Language, Country, clan, personal names, skin names

Language and CountryMarralwanga spoke multiple dialects of what Evans (2003), Garde (2008) and the Bininj Kunwok Regional Language and Cultural Centre (BKRLCC) have characterised as Bininj Kunwok or 'people's language'.This term is the linguistic characterisation of a family of dialects that share aspects of common phonology, grammar and lexicon, and are locally understood to use the term 'bininj' to refer to 'people'.This language area clusters around inland 'freshwater' Country surrounding, and incorporating, the Arnhem Land Plateau of broken rocky escarpment and adjacent floodplains (Figure 1.1).People across the area understand that they are related and sometimes say 'we are all company' as a way of expressing this shared identity.Certainly, there is strong cooperation in ceremonial performance across the area and strong intermarriage.There are over 1,000 speakers of Bininj Kunwok and the numbers are rising.As such, it constitutes a lingua franca for the western Arnhem Land region.