Marrgu (Marrku) is a recently extinct Aboriginal language of northern Australia. Additional names include ''Ajokoot'', ''Croker Island'', ''

Raffles Bay Raffles Bay is a bay on the northern coast of the Cobourg Peninsula of the Top End of the Northern Territory of Australia. It was named in 1818 by explorer Phillip Parker King after Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, the founder of Singapore. It is ...

'', ''Terrutong'' (''Terutong''), ''Yaako'' (''Jaako, Yako'').

Classification

Marrgu had been assumed to be an

Iwaidjan language The Iwaidjan or Yiwaidjan languages are a small language families, family of non-Pama–Nyungan Australian Aboriginal languages spoken in the Cobourg Peninsula region of Western Arnhem Land. In 1997 Nicholas Evans (linguist), Nicholas Evans pr ...

like its neighbours. However, Evans (2006) has produced evidence that it was a

language isolate Language isolates are languages that cannot be classified into larger language families. Korean and Basque are two of the most common examples. Other language isolates include Ainu in Asia, Sandawe in Africa, and Haida in North America. The nu ...

, with possible connection to the extinct and poorly attested Wurrugu. This connection however is merely theoretical.

Phonology

Consonant inventory

Vowels

Marrgu had the three-vowel (/a/, /i/, /u/) system typical of Iwaidjan languages (Evans 1998).

References

{{language families Marrku–Wurrugu languages Extinct languages of the Northern Territory