Mati Ke
The Mati Ke, also known as the Magatige, are an
language revival
project under way to preserve it.
Language
Mati Ke, also known as Magati-Ge, Magadige, Marti Ke, Magati Gair, is classified as one of the Western Daly languages, and bearing close affinities to Marringarr and Marrithiyel.[1] In 1983 around 30 fluent speakers of the language survived,[2] and by the early 2000s, some 50 people were thought to still speak some of it as a second or third language.[3]
By the early 2000s the last completely fluent speakers were reckoned to be three people, Johnny Chula, Patrick Nudjulu and his sister Agatha Perdjert, both of whom who moved back to a government-built outstation at Kuy on the Shores facing the Timor Sea.[4] Though living in close proximity to one another, they never spoke it together since in their social system communication between brother and sister after puberty was forbidden.[5]
Social organization
The clan and totem system was described by the Norwegian ethnologist Johannes Falkenberg in 1962, based on fieldwork conducted in 1950.[6][7]
History
The Mati Ke were one of several tribes living south of Wadeye between the
Murrinh-Patha, which is spoken by about 2500 people and serves as a lingua franca
for several other ethnic groups.
Alternative names
- Maritige.
- Muringata.
- Muringa (exonym)
- Muringe.
- Berinken, Berinkin, Berringin.
- Brinken, Brinkan.[8]
Notes
Citations
- ^ Grimes 2003, p. 416.
- ^ Abley 2005, p. 11.
- ^ Grimes 2003, pp. 415–416.
- ^ Abley 2005, pp. 3, 11.
- ^ Michaels 2007, p. 106.
- ^ Falkenberg 1962.
- ^ Needham 1962, pp. 1316–1318.
- ^ Tindale 1974, p. 230.
Sources
- ISBN 978-0-618-56583-2.
- Basedow, Herbert (1907). "Anthropological notes on the Western Coastal tribes of the Northern Territory of South Australia". Journal of the Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia. 31: 1–62.
- JSTOR 40327769.
- JSTOR 40327866.
- JSTOR 2843847.
- Falkenberg, Johannes (1962). Kin and Totem: Group Relations of Australian Aborigines in the Port Keats District. Allen & Unwin.
- Grimes, Barbara Dix (2003). "Daly Languages". In Frawley, William (ed.). International Encyclopedia of Linguistics: AAVE-Esperanto. Vol. 1 (2nd ed.). ISBN 978-0-195-13977-8.
- Michaels, Walter Benn (2007). The Trouble with Diversity: How We Learned to Love Identity and Ignore Inequality. ISBN 978-1-466-81881-1.
- JSTOR 667861.
- JSTOR 40327457.
- Street, Chester S (1987). The Language and Culture of the Murrinh-Patha. ISBN 978-0-868-92319-2.
- ISBN 978-0-708-10741-6.