Thaayorre

The Thaayorre, or Kuuk Thaayore, are an Australian people living on the southwestern part of the Cape York Peninsula, Queensland in Australia, primarily in the settlement Pormpuraaw, having its foundation in the Edward River Mission.

Kuuk Thaayorre belongs to the Paman language group though its specific genetic affiliation has not been established beyond question. Barry Alpher regards it as part of the Pama-Maric group. It shows considerable lexical exchange with Yir-Yiront and Kugu Nganhcara. Many of the 300 native speakers are multilingual, with competence, not only in the above two languages, but also in Pakanha, Uw Olkola and Wik Mungkan. It has the rare feature among Australian aboriginal languages of having numerous monosyllables in all word classes and in possessing, compared to these languages, a comparatively rich inventory of five vowels.

The Thaayorre's tribal lands covered around from the mouth of the Coleman River, northwards over the Edward River. Their tribal neighbours were the Yir-Yiront to the south, and the Kugu Nganhcara to their north.

Normatively, the representation of time in all world cultures has been thought to be organized in relative spatial terms, with one's body as cardinal pivot for the direction of time's flow: from right to left/back to front, or vice versa in each case. According to Alice Gaby, the speakers of Thaayorre have a distinctive system, inscribed in the grammar of their language, whereby the cardinal points are a spatial absolute, determining time as shifting in an east-to-west orientation. Thus, if the speaker stands facing south, time is expressed as flowing from left to right, and, conversely, if one is looking north, time flows from right to left. If the speaker is facing east, time flows towards the body. If west, then time is envisaged as moving away from the subject.