The Maringarr language (Marri Ngarr, Marenggar, Maringa) is a moribund

Australian Aboriginal language The Indigenous languages of Australia number in the hundreds, the precise number being quite uncertain, although there is a range of estimates from a minimum of around 250 (using the technical definition of 'language' as non-mutually intellig ...

spoken along the northwest coast of the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (abbreviated as NT; known formally as the Northern Territory of Australia and informally as the Territory) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian internal territory in the central and central-northern regi ...

. 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 The Mati Ke, also known as the Magatige, are an Aboriginal Australian people, whose traditional lands are located in the Wadeye area in the Northern Territory. Their language is in serious danger of extinction, but there is a language revival p ...

people. it is included in a

language revival Language revitalization, also referred to as language revival or reversing language shift, is an attempt to halt or reverse the decline of a language or to revive an extinct one. Those involved can include linguists, cultural or community group ...

project which aims to preserve critically endangered languages.

Geographic distribution

The language has been spoken in the

Wadeye Wadeye ( ) is a town in Australia's Northern Territory (NT). It was formerly known (and is still often referred to) as Port Keats, a name originating from Port Keats Mission, which operated from 1935 (originally at a different location, known as ...

, along Timor Sea, coast south from

Moyle River The Moyle River is a river in the Northern Territory, Australia. Course The river rises on a plateau area near the Wingate Mountains and flows in a north westerly direction through mostly uninhabited country through a narrow valley then across t ...

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 A second language (L2) is a language spoken in addition to one's first language (L1). A second language may be a neighbouring language, another language of the speaker's home country, or a foreign language. A speaker's dominant language, which ...

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

, 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 Australian Department of Communications and the Arts was a Government department, department of the Government of Australia charged with responsibility for communications policy and programs and cultural affairs. In December 2019, prime mi ...

. 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 �, ɖ, ɭwhen 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 �, ʊin word-medial and unstressed positions. They are mainly heard as

, u The comma is a punctuation mark that appears in several variants in different languages. Some typefaces render it as a small line, slightly curved or straight, but inclined from the vertical; others give it the appearance of a miniature fille ...

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 �ɪ * /ɐ/ is often heard as �when following a palatal consonant. When preceding a palatal consonant, it is realized as a diphthong ɪ

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 In linguistic typology, polysynthetic languages, formerly holophrastic languages, are highly synthetic languages, i.e., languages in which words are composed of many morphemes (word parts that have independent meaning but may or may not be able t ...

language. 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 In linguistics, a noun class is a particular category of nouns. A noun may belong to a given class because of the characteristic features of its referent, such as gender, animacy, shape, but such designations are often clearly conventional. Some a ...

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

External links

Marri Ngarr
at th
Dalylanguages.org website
{{Australian Aboriginal languages Western Daly languages Endangered indigenous Australian languages in the Northern Territory