Martuthunira is an extinct Australian Aboriginal language, that was the traditional language of the Martuthunira people of Western Australia. The last fluent speaker of Martuthunira, Algy Paterson, died on 6 August 1995. From 1980 he worked with the linguist Alan Dench to preserve Martuthunira in writing, and it is from their work that most of our knowledge of Martuthunira today comes. Name The name Martuthunira, pronounced by native speakers, means "those who live around the Fortescue River". It has many spelling variants, including: Maratunia, Mardadhunira, Mardathon, Mardathoni, Mardathoonera, Mardatuna, Mardatunera, Mardudhoonera, Mardudhunera, Mardudhunira, Mardudjungara, Marduduna, Mardudunera, Marduthunira, Mardutunera, Mardutunira, Marduyunira, Martuthinya, and Martuyhunira. Classification Martuthunira is classified as a member of the Ngayarta branch of the Pama–Nyungan languages. Under Carl Georg von Brandenstein's 1967 classification, Martuthunira was classed as a Coastal Ngayarda language, but the separation of the Ngayarda languages into Coastal and Inland groups is no longer considered valid. Phonology Martuthunira has a fairly standard Australian phonology. R. M. W. Dixon uses it as a prototypical example in his 2002 book Australian Languages: Their nature and development. Consonants The laterals—but perhaps uniquely not the nasals—are allophonically prestopped. The laminal stop has a voiced allophone between vowels. Between vowels, the dental stop can become , , , , , , or even simply a syllable break. In some words one particular realization is always used, in others there is free variation. The alveolar stop has a voiced allophone after a nasal. It occurs between vowels only in a handful of words, probably all loanwords, where it has a longer period of closure than the other stops . The retroflex stop has a voiced allophone after a nasal, and a flapped allophone between vowels. Besides the voiced allophones mentioned above, stops are usually voiceless and unaspirated. The laterals have prestopped allophones when they occur in a syllable coda. The alveolar rhotic is a tap between vowels, and a usually voiceless trill finally. The palatal semivowel may be dropped initially before , but the equivalent dropping of before initial is rare. Vowels is usually realized as , though it may be realized as near palatal consonants and as near , or . is realized as in morpheme-initial syllables, elsewhere. is usually realized as in stressed syllables, and in unstressed syllables. is fronted to varying degrees when near laminal consonants, being most fronted when preceded by a dental consonant. It has an unrounded