Evans reports that evidence shows Marrku is a family-level isolate, rather than a member of the Iwaidjan family (2006, Australian Languages Workshop). Evans reports historical records suggest there were two dialects of Marrku though there is insufficient documentation to illustrate the differences between them (2006:1). Evans published a collection of stories in Marrku including nine pages of vocabulary and eight pages of grammar sketch, as well as an accompanying audio CD (2006).
Singer et al. (2021:1) say that Marrku (N45) is a non-Pama Nyungan language in the Iwaidjan language family, the others in this family are Iwaidja N39, Mawng N64, Amurdak N47, Wurrugu N37, Ilgar N184 and Garig N188.
Singer, Ruth, Nita Garidjalalug, Rosemary Urabadi, Heather Hewett, Peggy Mirwuma, Philip Ambidjambidj, Anne Fabricus. 2021. Mawng to English Dictionary. Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press.
This is the language historically associated with Croker Island (Harvey PMS 5822).
Croker Island apart from a small pocket on the northern end of Bowen Strait which was associated with Garig (Harvey AILEC 802).
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Speaker numbers were measured differently across the censuses and various other sources listed in AUSTLANG. You are encouraged to refer to the sources.
Speaker numbers for ‘NILS 2004’ and ‘2005 estimate’ come from 'Table F.3: Numbers of speakers of Australian Indigenous languages (various surveys)' in 'Appendix F NILS endangerment and absolute number results' in McConvell, Marmion and McNicol 2005, pages 198-230 (PDF, 2.5MB).
