4.4.6 Martuthunira

Location: Coast between the mouth of the Fortescue River and the Maitland River; from the Robe River to the Maitland River, inland to the foothills of the Hamersley Range (Dench 1987a).
1. Names of the language and different spellings that have been used:
Maratunia
Mardadhunira
Mardathon
Mardathoonera
Mardudunera
Marduyunira
Martuthinya
2. Classification of the language:
O'Grady, Voegelin and Voegelin (1966): Ngayarda
Identification codes:AIATSIS:W35
Capell (1963):W26
Oates (1975): 50.6
O'Grady (1959:133) distinguishes Martuthunira from the Western Desert languages on the basis of the pronominal system and says that Banyjima, Yindjiparndi, Kariyarra, Ngarluma and possibly Martuthunira are part of a special subgroup of non-Western Desert languages.
Dench says that Matuthunira is part of the Ngayarda subgroup.
3. Dialects of the language:
No information
4. Present number and distribution of speakers:
Dench (1987a) says there are 3 speakers at Onslow and Roebourne.
O'Grady, Voegelin and Voegelin (1966): less than 10 speakers.
Wordick (1977b): 3 speakers.
5. People who have worked intensively to record the language:
Alan Dench (1980 to the present)
6. Practical spelling system:
None
7. Word lists:
Bates (n.d.106, n.d.108, n.d.135)
Brandenstein (1974b)
Dench (dictionary in preparation)
O'Grady (1959)
8. Texts:
Brandenstein (1974b)
Dench (forthcoming)
9. Grammar or sketch grammar:
Dench (1987a)
10. Language programmes:
None
11. Language learning material:
None
12. Literature in the language:
None
13. Material available:
(see section 5 (Bibliography) for annotations on the following works)
Bates, D.M. (n.d.106) Native vocabularies - Roebourne, Gascoyne, Ashburton, De Grey, ts Section 12, 2D, ANL - MS 365 Box 48-51.
Bates, D.M. (n.d.108) Native vocabularies - Roebourne, typescript copy of MS, Section 12, 2D, ANL-MS365-51/13-23.
Bates, D.M. (n.d.135) Social organisation - Relationship terms, typescript copy of MS, Section 3, ANL-MS365-14/114-187.
Brandenstein, C.G. von (1965b) General report on linguistic fieldwork.
Brandenstein, C.G. von (1965f) Interim report (5) [to AIAS] on fieldwork in north-west Western Australia, 15 October-15 November 1965.
Brandenstein, C.G. von (1965g) Report [to AIAS] on fieldwork in north-west Western Australia, 15 June-15 July 1965.
Brandenstein, C.G. von (1968b) Interim report, 1968, no.1 (July-August).
Brandenstein, C.G. von (1969g) The diaries of C.G. von Brandenstein, 1964-1969, MS.
Brandenstein, C.G. von (1970e) 'Portuguese loan-words in Aboriginal languages of north-western Australia (a problem of Indo-European and Finno-Ugrian comparative linguistics)', pp.617-650 in S.A. Wurm and D.C. Laycock, (eds) Pacific linguistic studies in honour of Arthur Capell, Pacific Linguistics, C-13, Canberra.
Brandenstein, C.G. von (1974b) Marduthunira, MS.
Brandenstein, C.G. von (1982a) Eighty-eight grammar text sheets, exemplifying grammatical, lexical and phraseological diversities as well as links of 25 Aboriginal languages from Western Australia, ts.
Brandenstein, C.G. von (n.d.b) General report on linguistic fieldwork, ts.
Brandenstein, C.G. von (n.d.c) List of audiotaped material, ts.
Dench, A.C. (1980) Fieldnotes on Western Australian languages taken at Onslow, WA, MS.
Dench, A.C. (1982c) 'The development of an accusative case marking pattern in the Ngayarda languages of Western Australia', pp.43-60 in Australian Journal of Linguistics, Vol.2, no.1.
Dench, A.C. (1983a) Pilbara pronoun reconstructions, ts.
Dench, A.C. (1983b) The strange case of objects in Martuthunira, ts.
Dench, A.C. (1985d) Pilbara demonstrative reconstructions, ts.
Dench, A.C. (1987a) A grammar of Martuthunira, PhD thesis, ANU.
Dench, A.C. (1987b) 'Kinship and collective activity in the Ngayarda languages of Australia', pp.321-339 in Language in Society, Vol.16.
Dench, A.C. (1987c) Martuthunira kinship revisited, ts.
Dench, A.C. (1988) 'Complex sentences in Martuthunira', in P. Austin, (ed.) Complex sentence constructions in Australian languages, John Benjamins, Amsterdam/Philadelphia.
Dench, A.C. (n.d.a) Martuthunira English dictionary, ts.
Dench, A.C. (forthcoming) 'The first boomerang and other stories of the Martututhunira'.
Dench, A.C.and N. Evans (1988) 'Multiple case-marking in Australian Languages', pp.1-47 in Australian Journal of Linguistics, Vol.8, no.1.
Evans, N. (1987) Code, inference, placedness and grammaticality constrained ellipsis, Paper presented at the Wenner-Gren Foundation Conference, Ochos Rios, 1987, MS.
Fink, R.A. (1956) Fieldnotes, 8 notebooks, MS.
O'Grady, G.N. (1957-58) Materials on the suffixing languages of Western Australia, MS.
O'Grady, G.N. (1959) Significance of the circumcision boundary in Western Australia, BA thesis, University of Sydney .
O'Grady, G.N.(1967b) Fieldnotes, Western Australia, Vol.8.
Scheffler, H.W. (1978) Australian kin classification, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Sharpe, R.B. (1957) Mardudunera lexical test list, MS.

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