Daly

Daly is the name given to the cluster of Indigenous Australian languages spoken around the Daly River and the adjacent coast of the Northern Territory, among them Murrinh-Patha, Marrithiyel and Kungarakany. In 1788, these were the sole languages of the Daly river country.

Classed among the non-Pama–Nyungan languages, they share vocabulary and grammar through long contact rather than proven common descent, and have been treated as one family or as four or five separate families and isolates. Murrinh-Patha, whose name means ‘good language’, is the best documented of the group, with a Latin orthography and intricate verb morphology.