Marringarr language

Not to be confused with Magati language.

The Maringarr language (Marri Ngarr, Marenggar, Maringa) is a moribund Australian Aboriginal language spoken along the northwest coast of the Northern Territory.

Marri Ngarr
Matige
Native to	Australia
Region	Daly River
Ethnicity	Marringarr, 100 Mati Ke
Native speakers	5 Marri Ngarr (2016 census)[1] 2 Magati Ke (2009) 50 L2 speakers
Language family	Western Daly Marri Ngarr
Dialects	Marri Ngarr Marti Ke (Magati-ge)
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Either: zmt – Marri Ngarr zmg – Marti Ke
Glottolog	mari1418
AIATSIS[1]	N102 Marri Ngarr, N163 Magati Ke
ELP	Marringarr
	Mati Ke[2]

Marti Ke (Magati Ke, Matige, Magadige, Mati Ke, also Magati-ge, Magati Gair) lies in the same language category. It is or was spoken by the Mati Ke people. As of 2020^[update] it is included in a language revival project which aims to preserve critically endangered languages.

Geographic distribution

The language has been spoken in the Northern Territory, Wadeye, along Timor Sea,^[3] coast south from Moyle River estuary to Port Keats, southwest of Darwin.^[4]

Current status

The three Marringarr elders who are the last known native speakers of Magati Ke (2007)

According to the Language Database, as of 2005 Mati Ke language had a population of three (Patrick Nudjulu, Johnny Chula, Agatha Perdjert).^[3][5] Mati Ke speakers have primarily switched to use of English and the flourishing Aboriginal language Murrinh-Patha.^[3] The ethnic population is about 100, and there are 50 second language users.

As the language is almost non-existent to date, linguists have been working on collecting information and recording the voices of the remaining speakers.^[3]

Language revival project

As of 2020^[update], Mati Ke is one of 20 languages prioritised as part of the Priority Languages Support Project, being undertaken by First Languages Australia and funded by the Department of Communications and the Arts. The project aims to "identify and document critically-endangered languages — those languages for which little or no documentation exists, where no recordings have previously been made, but where there are living speakers".^[6]

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar
Stop	voiceless	p	t̪	t	(ʈ)	c	k
	voiced	b		d	(ɖ)
Fricative		β			ʐ	ʝ	ɣ
Nasal		m		n	ɳ	ɲ	ŋ
Lateral				l	(ɭ)
Rhotic				r	ɻ
Approximant		w				j

• /p/ may also be heard as a bilabial fricative [ɸ] in intervocalic positions.
• /c/ may also be heard as a fricative [ʒ] in intervocalic positions.
• /r/ may also be heard as a tap [ɾ], and can be realized as [r̥] within the position of voiceless sounds.^[7]
• Sounds /t, d, l/ may often be realized as retroflex sounds [ʈ, ɖ, ɭ] when following a non-front vowel.
• /t̪/ may also be heard as a fricative [ð] in intervocalic positions.
• /β/ may also be heard as a voiceless [ɸ], in various word-initial positions.^[8]

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
High	i		u
Mid	ɛ
Low	ɐ ~ æ

• Sounds /i, u/ have lax allophones of [ɪ, ʊ] in word-medial and unstressed positions. They are mainly heard as [i, u] in stressed positions, in word-final positions or following glide sounds.
• /u/ can be realized as [ɔ] when preceded or followed by a peripheral consonant. When preceding a palatal consonant, it is realized as a diphthong [ɔɪ].
• /ɐ/ is often heard as [æ] when following a palatal consonant. When preceding a palatal consonant, it is realized as a diphthong [aɪ].^[8]

Grammar

The vocabulary is limited, therefore the relations and positioning of the words matter to make sense of the construction according to the situation. It is a polysynthetic language.^[9]

ex:

niwinj

3DU

yi

that

gudingi-derrkurr-fingi-gawunh

3DU.SBJ.DI.R.IPFV-sharpen-now-3DU.SBJ.SIT.R

niwinj yi gudingi-derrkurr-fingi-gawunh

3DU that 3DU.SBJ.DI.R.IPFV-sharpen-now-3DU.SBJ.SIT.R

'Those two fellas are sharpening their knives now.'

Marringarr also contains ergativity, which is marked by the postposition -ŋarrin.^[10]

Nouns' classification constitutes a core of the language that forms an understanding of the world for its speakers. There are 10 noun classes including: trees, wooden items and long rigid objects; manufactured and natural objects; vegetables; weapons and lightning; places and times; animals; higher beings such as spirits and people, and speech and languages.^[3]

Noun class	Classifier
trees, wooden items and long rigid objects	thawurr
higher beings	me
animals	a
manufactured and natural objects	nhannjdji
vegetables	mi

Selected vocabulary

Maringarr	English
mi bakulin	billygoat plum
nhanjdiji marri	cycad
a marri	bush cockroach
a wayelh	goanna lizard
a dhan gi	saltwater prawn