Matngele or Madngele is an extinct
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 ...
of the
Northern Territory
The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory ...
spoken by the
Madngella and
Yunggor
The Yunggor were an Aboriginal Australian people of the Northern Territory.
Language
The Yunggor spoke a dialect of Matngele, one of the Daly languages. The language has died out, and was recorded in the 1960s only from two aborigines who rememb ...
peoples.
Classification
Tryon (1974) classified Matngele with
Kamu, and this is accepted by Dixon (2002) and Bowern (2011), though denied by Harvey (1990).
Phonology
Vowels
Consonants
Grammar
Matngele has only five simple
verb
A verb () is a word (part of speech) that in syntax generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual descri ...
s. These must be combined with
coverb
A coverb is a word or prefix that resembles a verb or co-operates with a verb. In languages that have the serial verb construction, coverbs are a type of word that shares features of verbs and prepositions. A coverb takes an object or complement a ...
s in order to form complex verbs.
References
*
*
External links
Matngeleat th
Dalylanguages.org website
{{Australian Aboriginal languages
Eastern Daly languages