Murrinh-patha

Murrinh-patha, whose name means language-good, is an Australian Aboriginal language spoken by the Murrinh-Patha people and by speakers of related groups whose own languages, including Mati Ke and Marri-Djabin, have become extinct or nearly so. About 2,081 native speakers were recorded in the 2021 census, concentrated in Wadeye in Australia's Northern Territory, where it is the dominant community language, with further speakers around Nganmarriyanga, Darwin and the Daly River; it is one of the few Aboriginal languages whose speaker numbers have grown rather than declined. Murrinh-patha belongs to a Southern Daly family, a branch distinct from this atlas's existing Western, Northern and Eastern Daly families, and it is believed to be the most widely spoken Australian Aboriginal language outside the Pama-Nyungan family.