Ndjébbana (N74) is a non-Pama Nyungan language from Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory. The term 'Gunavidji ~ Kunibidji' is an exonym used by speakers of Kunbarlang N69, Kunwijnku N65 and Maung N64 languages. Nakkara N80 people call Ndjébbana speakers Ndjéya, the Burarra N82 call them Gijiya. Ndjébbana speakers refer to themselves as Ndjébbana njarrangúdjeya 'we who speak Ndjébbana'. Various names are associated with land owning Ndjébbana speakers include Márro people (Kanduwúlka clan), Marlémarla people (Karddúrra, Marlandjárridj and Wúrnal clans) and Mabárnad people (Dukúrrdji and associated clans) (McKay, 2000:155-6).
Dixon classifies Ndjebbana in the Maningrida subgroup of the Arnhem Land group (2002: xl).
Based on a comparison of verb tense/status suffixes, Green classifies Ndjebbana (N74), Nakkara N80, Burarra N82 and Gurr-goni N75 as a 'Maningrida subgroup' of the larger Gunwinjguan language family, (Capell, Voegelin and Voegelin in Green, 1995:4-5).
Ndjébbana speakers traditionally owned lands on the eastern side of the mouth of the Liverpool River in central Arnhem Land (upstream almost as far as Bat Island), the two islands in the mouth of the river, lands stretching along the coast of the Arafura Sea eastwards from the Liverpool River and some adjacent inland territories in the vicinity of Gudjerama Creek (Karddjirráma), Tomkinson River and Cadell River (McKay 2000:157). Currently speakers live in and around Maningrida (McKay, 2000:167).
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Batchelor Institute https://www.batchelor.edu.au/
Maningrida Literature Production Centre
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).
McKay, Graham. 2000. Ndjébbana. In Handbook of Australian languages, vol. 5, eds. RMW Dixon and B Blake, 153.354. Oxford University Press.
