allophone when followed by . is usually , but is lowered to when preceded by a dental consonant. is usually when stressed, when unstressed. Following a laminal consonant, more so after dentals than palatals, it is fronted towards . When preceded by and followed by a velar consonant, it is realized as . is usually simply . Phonotactics All Martuthunira words begin with one of the following consonants, from most to least frequent: . This consists of only peripheral and laminal stops, nasals, and semivowels. Words may end in a vowel, or one of . Grammar Accusative alignment Unlike most Australian languages, which exhibit ergativity, Martuthunira and the other Ngayarta languages have an accusative alignment. That is, the subjects of transitive verbs are treated the same as the subjects of intransitive verbs, while the objects are treated differently. The Martuthunira nominative case is unmarked (zero). The accusative case, which descends from a suffix that originally marked the dative case, takes the form on proper nominals; on common nominals ending in a nasal (); on common nominals ending in a lateral or a rhotic (); and vowel lengthening for common nominals ending in vowels. The accusative case is identical to the genitive case, except for common nominals ending in vowels, where the genitive suffix is . Case stacking Martuthunira exhibits case stacking, where nouns take multiple case suffixes for agreement. For example: Tharnta is the object of the verb, and so is in the accusative case. Mirtily gets a proprietive suffix, which indicates that it is possessed by the euro. However, because it modifies , it additionally gets an accusative suffix to agree with it. Thara gets a locative suffix, which indicates that it is what the joey is in. It also gets a proprietive suffix to agree with , and then an accusative suffix to agree with . References External links Handbook of Western Australian Languages South of the Kimberley Region — Martuthunira Ngayarda languages Extinct languages of Western Australia Languages extinct in the 1990s