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:''Not to be confused with the Maran languages of the Pama–Nyungan family'' Marra (also spelled Mara) is an Australian Aboriginal language, traditionally spoken on an area of the Gulf of Carpentaria coast in the Northern Territory around the Roper, Towns and Limmen Bight Rivers. Marra is now an endangered language. The most recent survey was in 1991; at that time, there were only 15 speakers, all elderly. Most Marra people now speak Kriol as their main language. The remaining elderly Marra speakers live in the Aboriginal communities of Ngukurr, Numbulwar, Borroloola and Minyerri. Marra is a prefixing language with three noun classes (masculine, feminine, and neuter) and a singular-plural-dual distinction. It is characterized by an intricate aspectual system, elaborate kin terms, no definite structure for relative clause construction, and a complex demonstrative system. Unlike many languages in the area, it has little avoidance language and no difference in the speech of male and female speakers. ==Language and speakers== Marra is a member of the Arnhem family, the second-largest Australian language family after Pama–Nyungan.〔Bowern & Koch, 2004. ''Australian Languages: Classification and the Comparative Method'', p 44〕 The Marra people refer to themselves as ''Marranbala'', ''Marra'' or ''Mara'', and their language as ''Marra'' or ''Mara''. In addition to Warndarrang, which was spoken to the north of Marra along the Roper River, Marra was also in contact with Alawa (spoken inland, to the west), Binbin-ga and Wilangarra (West Barkly languages to the south), and Yanyuwa (a Pama–Nyungan language to the southeast).〔Heath, J. (1981)〕 The Marra people were traditionally divided into three clans that lived along the Limmen Bight River in Arnhem Land (Northern Territory, Australia): ''burdal'', ''murrungun'', and ''mambali''. In the 1970s, when the first serious fieldwork was being done on Marra, the ''mambali'' clan was extinct, though a family with the surname Riley of the ''burdal'' clan and a man by the name of Anday of the ''murrungun'' clan were able to provide the linguist Jeffrey Heath with cultural and linguistic information.〔 The three clans, together with the Warndarrang-speaking ''guyal'' group, made up a set of four patrilineal semimoieties, each of which had their own set of songs, myths, and rituals. Each semimoiety was also associated with a totem (olive python or fork-tailed catfish for ''mambali,'' goanna for ''guyal'', black-headed python or antilopine kangaroo for ''burdal'', and king brown snake for ''murrungun'') and had responsibilities for that totem.〔Capell, A. (1960)〕 Note that Warndarang people use the same system of semimoieties, under the names ''mambali'', ''murrungun'', ''wurdal'', and ''guyal'' (''wuyal'').〔Heath, J. (1980)〕 In the years 1973-1975 and 1976–1977, the linguist Jeffrey Heath worked with some of the surviving speakers of Marra to create a sizeable grammar and dictionary. With the help of four principal informants – Mack Riley, Tom Riley, Johnnie (who was Warndarrang but spoke Marra and Nunggubuyu for most of his life), and Anday – Heath was able to collect grammar and vocabulary information as well as extensive texts on clan songs and totem rituals. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Marra language」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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