Marrgu (Marrku) is a recently extinct Aboriginal language of northern Australia. Additional names include ''Ajokoot'', ''Croker Island'', ''

Raffles Bay Raffles Bay is a bay on the northern coast of the Cobourg Peninsula of the Top End of the Northern Territory of Australia. It was named in 1818 by explorer Phillip Parker King after Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, the founder of Singapore. It is ...

'', ''Terrutong'' (''Terutong''), ''Yaako'' (''Jaako, Yako'').

Classification

Marrgu had been assumed to be an Iwaidjan language like its neighbours. However, Evans (2006) has produced evidence that it was a language isolate, with possible connection to the extinct and poorly attested Wurrugu. This connection however is merely theoretical.

Phonology

Consonant inventory

Vowels

Marrgu had the three-vowel (/a/, /i/, /u/) system typical of Iwaidjan languages (Evans 1998).

References

{{language families Marrku–Wurrugu languages Extinct languages of the Northern Territory