Green (1989) treats this as a dialect of Marrithiyel N7. Kofod (MS 2499) collected some data, and there is resource (CD) produced by Wadeye Aboriginal Language Centre.
Green and Nordlinger classify Marri Ammu as a Western Daly non Pama-Nyungan language along with Marramaninjsji N16, Merranunggu N13, Emmi N15, Menthe N6, Marri Ngarr N102, Makati ke N163, Marrithiyel N7, Marri Tjevin N161, and Marri Dan N9 (viewed November 2020).
Green, Ian & Nordlinger, Rachel. The Daly Languages (Australia). Web Resource http://dalylanguages.org
The Marriammu tribal lands are situated approximately forty kilometres north of Wadeye, (Port Keats). The exact location is on the coast between the mouth of the Little Moyle and Big Moyle rivers at a place called Rek Tjendi (see Appendix 1) (Brown, Arnold https://www.batchelor.edu.au/callwebsite/studentpages/call_students_arnresproj.html).
Marri Ammu and Marri Tjevin are two closely related dialects whose country lies along the coast north of the mouth of the Moyle River, extending up towards the Dashwood Plains. Marri Tjevin occupies the southern part of this area, with Magati Ke and Marri Ngarr to the south. Marri Ammu then has Menthe and Merranunggu to its north and north-east respectively. Their sister dialect Marrithiyel lies to their east. There are a number of active outstations on Marri Tjevin and Marri Ammu country proper, with Marri Ammu and Marri Tjevin communities also resident at Wadeye (Green & Nordlinger viewed November 2020).
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Wadeye Aboriginal Languages Centre
Batchelor Institute https://www.batchelor.edu.au/
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).
