| Martuthunira | |
| Region: | Western Australia |
| Ethnicity: | Mardudunera |
| Extinct: | 6 August 1995 with the death of Algy Paterson. |
| Familycolor: | Australian |
| Fam1: | Pama–Nyungan |
| Fam2: | Ngayarta |
| Iso3: | vma |
| Glotto: | mart1255 |
| Glottorefname: | Martuthunira |
| Aiatsis: | W35 |
| Notice: | IPA |
Martuthunira is an extinct Australian Aboriginal language, that was the traditional language of the Martuthunira people of Western Australia.
The last fluent speaker of Martuthunira, Algy Paterson, died on 6 August 1995. From 1980 he worked with the linguist Alan Dench to preserve Martuthunira in writing, and it is from their work that most of our knowledge of Martuthunira today comes.
The name Martuthunira, pronounced pronounced as /[maɽʊðʊneɻa]/ by native speakers, means "those who live around the Fortescue River". It has many spelling variants, including: Maratunia, Mardadhunira, Mardathon, Mardathoni, Mardathoonera, Mardatuna, Mardatunera, Mardudhoonera, Mardudhunera, Mardudhunira, Mardudjungara, Marduduna, Mardudunera, Marduthunira, Mardutunera, Mardutunira, Marduyunira, Martuthinya, and Martuyhunira.
Martuthunira is classified as a member of the Ngayarta branch of the Pama–Nyungan languages. Under Carl Georg von Brandenstein's 1967 classification, Martuthunira was classed as a Coastal Ngayarda language, but the separation of the Ngayarda languages into Coastal and Inland groups is no longer considered valid.
Martuthunira has a fairly standard Australian phonology. R. M. W. Dixon uses it as a prototypical example in his 2002 book Australian Languages: Their nature and development.
| Peripheral | Laminal | Apical | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bilabial | Velar | Palatal | Dental | Alveolar | Retroflex | ||
| Plosive | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |
| Nasal | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |
| Lateral | pronounced as /link/ ~ pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ ~ pronounced as /d̪l̪/ | pronounced as /link/ ~ pronounced as /dl/ | pronounced as /link/ ~ pronounced as /link/ | |||
| Rhotic | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||||
| Semivowel | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||||
The laterals—but perhaps uniquely not the nasals—are allophonically prestopped.[1]
The laminal stop pronounced as //c// has a voiced allophone pronounced as /link/ between vowels.
Between vowels, the dental stop pronounced as //t̪// can become pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/, or even simply a syllable break. In some words one particular realization is always used, in others there is free variation.
The alveolar stop pronounced as //t// has a voiced allophone pronounced as /link/ after a nasal. It occurs between vowels only in a handful of words, probably all loanwords, where it has a longer period of closure than the other stops pronounced as /link/.
The retroflex stop pronounced as //ʈ// has a voiced allophone pronounced as /link/ after a nasal, and a flapped allophone pronounced as /link/ between vowels.
Besides the voiced allophones mentioned above, stops are usually voiceless and unaspirated.
The laterals have prestopped allophones pronounced as /[ᶜʎ ᵗ̪l̪ ᵗl <sup>ʈ</sup>ɭ]/ when they occur in a syllable coda.
The alveolar rhotic pronounced as //r// is a tap pronounced as /link/ between vowels, and a usually voiceless trill pronounced as /link/ finally.
The palatal semivowel pronounced as //j// may be dropped initially before pronounced as //i//, but the equivalent dropping of pronounced as //w// before initial pronounced as //u// is rare.
| Front | Back | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| High | pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /ink/ | |
| Low | pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /ink/ | ||
pronounced as //i// is usually realised as pronounced as /link/, though it may be realised as pronounced as /link/ near palatal consonants and as pronounced as /link/ near pronounced as //r//, pronounced as //n// or pronounced as //l//.
pronounced as //iː// is realised as pronounced as /link/ in morpheme-initial syllables, pronounced as /link/ elsewhere.
pronounced as //u// is usually realised as pronounced as /link/ in stressed syllables, and pronounced as /link/ in unstressed syllables. pronounced as //u// is fronted to varying degrees when near laminal consonants, being most fronted pronounced as /link/ when preceded by a dental consonant. It has an unrounded allophone pronounced as /link/ when followed by pronounced as //ɻ//.
pronounced as //uː// is usually pronounced as /link/, but is lowered to pronounced as /link/ when preceded by a dental consonant.
pronounced as //a// is usually pronounced as /link/ when stressed, pronounced as /link/ when unstressed. Following a laminal consonant, more so after dentals than palatals, it is fronted towards pronounced as /link/. When preceded by pronounced as //w// and followed by a velar consonant, it is realised as pronounced as /link/.
pronounced as //aː// is usually simply pronounced as /link/.
All Martuthunira words begin with one of the following consonants, from most to least frequent: pronounced as //p k m w ŋ c t̪ j ɲ n̪//. This consists of only peripheral and laminal stops, nasals, and semivowels. Words may end in a vowel, or one of pronounced as //n r l ɲ ɳ ʎ ɭ//.
Unlike most Australian languages, which exhibit ergativity, Martuthunira and the other Ngayarta languages have an accusative alignment. That is, the subjects of transitive verbs are treated the same as the subjects of intransitive verbs, while the objects are treated differently.
The Martuthunira nominative case is unmarked (zero). The accusative case, which descends from a suffix that originally marked the dative case, takes the form pronounced as //-ŋu// on proper nominals; pronounced as //-ku// on common nominals ending in a nasal (pronounced as //ɲ n ɳ//); pronounced as //-ju// on common nominals ending in a lateral or a rhotic (pronounced as //ʎ l ɭ r//); and vowel lengthening for common nominals ending in vowels. The accusative case is identical to the genitive case, except for common nominals ending in vowels, where the genitive suffix is pronounced as //-wu//.
Martuthunira exhibits case stacking, where nouns take multiple case suffixes for agreement. For example: