Marrku–Wurrugu languages
| Marrku–Wurrugu | |
|---|---|
| (proposed) | |
| Geographic distribution | Cobourg Peninsula region and Croker Island, Northern Territory |
| Linguistic classification | One of the world's primary language families |
| Subdivisions | |
| Language codes | |
| Glottolog | marr1257 |
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 extinct Marrgu and Wurrugu languages. They were once classified as distant relatives of the Iwaidjan languages, until Nicholas Evans found the evidence for Marrgu's membership insufficient, concluding that similarities were due to borrowing (including of verbal paradigms).
The genetic grouping of Marrgu and Wurrugu is supported by the following observations:
- 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.