Kuku-Thaypan is an extinct Paman language spoken on the southwestern part of the Cape York Peninsula, Queensland in Australia, by the Kuku-Thaypan people. The language was sometimes called Alaya or Awu Alaya.Jean-Christophe Verstraete, Diane Hafner, Land and Language in Cape York Peninsula and the Gulf Country (, 2016) Koko-Rarmul may have been a dialect,RMW Dixon (2002), Australian Languages: Their Nature and Development, p xxxii though Bowern (2012) lists Gugu-Rarmul and Kuku-Thaypan as separate languages.Bowern, Claire. 2011. "How Many Languages Were Spoken in Australia?", Anggarrgoon: Australian languages on the web, 23 December 2011 (corrected 6 February 2012) The last native speaker, Tommy George, died on 29 July 2016 in Cooktown Hospital.A "legend", Indigenous Australian Leader, Knowledge Holder Tommy George Passes On.
Phonology Vowels Kuku-Thaypan has six vowels and two marginal vowels possibly only in loan words. FrontCentralBackCloseMid()Open()
Sounds /æ/ and /ɔ/ are only marginal, as phonemes. /e/ is heard as when after palatals and /j/.
Consonants Kuku-Thaypan has 23 consonants. PeripheralLaminalApicalLabialVelarDentalPalatalAlveolarRetroflexPlosiveFricativeNasalRhoticLateralApproximant
/r/ may be heard as a voiceless trill when in initial position. /r/ may freely be heard as a tap or trill .
References
External links Bibliography of Kuku Thaypan people and language resources , at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies