Meriam Mir

Traditionally, the Meriam people spoke a Papuan language, known as Meriam Mir.

While there are speakers of the language today, and some effort made to revive it, Torres Strait Creole or "Broken", is more common and is widely spoken throughout the region.

Linguistic and other evidence indicates that the ancestors of the present-day Murray Islanders came from Papua New Guinea.

In Meriam tradition, the islands' first settlers, Pop and Kod, travelled from the Fly River area of Papua New Guinea to the northwest side of Mer.