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

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 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, coast south from Moyle River estuary to Port Keats, southwest of Darwin.

Current status

According to the Language Database, as of 2005 Mati Ke language had a population of three (Patrick Nudjulu, Johnny Chula, Agatha Perdjert). Mati Ke speakers have primarily switched to use of English and the flourishing Aboriginal language Murrinh-Patha. 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.

Language revival project

As of 2020, 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".

Phonology

Consonants

• /p/ may also be heard as a bilabial fricative in intervocalic positions.
• /c/ may also be heard as a fricative in intervocalic positions.
• /r/ may also be heard as a tap , and can be realized as within the position of voiceless sounds.
• Sounds /t, d, l/ may often be realized as retroflex sounds when following a non-front vowel.
• /t̪/ may also be heard as a fricative in intervocalic positions.
• /β/ may also be heard as a voiceless , in various word-initial positions.

Vowels

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

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.

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.

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.

Selected vocabulary

References

1. ^ N102 Marri Ngarr at the Australian Indigenous Languages Database, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies  (see the info box for additional links)
2. Endangered Languages Project data for Mati Ke.
3. ^ Abley, Mark (2003). Spoken Here: Travels Among Threatened Languages. Toronto, ON: Random House Canada. ISBN 0679311017.
4. "Marti Ke". Ethnologue. Retrieved 14 December 2015.
5. "The Language Database - Mati Ke". www.hermanboel.eu. Retrieved 14 December 2015.
6. "Priority Languages Support Project". First Languages Australia. Retrieved 13 January 2020.
7. Tryon, Darrell T. (1974). Marengar. In Tryon, Darrell T, Daly Family Languages, Australia. (Pacific Linguistics: Series C, 32.): Canberra: Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University. pp. 120–137.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
8. ^ Bicevskis, Katie (2023). A grammatical description of Marri Ngarr. University of Melbourne.
9. Fortescue, Michael; Fortescue, Michael D.; Mithun, Marianne; Evans, Nicholas (2017). The Oxford handbook of polysynthesis. Oxford. p. 312. ISBN 9780199683208.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
10. Sands, Kristina (1996). The ergative in Proto-Australian. München: Lincom Europa. p. 43. ISBN 9783895860539.

External links

• Marri Ngarr at the Dalylanguages.org website.

• Western Daly languages
• Endangered indigenous Australian languages in the Northern Territory