Marra, Warndarrang, Alawa, and Mangarrayi have been argued to constitute a Marran family of considerable time depth (Sharpe 2008).

[6][7] However, Green (2003) argues that only Maningrida has been established as a valid subgroup, and that the interrelationships of the other languages are as yet unclear.

The evidence for Gunwinyguan and perhaps other nodes listed above may simply be reflections of a relationship of all Arnhem languages when only a subset of them was investigated.

[2]) An agnostic view of the family would list each language separately, except for the established Maningrida branch: *Green does not address Anindilyakwa, Alawa, or Yugul.

Capell (1942) lists the following additional basic vocabulary items for the Gunwinyguan languages:[11]