Macpherson (1905) describes the Marbal language as being spoken around Tenterfield, and notes that it is closely related toNgarrabul andYugambal.[2] Tindale (1974) speculates that Marbal or Marbul is in fact a mishearing ofNgarabal and not a separate language dialect.[3]
There is very little surviving information about Marbal, although Curr (1886–1887) does provide an anonymous word list for the Tenterfield region, that is presumed by Dixon (1976) among others to be a basic Marbal vocabulary.[4][5][6]
^Macpherson, J. (1905). Ngarrabul and other Aboriginal Tribes. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, 29, 677 - 684
^Tindale, NB (1974). Aboriginal tribes of Australia : their terrain, environmental controls, distribution, limits, and proper names. Berkeley: University of California Press
^Curr, Edward M. 1886-1887. The Australian race: its origin, languages, customs, place of landing in Australia, and the routes by which it spread itself over that continent, Melbourne, John Ferres, Government Printer, Vol. 3, p. 78
^Dixon, RMW (1976). Grammatical Categories in Australian Languages. Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies: Canberra
^Wafer, J.W., Wafer, J., Lissarrague, A., Harkins, J. (2008). A Handbook of Aboriginal Languages of New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory. Muurrbay Aboriginal Language and Culture Co-operative
