Marrku–Wurrugu_languages

Marrku–Wurrugu languages

Marrku–Wurrugu languages

Languages of the Northern Territory

The Marrku–Wurrugu languages are a possible language family of Australian Aboriginal languages spoken in the Cobourg Peninsula region of Western Arnhem Land. They are the recently extinct Marrgu, and the extinct Wurrugu.[1] They were once classified as distant relatives of the other Iwaidjan languages, until Nicholas Evans found the evidence for Marrgu's membership insufficient, concluding that similarities were due to borrowing (including of verbal paradigms).[2]

Quick Facts Geographic distribution, Linguistic classification ...

The genetic grouping of Marrgu and Wurrugu is supported by the following observations:[1]

  • Despite being geographically separated by the Garig-Ilgar languages, the two languages share a relatively high cognacy rate (15 out of 43 words = ~35%).
  • Both languages contain an interdental phoneme [dh], which is absent in the surrounding Iwaidjan languages.

Vocabulary

Capell (1942) lists the following basic vocabulary items:[3]

More information gloss, Mara ...

References

  1. [1]
    Evans, N. (1996). "First and last notes on Wurrugu." University of Melbourne Working Papers in Linguistics, 16, 91–97
  2. [2]
    Nicholas Evans (2016). 1. As intimate as it gets? Paradigm borrowing in Marrku and its implications for the emergence of mixed languages. In Felicity Meakins, Carmel O'Shannessy (Eds.), Loss and Renewal: Australian Languages Since Colonisation (pp. 29–56). Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter.
  3. [3]
    Capell, Arthur. 1941-1942, 1942-1943. Languages of Arnhem Land, North Australia. Oceania 12: 364-392, 13: 24-51.
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