Marrgu language
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Marrgu | |
---|---|
Yaako | |
Native to | Australia |
Region | Croker Island, Northern Territory |
Ethnicity | Yaako |
Extinct | 1 speaker reported in 2000;[1] 2 reported to partly understand it in 2008[2] |
Marrku–Wurrugu?
| |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | mhg |
Glottolog | marg1251 [3] |
AIATSIS[2] | N45 |
Marrgu language (purple arrow), among other non-Pama–Nyungan languages (grey) | |
Closeup |
Marrgu (Marrku) is a recently extinct Aboriginal language of northern Australia. Additional names include Ajokoot, Croker Island, Raffles Bay, Terrutong (Terutong), Yaako (Jaako, Yako).[1]
Classification[edit]
Marrgu had been assumed to be an Iwaidjan language like its neighbours. However, Evans (2006) has produced evidence that it was a language isolate,[2] with possible connection to the extinct and poorly attested Wurrugu.
Phonology[edit]
Consonant inventory[edit]
Peripheral | Laminal | Apical | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Bilabial | Velar | Palatal | Dental | Alveolar | Retroflex | |
Plosive | p | k | c | t̪ | t | ʈ |
Nasal | m | ŋ | ɲ | n̪ | n | ɳ |
Approximant | w | ɣ | j | ɻ | ||
Trill | r | |||||
Flap | ɽ | |||||
Lateral | (ʎ) | l | ɭ | |||
Lateral flap | ɺ ⟨ld⟩ | ⟨rld⟩ |
Vowels[edit]
Marrgu had the three-vowel ( /a/, /i/, /u/) system typical of Iwaidjan languages (Evans 1998).
References[edit]
- ^ a b Marrgu language at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ a b c Marrgu at the Australian Indigenous Languages Database, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
- ^ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Margu". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
- ^ Evans, Nicholas (1998). "Iwaidja mutation and its origins". In Anna Siewierska & Jae Jung Song. Case, Typology and Grammar: In honor of Barry J. Blake. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company. pp. 115–149.