Marrithiyel

also called:	Beringken
dialects with:	Marri Tjevin, Marri Ammu, Marri Dan
various spellings:
	Berinken, Berringen, Berringin, Bringen, Brinken, Brinkin, Marathiel, Maridhiel, Maridhiyel, Maridiyal, Maridiyel, Marithid, Marithiel, Marithiyel, Muritijel

Western Daly Grouping   

• Western Daly
  • Marramaninjsji
  • Marranunggu
    Emmi
    Menthe
  • Magati Ke
    Marri Ngarr
  • Marrithiyel
    Marri Tjevin
    Marri Ammu
    Marri Dan

Marrithiyel traditional country occupies a large central part of the hinterland between the lower Daly & Moyle Rivers. To the west, on the coast, are Marrithiyel’s sister dialects Marri Tjevin and Marri Ammu, with the Marri Dan dialect to the south. Also to the south are Marri Ngarr, Ngan'gikurunggurr and Marramaninjsji, which is closely related to Marrithiyel. Matngele is then to the east, with the Merranj dialects to the north.

The Marrithiyel community have a homelands base in their traditional country at ‘Woodykapildiya’ (Wudi Gapil Diyerr), but also live at Nauiyu and across the greater Darwin region. Only a few fully fluent, elderly speakers of Marrithiyel remain. However, Marrithiyel appears to have once been something of a lingua franca in the Daly, perhaps due to its central location, and there are many part speakers of it to be found across the region.

The major documentation of Marrithiyel is by Green (1981, 1989), which follows on from Stanner’s (1938) notes, and Tryon’s (1974) sketch grammar. Extensive further material on the language is to be found on this site.

Ian Green’s corpus of Marrithiyel consists of 32 hours of recordings including some texts and lexical, grammatical and phonological elicitation.

The recordings were made with the following speakers:

• Daniel John
• Yvonne Kamkam
• Roy Kelly
• Bill Parry
• Topsy Parry
• Robert Yenmung
• Jack (Jacky Skewes) Yenmung