Pitta Pitta is an extinct

Extinct language

An extinct language is a language that no longer has any speakers., or that is no longer in current use. Extinct languages are sometimes contrasted with dead languages, which are still known and used in special contexts in written form, but not as ordinary spoken languages for everyday communication...

 Australian Aboriginal language

Australian Aboriginal languages

The Australian Aboriginal languages comprise several language families and isolates native to the Australian Aborigines of Australia and a few nearby islands, but by convention excluding the languages of Tasmania and the Torres Strait Islanders...

. It was spoken around Boulia, Queensland

Boulia, Queensland

Boulia is a town in Central West Queensland, Australia. It is located approximately by road south of Mount Isa, and lies on the Burke River, which was named after the explorer Robert O'Hara Burke who passed through the area with the Burke and Wills expedition in 1860. The township was gazetted in...

.

Pituri

The name pituri for the plant Duboisia hopwoodii

Duboisia hopwoodii

Duboisia hopwoodii . is a shrub native to the arid interior region of Australia. Common names include Pituri, Pitchuri thornapple or Pitcheri. It has an erect habit, usually growing to between 1 and 3 metres in height and has long, narrow leaves. Flowers are white and bell-shaped with...

and the narcotic

Narcotic

The term narcotic originally referred medically to any psychoactive compound with any sleep-inducing properties. In the United States of America it has since become associated with opioids, commonly morphine and heroin and their derivatives, such as hydrocodone. The term is, today, imprecisely...

 drug obtained from it is thought to derive from the Pitta Pitta word .

Status

In 1979, Barry J. Blake reported that Pitta Pitta was "virtually extinct", with only two speakers remaining – Ivy Nardoo of Boulia, and Linda Craigie of Mount Isa. It is now considered unlikely that any speakers remain.

Sign language

The Pitta Pitta had developed a sign form

Australian Aboriginal sign languages

Many Australian Aboriginal cultures have or traditionally had a manually coded language, a sign-language counterpart of their spoken language. This appears to be connected with various speech taboos between certain kin or at particular times, such as during a mourning period for women or during...

of their language.

External links

• Pitta-Pitta vocabulary