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Biri language

Australian Language Families

Biri is a Pama-Nyungan language of the Maric branch, traditionally spoken by the Birri Gubba people between Mackay and Townsville in Queensland, Australia. It was silenced during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries but has been undergoing community revival for some years, including a January 2020 Welcome to Country ceremony conducted in language by descendants of the related Yuwi variety. At least eight varieties were historically grouped as Biri dialects, though recent scholarship treats several, including Gangulu, Barada and Wirri, as separate languages with significant lexical, morphological and phonological differences.

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