Thompson David A. Lockhart River Sand Beach Language: an outline of Kuuku Ya'u and Umpila

Summer Institute of Linguistics, 1988. — xii + 147 p.Kuuku Ya'u and Umpila have their few remaining speakers mainly at the Lockhart River Aboriginal Community on the east coast of Cape York Peninsula, Queensland. They are closely related coastal dialects and are also close to the inland dialect of Kaantju. These three dialects are classified as members of the Middle Pama Sub-group within the Pama-Maric Group of the Pama-Nyungan family.
This outline of Kuuku Ya'u and Umpila has been written for two reasons: First, to document the language in a clear and accurate way as a contribution to the recording of Australian languages. It is based primarily on Kuuku Ya'u, but is also an acceptable description of the closely related Umpila dialect. Second, it is hoped this will prove a useful resource for the people of Lockhart River, particularly for those who teach in the school and are concerned that the children retain some knowledge of their traditional language.. And in the future may it be useful to those who seek to discover the roots of their identity in the heritage of the past.