Matngele or Madngele is an extinct

Australian Aboriginal language The Indigenous languages of Australia number in the hundreds, the precise number being quite uncertain, although there is a range of estimates from a minimum of around 250 (using the technical definition of 'language' as non-mutually intellig ...

of the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (abbreviated as NT; known formally as the Northern Territory of Australia and informally as the Territory) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian internal territory in the central and central-northern regi ...

spoken by the Madngella and Yunggor peoples.

Classification

Tryon (1974) classified Matngele with Kamu, and this is accepted by Dixon (2002) and Bowern (2011), though denied by Harvey (1990).

Phonology

Vowels

Consonants

Grammar

Matngele has only five simple

verb A verb is a word that generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual description of English, the basic f ...

s. These must be combined with

coverb A coverb is a word or prefix that resembles a verb or co-operates with a verb. In languages that have the serial verb construction, coverbs are a type of word that shares features of verbs and prepositions. A coverb takes an object or complement ...

s in order to form complex verbs.

References

* *

External links

Matngele
at th
Dalylanguages.org website
{{Australian Aboriginal languages Eastern Daly languages