) Reprinted from Roth, W.E. Ethnological studies among the North-West-Central Queensland Aborigines. London, Queensland Agent-Generals Information Office, 1897; 71–90; Information collected from the following tribes; Pitta-Pitta, Boinji, Ulaolinya, Wonkajera, Walookera, Undekerebina, Kalkadoon, Mitakoodi, Woonamurra, Goa. Reprinted (1978) in Aboriginal sign languages of the Americas and Australia. New York: Plenum Press, vol. 2.

• [http://aiatsis.gov.au/sites/default/files/docs/collections/language_bibs/pitta_pitta_bittha_bittha.pdf Bibliography of Pitta Pitta people and language resources], at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies

{{Pama–Nyungan languages|Central}}

Category:Karnic languages

Category:Extinct languages of Queensland

Category:Extinct sign languages

{{ia-lang-stub}}