Tasmanian languages

Tasmanian
(geographic)
EthnicityAboriginal Tasmanians
Geographic
distribution
Originally, throughout Tasmania; after the Black War, around the Bass Strait; now, presumably, only, in the Flinders Island and other parts of northeastern Tasmania
Extinct1905, with the extinction of the Flinders Islands Lingua franca at the death of Fanny Cochrane Smith[1]
Linguistic classificationat least three language families:
Northeastern
Oyster Bay – Southeastern
NorthernWestern?
Glottologtasm1247
Fanny Cochrane Smith, last speaker of the Flinders Islands Lingua franca, a Tasmanian Aboriginal language.[1]

Approximate ethnic divisions in pre-European Tasmania

The Tasmanian languages were the languages indigenous to the island of Tasmania, used by Aboriginal Tasmanians. The languages were last used for daily communication in the 1830s, although the terminal speaker, Fanny Cochrane Smith, survived until 1905.

  1. ^ a b NJB Plomley, 1976b. Friendly mission: the Tasmanian journals of George Augustus Robinson 1829–34. Kingsgrove. pp. xiv–xv.

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