According to Top End handbook, Emmi, Marranj Warrgat N13 and Menthe N6 are in a dialectal relationship, in a language called Marranj N215 (Top End Handbook).
Emmi is a sister dialect to Menthe N6, on the coast to the south, and to Merranunggu N13, to the west. Its Western Daly relative, Marrithiyel N7, is in the hinterland to the south, and on its northern border is Batjamalh N31, a dialect of the typologically very different Anson Bay language (Green & Nordlinger, viewed November 2020).
Green and Nordlinger classify this as a Western Daly non Pama-Nyungan language along with Marramaninjsji N16, Merranunggu N13, Menthe N6, Marri Ngarr N102, Makati ke N163, Marrithiyel N7, Marri Tjevin N161, Marri Ammu N162, and Marri Dan N9.
Traditional territory: Between Banagaya (red Cliff) and Mabulhuk (Cape Ford) (Ford 1998:8). Current speakers are in Belyuen, a Government settlement on the Cox Peninsula, Bagal, an outstation on the coast of Anson Bay and Wadeye (Ford 1998). from Cape Ford to a point about 18 1/2 miles north of Point Pearce (Basedow 1907:2). Stanner (1970 MS) maps them as on the coast south of the mouth of Daly River, extending south to about Red Cliff (Tindale 1974).
Emmi occupies a coastal strip to the south of the mouth of the Daly River, extending from the Cliff Head region down towards Red Cliff... The Emmi community is today based primarily at Belyuen .. (Green & Nordlinger viewed November 2020).
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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).
Ford, Lysbeth. 1998. A description of the Emmi language of the Northern Territory of Australia. Australian National University, PhD thesis.
