Author Archives: Jeremy Steele

Blog has moved

The naabawinya.blogspot.com blog began in 2006 as an attempt to explain some points about the Sydney Aboriginal language, Biyal Biyal. Further posts about the Sydney and other Australian Aboriginal languages continued on the blog until 2017 when it moved to the present location, aboriginallanguages.info, with a name more likely to be chanced upon by internet visitors.

Now the blog has become part of the Aboriginal Languages of Australia website (https://www.aboriginallanguages.com). To find previous and all future posts, just click on the last big circle on the home page, the orange one –

– or go directly to https://www.aboriginallanguages.com/blog.

Jeremy Steele
24 April 2024

The Ten Commandments in Dieri language

Dieri is an Aboriginal language once spoken to the east of Lake Eyre in Cooper Creek country  in the Sturt Stony Desert in north-west South Australia. In 1874 a 51-page text, “The Dieyerie tribe of Australian Aborigines”, by local resident Samuel Gason, was published. 

Information from <https://www.southaustralianhistory.com.au/gason.htm> reveals that Gason, in 1864 in his early twenties, accepted a position in the South Australian police force and was posted to Lake Hope, in Dieri country about halfway between Lake Eyre and the Queensland border. He was to stay there until 1871, after which he transferred to Barrow Creek in the Northern Territory. It was during this time that the government published his work on the Dieri  people. By the time he resigned in 1876 he had completed around twelve years of outback police service. The final twenty years of his life were spent mainly in Beltana midway between Lake Hope and Port Augusta, as a manager/proprietor of several hotels, apart from a 2-3 year stint as an auctioneer there. He died in this vicinity in 1887 in his early fifties.

Gason hardly had a sympathetic view of his subject. He wrote: “A more treacherous race I do not believe exists. They imbibe treachery in infancy, and practice it until death, and have no sense of wrong in it.” However, he described  their way of life in detail, and provided an extensive vocabulary.  He also included the following translation of ‘a selection’ from the Ten Commandments:

The challenge to your researcher was to work out which Commandments were represented, and what the words meant.

First, the Commandments are numbered in a multiplicity of ways by different denominations, but in Exodus chapter 20 in the King James Version [KJV] of the Bible the following is given:

1I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
2Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
3Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
4Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
5Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.
6Thou shalt not kill.
7Thou shalt not commit adultery.
8Thou shalt not steal.
9Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
10Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s.

When Samuel Gason was writing in the early 1870s, the KJV is what he would have used.

Using Gason’s own vocabulary, your researcher came up with the following analysis:

Athona yoora Goda

1st. [commandment]

Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

child [?] love GOD

Watta yoondroo aunchanapitta, paroo, ya ya pittapilkildra windrie Goda, yondroo aunchana

2nd. [commandment]

Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing …

no you father xxx [bida], stop and and [all?] something else xxx [bida] only GOD, you(r} father

Watta Goda yoondroo caukooelie dikana

3rd. [commandment]

Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain

no GOD you(r) nothing-of dub-ing

Apirrie, ya andrie, parabara oondrana thana thipie aumanunthoo

4th. [commandment]

Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.

father, and mother [with force and strength] think-ing they-all live breast milk

Watta yoondroo narrie nundrala

5th. [commandment]

Thou shalt not kill.

no you dead/corpse dead-towards

Watta yoondroo pulakaunchie

6th. [commandment]

Thou shalt not commit adultery.

no you desire [?] certain

Watta yoondroo kooriekaunchie

7th. [commandment]

Thou shalt not steal.

no you thief certain

Watta yoondroo kurna komanelie, caukooelie ulchulchamuna

8th. [commandment]

Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.

no you(r) man own friend nothing-of threaten-ing.

Watta yoondroo bootoo thoola milkirrana ya, noa thoola watta yoondroo milkirrana baukooaumanuntho

9th. [commandment]

Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s.

no you property stranger eye-xxx (covet) and, spouse stranger no you eye-xxx nothing breast milk

Gason’s vocabulary consisted of about 1800 entries, and when these were added to a database it became possible to analyse the words used in the Commandments translations and to speculate as to which Commandment was which as the following exposition by means of tables derived from the database reveals. 

Athona yoora Goda

aDana yura GODa

1st. [commandment]

Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

child [?] love GOD

In these tables, the grey columns are the original entries. Those to the right of them, in dark orange and yellow, are modern simplifications: respelling in the first case and a standardised English form in the second. The final pink column shows the source of the entry, including page and line number, and a reference to the language (often in abbreviated form, for reasons of space)

Table 1

As seen above, in the database some visually distinguishing capitalising (and other) conventions are used in the ‘respelt’ column to distinguish usages in the original record, but which do not affect the computer’s sorting capability.

The very first word, Athona, is doubtful in the context of the Commandment. It appears to mean some form of family relation. The next word yoora is ‘love’ as the two examples from around twenty show:

Table 2

The final word, Goda, is simply ‘God’. If the terminal -a is a suffix, perhaps nominative or accusative, such information is not revealed in the Gason wordlist.

There is no Commandment about ‘love’ in the standard 10 Commandments set, but ‘loving’ certainly does occur in the basic set of two in St Matthew’s gospel (22:37-40):

Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.

This is the first and great commandment.

And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

Perhaps this is what this 1st Commandment relates to.

Watta yoondroo aunchanapitta, paroo, ya ya pittapilkildra windrie Goda, yondroo aunchana

wada yundru andyana bida, baru, ya ya bida bilgildra windri GODa, yundru andyana

2nd. [commandment]

Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing …

no you make any [bida], stop and and [all?] something else any [bida] only GOD, you make

The word Wata is to feature frequently in the following Commandments. It means ‘no’:

Table 3

Likewise Yondroo occurs often, meaning ‘thou’:

Table 4

The next word, “Aunchana”, is also the next significant problem. Respelling enables links to be uncovered, but they offer limited assistance. ‘Father’ is unlikely, as there is a more normal form as will be encountered later. Perhaps the word indicates a positive emotion or sentiment, such as ‘caress’, ‘desire’, ‘wish’, as might apply in wishing for a graven image.

However, should this really be the Commandment ‘Thou shalt not make …’, and as ‘no thou’ has already occurred, could the word be ‘make’? 

Table 5

The final two examples in Table 5 suggest this might well be the case, revealed when a search was undertaken for ‘mak(e)’. The original spellings, and subsequent respellings, did not suggest this likely interpretation at first.

Another problem arises with Pitta:

Table 6

How can ‘wood’, or more unlikely ‘navel’, fit into the Commandment? Perhaps the ‘image’ might be made of wood, to stand for ‘graven’ The third example in Table 6 features ‘dinDi’, for which explanations are offered in two examples below it.

If the word sequence concept were to be followed once again, and given that that in the English Commandment only one word occurs twice (‘any’), and here is Pitta for the second time, then ‘any’ would seem to be a possible interpretation notwithstanding the apparent irrelevancies in Table 6.

The next group, paroo, ya ya, is challenging. ‘baru’ signifying ‘fish’ is improbable, but the meaning ‘stop’ could possibly fit.

Table 7

What about ya ya for which there are no examples in the Gason record, other than ya = ‘and’. Perhaps the second ‘ya’ might be valid as ‘and’, and the fist intended to be attached to to the precious word to make ‘baruya’. There are no such examples. Could paroo, ya ya be a misprint, say, for Parchana, for which the meaning as given in Table 7 is ‘all’? All this seems unconvincincing, leaving the possibility suggested by the English word sequence, ‘image’ … ‘ any graven image’. There are no words in the vocabulary for ‘image’.

… ya pittapilkildra windrie Goda, yondroo aunchana

… and something else xxx [bida] only GOD, you(r) father

… or any likeness of any thing

Assume ya, ‘and’, is an equivalent for ‘or’. Next, the mystery pitta occurs again —possibly ‘any’— followed by Pilkildra.

Table 8

Table 8 suggests ‘other’ as a possibility for ‘bigildra’, perhaps representing ‘any thing’.

‘windri’ might be ‘only’, as Table 9 suggests.:

Table 9

The word following is Goda again, making ‘only God’.

The final two words yondroo aunchana were encountered at the beginning of this Commandment, meaning ‘you make’.

In summary then:

Watta Goda yoondroo caukooelie dikana

wada GODa yundru gaguwili digana

3rd. [commandment]

Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain

no GOD you(r) nothing-of dub-ing

In the 3rd Commandment, the first three words are now familiar: no God thou. 

The next word, caukooelie, had no matches in the Gason vocabulary but computer searches came up with the possibility of Baukoelie, as shown in Table 11. 

Table 11

This might be the intention, and shows that misprinting might also be an obstacle in trying to make sense of the translations.

The final word, dikana, was relatively simple to resolve.

Table 12

The word ‘dub’ in the yellow column might seem odd. The reason for it is that in the databases it has been found useful to have words not subject to confusion, words such as ‘light’ (weight/illlumination), ‘fly’ (insect/travel in the air), swallow (bird, throat ingest). So for these three pairs the following are used: light/lite, fly/flutter, swallow/gulp. In the case of ‘dub’, a verb, it is used to distinguish it from ‘name’, a noun. This is helpful when conducting searches, to arrive at results without ambiguity.

In summary:

Table 13

Apirrie, ya andrie, parabara oondrana thana thipie aumanunthoo

abiri, ya andri, barabara undrana Dana Dibi ama nunDu

4th. [commandment]

Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.

father, and mother [with force and strength] think-ing they-all live breast milk

In the 4th Commandment, Apirrie is ‘father’, ya ‘and’ and andrie ‘mother’:

Table 14

parabara is not so simple:

Table 15

From Table 15 perhaps the notion: ‘father and mother big (i.e. with force and power)’ can be derived.

Then, as this Commandment appears to be clearly the one about ‘honour(ing) thy father and thy mother’, the following three words oondrana thana thipie are likely to be related to “days may be long”.

Tab;e 16

Thus ‘(you must) think they (might) live’ …

The final word(s) aumanunthoo seem to be ‘breast’ and ‘milk’.

Table 17

In summary then, and simplified, this might be:

father and mother strong(ly) think they might live breast milk

Watta yoondroo narrie nundrala

wada yundru nari nundrala

5th. [commandment]

Thou shalt not kill.

no you dead/corpse dead-towards

In the 5th Commandment, the first two words, wada yundru, are ‘no thou’, for ‘Thou shalt not’.

Table 18

The next two words, narrie nundrala, for ‘dead strike’, represent ‘kill’. 

Table 19

‘No thou dead strike’: or ‘Thou shalt not kill’.

Watta yoondroo pulakaunchie

wada yundru bula gandyi

6th. [commandment]

Thou shalt not commit adultery.

no you desire [?] certain

The 6th Commandment begins in the same way, with ‘no thou’. This is followed by the word(s) pulakaunchie.

Table 20

From Table 20, ’bula’ seems to convey the idea of advancing or promoting an idea, thus imploring, or doing what lobbyists might do in modern times, seeking to obtain an outcome. Hence the word ‘desire’, and the summary: ‘thou shalt not desire’ … someone else’s wife/woman being implied. 

‘gandyi’ at the end is an emphatic: ‘certain(ly):

Table 21

A similar emphatic, ‘gangayi’, was recorded by William Dawes in faraway Sydney in around 1790:

Table 22

Watta yoondroo kooriekaunchie

wada yundru guri gandyi

7th. [commandment]

Thou shalt not steal.

no you thief certain

The 7th Commandment likewise begins with ‘no thou’, and concludes with the same emphatic ‘gandyi’. The only new word is ‘guri’, meaning  ‘thief’, and ‘steal’.

Table 23

This is the Commandment ‘Thou shalt not steal’.

Watta yoondroo kurna komanelie, caukooelie ulchulchamuna

8th. [commandment]

wada yundru gurna gumanili, gaguwili uldyuldyamuna

Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.

no you(r) man own friend nothing-of threaten-ing.

The 8th Commandment repeats the ‘no thou’,beginning. The next three words are kurna komanelie, caukooelie. While there are several examples of ‘gurna’ for ‘man’ there is only one for Koomanlie, which is reproduced in Table 24, meaning ‘own friend’. The third word of this group, caukooelie, occurred in the 3rd Commandment above, and was taken to be a misprint for Baukooelie, with the meaning ‘nothing’.

Table 24

The final word(s) ulchulchamuna has only a single record, ‘threaten’. A similar word, ‘ulgadya’, has a similar meaning. The third example in the table for comparison, is also similar though less so.

Table 25

This Commandment might be summarised as ‘do not nothing (i.e. anything) to threaten (your) your own man/friend’.

Watta yoondroo bootoo thoola milkirrana ya, noa thoola watta yoondroo milkirrana baukooaumanuntho

wada yundru budu Dula milgirana ya, nuwa Dula wada yundru milgirana bagu wama nunDu

9th. [commandment]

Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s.

no you property stranger eye-xxx (covet) and, spouse stranger no you eye-xxx nothing breast milk

The same ‘no thou’ formula begins the 9th Commandment.

The next two words ‘buDu Dula’ each have three possible meanings. However, in the context of this Commandment about coveting things, ‘property’ and ‘stranger’ seem the most likely’ interpretations.

Table 26

The next word, milkirrana, occurs twice. It is based on the word milki, ‘eye’, and is given as meaning ‘coveting, desiring’. So far the Commandment can be taken to mean ‘do not covet stranger(’s) property.

‘nuwa’ is next, meaning wife or husband, and in the case of this Commandment, ‘wife’.

Other words from the Commandment recur, as well as others met earlier, and the whole might now be summarised as follows:

Table 27

The phrase ‘breast milk’ was met first in the 4th Commandment where it might have represented ‘upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.’

In the 9th Commandment it might have represented ‘any thing that is thy neighbour’s’. Perhaps it was used as a metaphor for ‘bounty’.

Dieri language

Samuel Gason might have been to first to record the Dieri language but others were to follow. 

The first of these might have been a 41-page ‘reading book’ entitled Wonini-pepa Dieri-jaurani Worapala, by J, Fliert, who had joined the Lutheran Hermannsburg missionary group in 1878. (FLIERT, J. (1883) Wonini-pepa, Dieri-jaurani. First Reading Book in the Dieri Language, Adelaide, E, Spiller.)

The next was a major undertaking that came about in the following manner. A Lutheran Mission backed by the Hermannsburg Mission Society in Germany was set up in 1867 on Cooper Creek, first at Lake Hope in Dieri Aboriginal country, only to move repeatedly during that year and the next first to Lake Koperamanna where they joined a group of Moravian missionaries, then to Lake Killalpaninna a little to the west, and then in 1871 to Mundowna Station 100 km further south. Two years later in 1873 they were back near where they started, at Bucaltaninna. Some of the missionaries stayed there for five years.

In 1874 the Hermannsburg group moved about 800 km to the north west, to New Hermannsburg to the west of Alice Springs. Four years later they returned to Killalpaninna where they stayed until the mission closed in 1915. It was in this final period in Killalpaninna that the main work on the Dieri language took place, by missionary J.G. Reuther who was there from 1888 to 1906, and then with Carl Strelhow from 1892 to 1894, yielding the translation of the New Testament into Dieri. According to Wikipedia, this 350-page complete translation of the New Testament into Dieri in 1897 was the first for an Aboriginal language. The Biblical translating done for the Hunter River-Lake Macquarie language (Awabakal) in the 1830s by L.E, Threlkeld was confined to the gospels of Sts Luke, Mark and part of Matthew, together with a number of other isolated verses, and prayers.

A fourth significant source is a handwritten anonymous 65-page vocabulary in a notebook entitled German ‘Vocabulary of native tribes North East  South Australia’. This is held in the Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales, viewable on filmstrip CY4264 and also online at <https://digital.sl.nsw.gov.au/delivery/DeliveryManagerServlet?dps_pid=FL807761&embedded=true&toolbar=false>. The original forms part of a ‘parcel of MSS originally inscribed [Herbert] Basedow material MSS and Typescript Aborigines. Originally received (by Mitchell Library) 15 March 1934’ [library record for CY Reel 4264]. The folder amongst these papers in which the notebook occurs, Folder 2, is dated ca 1989-1932, and it notes the vocabulary is not in Basedow’s hand. In fact, partly because the vocabulary translations are in German it was most likely the work of one of the Lutheran Hermannsburg missionaries, either J.G. Reuther or C. Strelhow, probably in the period 1888-94.

Finally, of the historical undertakings to record the language, in 1908 an 11-page grammar of Dieri, in German, by W. Planert, was published. (PLANERT, W. (1908) Dieri Grammatik, Dietrich Reimer Verlag GmbH.)

Considerably later, reflecting modern scholarship, the following book appeared:

AUSTIN, P. (1981) A grammar of Diyari, South Australia, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.

Jeremy Steele

Wednesday 18 August 2021

Threlkeld Working in the Wilderness

Lancelot Edward Threlkeld, born in 1788, is, or was, exactly 150 years older than your modern-day amateur student of Awabakal, the Lake Macquarie language he worked on, all by himself, with no-one to discuss things with. Your amateur student [YAS] knows the feeling well, as probably no-one else has worked closely on this language, apart from book editor John Fraser in 1892. So for Threlkeld in the 1830s, translating the gospels must have been a lonely business, especially as the realisation must have grown that fewer and fewer people were ever likely to see or be able to appreciate what he was doing for them, as the Aboriginal people dwindled in numbers in his neighbourhood, by moving away, or dying. Until finally there were none left.

So when Threlkeld one day re-looked at what he had translated in one particular passage, he spotted what he thought must have been an error, and changed it. There was no-one he could discuss the matter with, and so the change went ahead. Here it is:

It is verse 6 of Chapter 14 of St Mark’s Gospel, the King James version of which reads:

[6] And Jesus said, Let her alone; why trouble ye her? she hath wrought a good work on me.

Before looking at the correction itself, it is worth considering the marginal note that is barely legible in this photograph of the page, it being partially lost in the binding of the notebook. But the English translation allows the guess to be made that it is trouble, underlined, to match the underlined word in the text alongside: ‘koakilleen’. This was Threlkeld’s method: he would underline a word he had devised or chosen to use in his translation for which there was no readily known word in the Awabakal language, and then would make a marginal annotation to indicate what he had done.



‘koakilleen’, or guwa-gi-li-n is ‘scold-be-ing-now’, or ‘scolding’, ‘rebuking’, ‘quarrelling’ and similar ideas, and hence ‘trouble’.

Now for the correction, the subject of this short essay.

A word-for-word translation of Threlkeld’s translation of verse 6 reads:
AND JESU-ERG he speak-did, move-permit-IMP! her; what-because you-all scold-be-ing-now her? good make-done to her-of me

of which the key part is the final phrase:
                                                               good make-done to her-of me 

which ought to mean:
                                                               she hath wrought a good work on me.

but it does not. In fact Threlkeld should have left it as it was in the first place, for the following reason:

BEFORE CORRECTION AFTER CORRECTION
original murroróng umatoara bountoa ba tia. murroróng umatoara bounnoun ba tia.
respelt marurung umadwara bunduwa ba diya marurung umadwara bununba diya
word-for-word good make-done to she DONE me good make-done to her-of (hers) me
idiomatic she has done me good hers me good
Bible King James Version she hath wrought a good work on me. [nonsense]

What happened? Why did Threlkeld make the correction? One can only speculate, but the reason might have been this. 

On one day doing a quick check of the text, Threlkeld must have spotted the words ‘bountoa ba’, and assumed them to be a simple wrong rendering of ‘bounnounba’ or ‘bounnoun ba’, and made the alteration accordingly. 

Reasoning: ‘bountoa’ [bunduwa] is ‘she’ while ‘bounnoun’ [bunun] is ‘her;
and ‘bounnoun ba’ is the possessive (genitive) form, ‘hers’.

Threlkeld just saw ‘bountoa ba’ (she-of), automatically assumed he had blundered, and so ‘corrected’ it to ‘bounnoun ba’ (her-of, or hers) (bununba). Evidently he was distracted by the presence of ‘ba’. 

But in fact the original translation was not an error: ‘bountoa’ in this instance just happened to be followed by the particle or clitic ‘ba’. 

In this Aboriginal language, and in many others, very short words like this (ba) can have a variety of roles. And so in Awabakal, ba, apart from changing a pronoun from the accusative case to the genitive, may when suffixed to verbs convey the sense of ‘do‘; or it can express the idea of ‘done’  in a phrase, to indicate achievement, as it was doing in the instance here, prior to its erroneous altering.

Alas, Threlkeld had no-one looking over his shoulder that day, or indeed at any time, and hence no-one he could discuss such matters with. He was working in a virtual vacuum, with only his occasional Aboriginal informant Biraban to consult, who was poles apart from Threlkeld in his level of education and power. Mostly Threlkeld must have worked entirely on his own, grappling with having to come up with words for ‘wrought’, ’whensoever’, ‘aforehand’, ‘anoint’, ‘gospel’, ‘preach’, ‘memorial’ and ‘betray’ to take examples only from the next four verses, none of which words would likely feature in the day-to-day vocabulary of a member of a hunter-gatherer society. 

At least your modern-day amateur student, likewise with no-one to consult, but possessed of a computer of unimaginable capability to someone of a century and a half ago, can write a blog entry like this one and post it on the internet, in the hope that someone might chance upon it, and comment on it, and even tell him he is wrong.

JEREMY STEELE
Friday 25 May 2018
================

Translating a verse in St Mark’s Gospel

Picture the lonely austere missionary the Rev. Lancelot Edward Threlkeld, deep in Aboriginal country sometime between 1834 and 1837 in his property at what is now Toronto on the peninsula on the western side of Lake Macquarie. He is in the throes of translating the obscure Biblical prose of St Mark’s Gospel into the local Aboriginal language spoken in the vicinity of this lake north of Sydney. This was a language that had developed to cover daily indigenous life of living, hunting and survival, disputes and ritual. 

Threlkeld had been sent by the London Missionary Society to Lake Macquarie in 1825 for evangelical purposes. He had determined that the first thing he should do was to learn the local language in order to communicate with the people there. And next, the best way he could see of fulfilling his mission as a missionary was to translate the gospels so he could pass on the essential messages in them. To succeed, he had to bend this language to his purpose as best he could. He was eventually to complete the gospels of Saints Luke and Mark, and to begin on St Matthew. To what extent the local population understood the gospel stories is not known, but Threlkeld was eventually not to succeed in converting a single one of them.

Threlkeld was married and with a growing family. At this time he was aged in his late forties, with a wife and nine surviving children. Given that children pick up languages quickly, it is likely that all but the youngest, Thomas, aged perhaps about three, would have been fluent speakers of ‘Awabakal’. Threlkeld himself probably had the restricted capability of a late learner.

On the particular day we are concerned with here, Threlkeld was faced with the verses of Chapter 13, which including the following:

[27] And then shall he send his angels, and shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven.

Now he turns to verse 27, in which some words to challenge his ingenuity have here been picked out in bold type.
• Although Aboriginal languages do not normally have a word for conjunctions such as ‘and’, Threlkeld has long since had to accept a word for it, because ‘And’ seems to be the first word in about half or more of the verses in the gospels.
• He is going to use, yet again, the English word for ‘angel’.
• ‘gather’ is no problem: he has an acceptable word it.
• What is he going to do with ‘elect’, he probably asked himself.
• ‘four’? Normally Aboriginals had numbers only up to three, but he thinks he might actually have one for ‘four’.
• What is to be done about ‘uttermost’?
• So far he has been using ‘sky’ for ‘heaven’.

And so he sets about his translation, and comes up with:


This might be respelt using modern conventions as:
ngadun yagida ngaya yuganan nuwa barun ANGEL ngigumba, ngadun gawumanan wal barun ngirimadwara ngigumba andabirang wibigabirang waradabirang galungGadabirang barayidabirang andabirang GalungGadabirang murugugabirang.

 

Threlkeld had an Aboriginal informant, a fluent English speaker by the name of Biraban (also known by an English name as McGill), and Threlkeld routinely checked everything with him. However, these were the days of spears, initiations and tribal practice rather than Biblical scholarship, and there was probably a power imbalance between the austere European overlord Threlkeld and the Aboriginal employee Biraban. So it is possible Biraban was inclined to agree with anything Threlkeld proposed, however bizarre a phrase or topic might have sounded, including converting water into wine, or even walking on water on a lake such as the one nearby, or coming up with translations for concepts such as ‘disciples’.

The translation that  Threlkeld devised for Verse 27 above, on a word-for-word basis, literally reads:

AND now then send-will he them-all ANGEL him-of, AND gather-make-will certainly them-all choose-make-done to him-of there-away from wind-away from four-away from distant-at-away from earth-away from there-from distant-at-away from sky-away from.

This may be expresed more idiomatically as:

And now then, he will send them, his angels, and will certainly gather them, his chosen (ones), from the four winds, from there the distant (parts of) the earth, from the distant (part of) the sky [i.e. heaven]

and so the connection with the Gospel passage, reproduced again below, can be readily enough perceived:

[27] And then shall he send his angels, and shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven.

Except for one point: the word ‘from’ at the end of Threlkeld’s version, and the word ‘to’ in the King James translation of the verse.

What has happened? It would appear with all this translating of obscure wording, either Threlkeld has decided that ‘from’ is the correct preposition for the idea of gathering from here, there and everywhere; or has let slip through a wong suffix, meaning ‘away from‘ — instead of using a suffix for to or towards.  In the final part of his translation he has written, based on the preposition ‘from’:

GalungGa-da-birang        murugu-ga-birang.
distant-away from               sky-away from

when he perhaps should have used expressions for ‘to’, reflecting the term actually used in the Gospel passage he was translating:

GalungGulang                   murugu-gulang.
distant-towards                    sky-towards

If so, this is a very simple slip up, and one that would have been picked up by anyone fluent in the language paying attention to the meaning of the passage.

JEREMY STEELE

Tuesday 15 May 2018

=================

Awabakal conjoined pronouns

Awabakal conjoined pronouns

The Lake Macquarie missionary the Rev. Lancelot Threlkeld produced a grammar of the language where his mission was established. This language came to be known as Awabakal, thougn now also referred to as the Lake Macquarie Hunter River language.

Threlkeld’s grammar and other language works are remarkable for their volume and detail. But as his record is vitrtually the only one for the language, there is nothing against which to check his assertions about meaning and usage.

One matter in particular concerns the short form pronouns, which in the Sydney language are bound on as suffixes to the stem of verbs, following any other previous suffixes such as for meaning amplification and tense.

Table 1: Extract from Threlkeld’s pronoun table, p.17*

1sg: I 2sg: thou 3sg m: he 3sg f: she 1pl: we 2pl: you 3pl: they
Full form nominative Nga-toa Ngin-toa Niu-woa Boun-toa Ngé-en Nú-ra Ba-ra
Short form nominative Bang Bi Noa
Accusative Emmo-ung Ngiro-ung Ngiko-ung Boun-no-un Ngear-un Núr-un Bar-un.
Short form accusative Tia Bin Bón

* THRELKELD, L. E. (1892a) An Australian language as spoken by the Awabakal, the people of Awaba or Lake Macquarie (near Newcastle, New South Wales) being an account of their language, traditions and customs / by L.E. Threlkeld; re-arranged, condensed and edited with an appendix by John Fraser, Sydney, Charles Potter, Government Printer.

Threlkeld provides a table for the ‘conjoined dual’, or nominative-accusative short-form pronouns:

Table 2 Conjoined dual forms

Conjoined Dual.
Ba-nung Ba-noun Bi-tia Bi-núng Bi-noun Bi-loa Bin-toa
I-thee I-her thou-me thou-him thou-her he-thee she-thee

What seems to be probably correct in this table are the short forms for:

I:     ba                    me: tia
thou:      bi             thee: bin
and possibly:
her: noun
as picked out in blue in the table above.

Possibly correct, though not appearing in Table 2, is:
him: nung.
This is an accusative suffix, so could well be used for ‘him’

Troubling points include the following:
nung:                  used for both ‘thee’ and ‘him’
loa/toa:              ‘thee’: –luwa, –duwa are actually causative, comitative or proprietive suffixes
bi-loa:                bi actually means ‘thou’, not ‘he’
bin-dua:            bin actually means ‘thee’, not ‘she’

In the whole of the Threlkeld body of work there are almost no examples of the pronoun combinations in Table 2 other than for ‘thou me’, e.g.

original Kotåra bi tia ġuwa buwil koa bón baġ
respelt gudara bi diya nguwa buwilguwa bun bang
original translation Cudgel thou me give to-strike (ut) {in order} him I.  / 
word-for-word club thou me give-IMP! beat might-having him I
idiomatic Give me a club so that I can beat him

A more likely set of nominative-accusative pronouns than in Table 2 would seem to be as in Table 3:

Table 3: Proposed complete set of singular conjoind dual pronouns

I thee ba bin I him ba nung I her ba nun
thou me bi diya thou him bi bun thou her bi nun
he me nuwa diya he thee nuwa bin he her nuwa duwa
she me nun diya she thee nun bin she him nun bun

All the words shown in blue can be found in Threlkeld’s table.
Words in red are speculative inventions.
Words in pink are speculative combinations.
Spellings in Table 3 are as used in the Bayala Australian Language Databases <bayaladatabases.blogspot.com>

Jeremy Steele
Tuesday 8 May 2018

=================

Threlkeld ANNUAL REPORT 1838

THE

ANNUAL REPORT

OF THE

MISSION TO THE ABORIGINES,

LAKE MACQUARIE,

FOR MDCCCXXXVIII

Ebenezer, Lake Macquarie,

New South Wales,

December 31, 1838

TO THE HONORABLE THE COLONIAL SECRETARY,

E. DEAS THOMSON, Esquire,

&c. &c. &c.

SIR,

During the present year I have attempted to carry into effect the plan contemplated in my last year’s Report, of endeavouring to meet the Aborigines in the neighbouring districts; but the numbers are now so very much reduced, that it is almost impossible to form any settled plan to assemble them at any given time or place. Sometimes two or three are seen, at most, half a dozen, excepting cases of General Assembly, to wage battle, a circumstance they usually carefully conceal my knowledge until the business is over. Unfortunately, in the majority of instances in which I have seen the few Aborigines at different places, they have been intoxicated, so as to render any attempt to hold conversation with them nugatory. It is hoped that the well intended Act of Council, coming into operation January 1st, 1839, to prevent the supplying the Aborigines with spiritous liquors, &c., may prove beneficial.

From conversation with the Aborigines, it appears, that the Christian knowledge which has been communicated to M’Gill and other Aborigines, has been the subject of discussion amongst the remnant of the tribes forty miles distant.

In two or three instances, when communicating what was supposed to be subjects perfectly new to them, they replied with perfect coolness, “We know it, M’Gill has told us.” But whilst the mere knowledge of our Father in heaven – his Son our Lord – future punishment, &c. &c. has extended in a very small degree, no moral influence on their habits of life has been as yet discovered. The still small voice of God speaking to their consciences, must effect this desirable change, that they may be born of God.

The mere mechanical external operation of human instruction, is too transitory in its effects to calculate upon, as was clearly exemplified in the Aborigines confined at Goat Island, who whilst under coercive instruction, rapidly advanced in their respective attainments of reading, writing, and arithmetic, repeating prayers, singing hymns, and the art of cutting stone, in which they exhibited much skill; but when removed from under restraint, proved to Man, that coercive religious instruction is of no moral avail, however much we may deceive ourselves with specious appearances of success during compulsatory education; nor do Christian principles authorise such means. We (says the inspired apostle Paul) persuade men.” On requesting some of them when at liberty, to perform a work of stone-cutting, for which they should be paid, “No,” was the reply, ‘that was our punishment; we cannot engage in such work now.” This created no surprise, it being contrary to human nature for any man to love his punishment.

His Excellency suggested in a conversation respecting the Aborigines, the trial of paying them in money for labor, which hitherto has been avoided, lest they should instantly repair to town and spend it in spirits. On my return to the Lake, the subject was mentioned to M’Gill, the Aborigine, who communicated with his tribe, and engaged take a job of burning off for a neighbouring gentleman, resident at the Lake. This they completed, and received payment according to previous agreement; but the employing of them is more an act of benevolence than beneficial to the person who engages them, there being so many idlers attached, who expect supplies, and who if not connived at, draw away the whole party long ere the task is completed. Another serious drawback is, that time cannot be calculated on, in the completion of the work.

The Tribe engaged in a similar employment for myself; but the task they have not finished – affairs of honor drew away the party, the ignorant Blacks not having as yet attained to that high [1] sense of moral courage, as to refuse to do evil at the expense of ridicule; for, in common with those barbarians of another color, who practise manslaying, these lawless savages would also be considered highly dishonorable characters, and cowards too, if they declined a meeting.

The Aborigines have so far advanced in scale of civilisation, as to choose employments most congenial to their own habits and tastes, in order to supply their scanty wants. In town they readily engage in fishing, shooting, boating, carrying wood and water, acting as messengers or guides, in which services, their numbers being so few, they find full and constant employ; so much so, that now the difficulty is to find a Black when required.

The survivors of the tribe at the Lake have taken up their abode for the present at Newcastle, leaving at this place not a single resident tribe; and we are only now occasionally visited by the small remnants of the inhabitants of the Lake.

In a very few years the race of the Aborigines within the limits of this Colony, will be seen only in the same proportion, or less than the Gipsey race in Great Britain, abating therefrom the women and children!

Of those in the interior it is difficult to form a judgement, but it may fairly be presumed that the numbers are considerably overrated, because, whenever the Blacks assemble in order to retaliate for some injury, real or supposed, which they conceive that they have received from Europeans, their numbers seldom are rated more than a hundred or two, or four or five hundred at most; when it is certain that all their forces are accumulated. It occupies days and weeks to to convey intelligence to, and collect the scattered people by their messengers, and when they are assembled, their means of subsistence (hunting) compels them speedily to separate, unless they supply themselves, from the flocks and herds in the vicinity, with animal food.

The decided steps taken by Her Majesty’s Government to afford mutual protection, and to prevent the complete extirpation of the Blacks, in punishing the guilty and protecting the innocent, whether Aborigines or Europeans, may check for a season their extinction, and prevent the continuance of the bloody warfare; but there is much to do, and much to suffer on both sides, long before peace can be permanently established. Nor is it possible for savages to know by intuition, the good intentions of Great Britain towards them, unless there be Institutions established, into which the Blacks may be invited, where occular demonstration will manifest in the treatment used towards them, that when they ask for bread, they will not receive poison; or for their own women, and the answered with a musket ball.

The present state of excited feeding on the part of those individuals who have suffered in their sheep and cattle, attended with the loss of human life, in the attempt to extirpate the Aborigines from their sheep and cattle runs, in the interior, is principally confined to one class of the Colonists, graziers, who suffer the most in consequence of our National measures; nor can the Aborigines be absolutely condemned for their resistance, they being placed by Britons precisely in a similar position as Ancient Britons were, who acted upon the same principles of resistance to all-conquering Rome, whose claim to the British Isles, was as just and right in principle is that of Great Britain is to New South Wales .

But heathen Rome had her laws of war and peace, and would have blushed at the cold hearted, bloody massacres of the Aborigines in this Colony by men called Christians, and that those who could boast of their exploits in “popping off a Black the moment he appeared,” without regard to his innocence or guilt.

The indiscriminate slaughter, which has blotted the Colony with the foul stain of innocent blood, has been committed in open defiance of the Laws of Nations, or of the more high authority, the law of God; and the gallantry displayed in the engagement with rude barbarians had better been displayed in the field of honor, with more equal enemies, and in a much more noble and righteous cause.

On reference to the Minutes of Evidence laid before the Committee of the Legislative Council, on the Aboriginal question, at page 44, the list given in consists of fifteen Europeans killed by the Aborigines from 1832 to the present year, 1838; a period of six years, making an average of not three persons a year, who have unfortunately been deprived of their lives, whilst a secret hostile process has been encouraged and carried on against the Blacks by a party of lawless Europeans, until it gained confidence, and unblushing and openly appeared, to the loss of upwards of five hundred Aborigines within the last two years!! including the numerous massacres of men, women and children, and the two or three hundred, said to be slaughtered in the engagement which it is reported took place betwixt the Horse police, commanded by Major Nunn, and the Aborigines in the interior.

If enquiry be instituted concerning the occasion of those fifteen murders, certain causes would no doubt be found, to shew they were not or occasioned by mere wanton attacks of the Aborigines, which in that case deserve severe punishment, according to their own principles and practice, but arose from circumstances which would account, in some measure, for such lamentable transactions. For instance, it is reported, that at one of the places mentioned, a Black was taken as a guide, it being a new station about to be formed, the Black was ordered to do something which he did not seem [2] inclined instantly to perform, when one of the party took a fowling piece, and discharged the contents (shot) into the posteriors of the Black, who ran away, joined the strange tribe, and the consequence was, that they came upon two men splitting timber, killed and drove the party away from the intended station. At all times danger is attached to first interviews with savages, of which the above was one; but, if men will not exercise common prudence in their conduct towards them, when it is in their interest to conciliate, they may expect to reap the fruits of their own temerity.

The two shepherds of Mr. Cobb, who were unfortunately murdered by the Blacks, suffered it is said, in consequence of the atrocities being then committed against the Blacks by the stockmen at another part of the country, which drove them towards Mr Cobb’s station, where they met the two shepherds and wreaked their vengeance, in retaliation, on the unhappy sufferers: so I am informed by one who was there about the time of the catastrophe. Their fellow servants armed themselves, overtook or came upon the tribe, found some with the clothes of the murdered shepherds on their backs, whom they hewed to pieces with their hatchets, and killed others. Subsequently to this, Major Nunn came and retributed on the tribes to the amount before stated. An official inquiry into all the cases would, no doubt, elicit many other facts in explanation.

It is astonishing that more murders have not been committed on Europeans by the Aborigines, considering the deadly extirpating warfare which has so long been carried on against them, and the perfect recklessness with which the life of a Black – man, woman, or child, has been regarded. For instance, – a party of stockmen went out to punish the Blacks: they provide themselves with knives, and cut the throats of many Aborigines, leaving them for dead. It so occurred, that some months afterwards, one of the stockmen met a Black alone in the Bush, whose throat had formerly been cut, but not effectually, and is had healed! Alarmed at the circumstance, the stockman passed on, but received no injury from the wounded Aborigine. Now, had the European been killed in retaliation for his former share in the cut-throat work, and the occasion thereof had not been known, it would naturally have been considered as a wanton act of barbarian cruelty, by a “Black Brute,” on an unprotected and innocent European! In another instance, two Europeans were pitching their tent for the night at the bank of a creek, near the Gwyder, when a party of armed Blacks came to them; one was known, and entered into conversation. They were asked their business, and whither they were going, &c. to which they vaguely replied, and departed. There was a stock station not far distant – In a short time the tribe returned, and acknowledged that they had been to take away a Black Woman from the stockman whom he had detained, but that there were too many people at the hut that night. On further inquiry, the Black said that the Aboriginal woman was from Wellington Valley; that she had been brought to thither by two bushrangers from that place; that on her journey they sent her down a deep gully to get water; that when she went down she found two Blacks, who seized her; that she then told them that there were two white persons with her who had plenty of property, and urged them to go up the hill and see them; they went up, and the moment the bushrangers saw them, they levelled their pieces and shot the two Blacks dead! They then travelled on to this station, and gave the woman to the stockman. One of the present Blacks had been to the hut prior to their meeting, to bring away the woman, on which the stockman took down his gun, and threatened to shoot in if he did not instantly depart from the door; the Blacks therefore now came in a strong party to bring away the female Aborigine by force; but were intimidated at the number of persons who accidentally lodged at the hut that night.

There are also White Gentleman whose taste, when in the Bush, needs them to keep Black Concubines: – no wonder that the unhappy convict, whose state of bondage generally precludes marriage, should readily follow the example of their betters, for whose conduct no such plea exists.

It is not to be presumed that the guilty can approve of the measures adopted by Government, to prevent a continuation of, and to punish crime, or that any who are grieved that the welfare of the Aboriginal Children of Australia should be sought, can desire that protection should be afforded to those beings, from whom section by section of land is sold, till there be no place for the Aborigines – that the European may be placed alone in the midst of the earth! But, nevertheless, it is a mercy, to all parties, that Protectors are appointed, who, as Magistrates, are bound to afford equal protection, and equally to punish evil doers, whether Blacks or Whites; although for a season, until the nature of the office be mutually understood, and more generally known, the name will be misrepresented by designing persons, and the system itself be imperfect in its operations. Perhaps much embarrassment and delay in this department might be avoided, if, instead of the routine of a separate Establishment, each Protector communicated direct with Government. The scattered position of the Protectors in this vast country, requires despatch and promptness in the measures taken for mutual protection, to ensure success, which a direct correspondence will greatly facilitate. Europeans and Aborigines will no longer dare to set at defiance the law, when it is surely found that a just and certain punishment swiftly follows crime.

The past years of this Colony have been fearfully tinged with the shedding of innocent blood; and it is to be feared, that much blood yet will be spilled, ere peace is established in the interior. But, [3] England has been aroused from her lethargy; she awoke as a giant refreshed with wine; she has acknowledged her supineness, and confessed her guilt before God. May her future works towards the Aborigines of her Colonies praise her when she speaks with her enemies in the gate.

Retaliation on the part of the Aborigines must be expected, and consequently guarded against. The slaughter of their hundreds of fellow countrymen, the inhuman massacre of their relatives, their wives and children, cannot but fill the minds of human beings with desire to revenge their loss; and the strongest proof of their being but mere brutes, the which some assert, would consist in their resting contentedly under their deprivations and sufferings, without an attempt to take vengeance.

The spirit which is the subject of the Aborigines has been publicly agitated, by a portion of the Colonial Press, and the indecorous language which has been used in the declamation, may tend to mislead the judgement of the inconsiderate, and encourage the guilty to persist in their crimes; but, divested of all such party feeling, the question of the Aborigines resolves itself into one of a very simple nature. – We are a Christian nation, commanded two “love thy neighbour as thyself;” and directed that “all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.” And until these precepts be recognised as the governing principle of our laws, and acted upon by nations, churches, families, and individuals, there will be “envying, strife, confusion, and every evil work.” As a nation we have placed ourselves in the position that has compelled the Aborigines to become our neighbours, and we have worked ill towards our neighbours, because we, the many, dispossess the few Blacks of their rights of birth, which convey to them a certain district, in which they seek and obtain their means of subsistence. Our might deprives them of this right, without remuneration; and Immigration, so beneficial to us as a Colony, in increasing our population, decreases in an incalculable ratio, our neighbours as a people, by taking away the common hereditary privileges which they have possessed from time immemorial. The place of their birth is sold to the highest bidder; but the Aborigines are not included in the purchase; this would be slavery! They are excluded from the soil, being found generally prejudicial to the pecuniary interests of the purchaser, and that exclusion works their death!

If sophistry and worldly philosophy could but succeed in the persuasion, that the Black inhabitants of the Colonies are merely Brutes, without reasoning faculties, and incapable of instruction, the natural consequence would be that to shoot them dead would be no more a moral evil, than the destroying of rats by poison, or of the Ourang Outang by the fusee!

The fallacies of the present day respecting the Aboriginal is unnecessary to notice, in order to arrive at a sound conclusion respecting our treatment toward them. It has been affirmed that the Blacks are “the harmless sons of nature,” consequently innocent, which, if followed out, leads to the conclusion, that they require not the Gospel of Christ to reform their hearts, and transform them into children of light; whereas, they are, as described in the Gospel, “All gone out of the way.” “Their feet swift to shed blood, destruction and misery are in their ways,” and their “Places are full of the habitations of cruelty,” both one towards another, until they are nearly extinct, and to others also, when the power is in their hand, and inclination excites them. Nor can these barbarians long exist as a people, unless that Gospel which is sent to perishing sinners, that they may become saints in Christ Jesus, can be fairly and fully presented to them. A difficulty of considerable magnitude, yet to be surmounted: Nevertheless, “The whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.” At present they are warlike in their habits according to the rude means they possess. They no doubt consider us as a powerful, hostile, encroaching people, and many an innocent person will yet suffer for the alleged public aggressions on either side.

It is asserted that the sites of Missionary Stations have been ineligible, owing to their contiguity to towns and civilised society, which accounts for the hitherto apparent want of success amongst the Aborigines: but the Gospel of Christ authorises no such conclusion; otherwise nunneries for their women, and monasteries for their men would have been divinely commanded to seclude from a sinful world the followers of the Lamb – “Go” says the Divine Legislature of the new Covenant, “into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature.” – I pray not, says the only Mediator, “that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.” – And the Apostle of the Gentiles commands that “We should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present evil world,” that though we are not to keep company with fornicators, yet not altogether with fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or with extortioners, or with idolators, for then must ye needs go out of the world. It is a perfect fallacy unsupported by Christian authority to suppose that intercourse with the civilised world, however irreligious is a cause of the want of success. The want of subjects is rather one cause in this Colony, it is difficult to ascertain their numbers; such exaggerated accounts of the Aborigines being from various motives so generally given. Besides which there has lacked opportunity of making known the Gospel, but to a very few of those with whom communication could be obtained.

At this Lake when the Mission was first established, the numbers were exceedingly overrated, and were considered much larger than after experience justified. The hundreds of the Blacks were soon found to diminish into tens, and the many thousands which were often reported as coming down from the mountains to destroy us, and which caused many an anxious watchful night, [4] degenerated into a few score! No Mission in the annals of modern missionary history, ever has a more pleasing prospect of success than this had for the first two years, in which many of the Blacks were employed at labor, sometimes to the amount of sixty daily; several lads when learning to read and write, in their own language, but the expenses necessary for their employment and the supporting of so large an establishment was considered by the London Missionary Society as encroaching on the claims of other heathens, much more numerous than these, together with the disappointment of pecuniary aid at the commencement of the Mission by the Local government of this Colony, led to an alteration, under false principles of Economy, which could never be overcome, and death in various shapes carried off the tribes, until there is barely the name of a few tribes left in existence in these parts: thus rendering the present mission the most unpromising of any in the whole world.

A few individuals may yet be benefited, and an important use might be made of this isolated situation remote from stock-stations, namely, by procuring some few couple of young Blacks from the interior, in the hostile parts, protecting and supporting them at this place, communicating to them religious and civil instruction; and whenever they express a wish to return, permit them, that they may communicate their new ideas to their own people, and thus they would become mediums of intercourse for the Protectors and others with the tribes in the interior, in the same manner as M’Gill and other Blacks are to me in these districts.

The Aborigines should visit Sydney, in charge of a person, to explain the nature of our customs, laws in our courts, our modes of punishment in our jails, which might all be made subservient to teaching them the important doctrine of future judgement, and of divine punishment for sin.

In these latter days, as in the times of the Apostles, God manifests in divers manners his sovereign power which he has not delegated to other hands “shewing mercy upon whom he will shew mercy, and compassion on whom he will have compassion.” – “So that it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.” Even the Apostles were forbidden to preach the word in Asia, and they assayed to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit suffered them not. Whilst “a vision appeared to Paul saying come over unto Macedonia and help us.” But, to us, God only manifests his will by his providence, and by the secret operation of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of those to whom the word is sent. When I resided at Raiatea in the South Seas, Island after Island renounced their Idols, and worshipped Jesus. In this Colony, at this place, the same means were used, but all was frustrated, difficulty after difficulty, disappointment after disappointment, trial after trial arose, and yet no apparent success. So also at the Marquesan Islands, where attempt after attempt has hitherto failed. Many a Mission has been abandoned by various Missionary societies, shewing that “Neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase.”

The conversion of the South Sea Islanders can be alluded to in corroboration of this fact, where the Islanders were far sunk beneath these Aborigines in superstition, bestiality, lust, and cruelty, yet a handful of what the world calls ignorant men, patiently abode its sneers, the scoff of infidels, the disdain of the philosopher, as wild enthusiasts, for nearly twenty years. Once was the Mission all but abandoned by its friends, and war, and fearful rights were depopulating the Islands, to an alarming extent, when God arose, operated on their hearts by his Holy Spirit, and the Natives became faithful saints in Christ Jesus; and are living witnesses to this day, that “the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation, and mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds:” thus clearly manifesting, that, “It is not by might, nor yet by power, but by my Spirit says the Lord.” – “For his holy arm has gotten him the victory.”

The providence of God is being manifested towards the Aborigines of this land, and will, humanly speaking, end, either in their total extinction, or, a very small remnant will be called to the acknowledgement of the truth as it is in Jesus: in the which case, “a little one may become thousand and a small one a strong nation.” Our religious precepts would lead them to congregate themselves together, they would acquire industrious habits, upon such principles which Hell itself, cannot finally overthrow.

The fashionable philosophy of the day, speculating on the intellectual powers of the Aborigines, as manifested in the Bumps of the Brain, is a splendid specious fallacy leading away the mind from the hope of the influence of God’s holy spirit regenerating the heart, opening the eyes of their understanding, and turning them from darkness to light, from the power of Satan unto God: and instead of depending as christians, on the promised divine secret influence of the Holy Spirit, this specious science, contemplates only the quantity of accumulation of matter in the formation of the brain, the depositions of bone in the various corresponding concavities and convexities of the skull, sets aside a positive declaration, to assume an hypothesis, amusing in theory, but dangerous in practice.

The miserable attempt to deduce from such a science, falsely so-called, that these Black human beings, “have an innate deficiency of intellect rendering them incapable of instruction,” would arrive at the natural conclusion that it would be useless to attempt it, and consequently the Blacks being but a part and parcel of the brute creation, being deficient of intellect, there can be no responsibility attached to their destruction, more than there is to the extirpation of any other animal whose presence is obnoxious to the processor of the soil! [5]

It is to be lamented that such sentiments have most likely had their influence on men of corrupt minds, who gladly avail themselves of any specious argument to enable them to gratify their love of cruelty, which has ended in blood, and the consequent forfeiture of life to Justice, in the recent execution of the wanton murderers of the Aborigines. Nor, have some, it is to be feared, who are termed well educated minds, escaped the contagion of the mental poison, which insidiously perverts the judgement, and has led to the adoption of means and arguments alike discreditable to Christian honor: thus involving themselves until they become “Partakers of other men’s sins.” But the public promulgation of such false principles, which tend to encourage our fellow creatures to acts of violence, renders the Agent, however much disguised, or though hand joins in hand, responsible to a higher tribunal than that of man’s judgement, even at the Judgement seat of Christ, where no disguise can conceal, no sheltering patronage can screen, no multitude of persons can intimidate, no beggarly elements of this world will justify the individual in the sacred Court of Holy Equity, in which every one of us shall give account of himself to God: “For by thy words thou shalt be justified and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.”

On the Economy of the Missionary enterprises it is necessary to remark, that only is true economy, which allows a sufficiency of means to accomplish the desired end. Every deviation from this principle is injurious to the cause of Missions and disheartening to the agents employed in Missionary Establishments, whatsoever may be their designation, or wheresoever they may be placed in the whole world.

Apart from Christian influence, much benefit may be observed to have arisen to the remnant of the Aborigines in their intercourse with Europeans. All the visit the towns, obtain without the least difficulty their means of subsistence: many there are perform little acts of labor for the Colonists, for which the [sic] receive small gratuities: Others there are who become good seamen, horsemen, as stockmen, and shepherds. I am just now informed by one of the Agricultural Company’s Gentlemen, that they have in their employ several Blacks, as shepherds, stockmen, and servants in different capacities, many of them equal in their respective engagements to Europeans. It is a pity that an equal share of pains has not been taken to induce the Aborigines to accept employment by those whose local situations presented the opportunity, as they have been at pains to destroy them. But the facility with which convict labor could hitherto be obtained caused a recklessness of human life towards those who were not cared for as servants, and consequently being unemployed, were found to be, too often a cumbrance at the station, and a scare-crow to the cattle! At the present moment the Blacks on the Gwydir will grind wheat for the sake of the bran, which they eat dry as a remuneration for their work.

The transportation system has operated powerfully the against the amelioration and civilisation of the Blacks, arising in part from the Convicts monopolising the female Aborigines: nor has the moral influence of that system which because A robs B, C shall have A’s work without wages, tended to inculcate in the minds of the Colonists the equitable divine principle, that “The Workman is worthy of his hire.” Many who have attempted to employ the Blacks have expected the severest labor to be performed for a mere trifle, else their services would exceed in expense conflict labor; and because the Aborigines loved not our hard labor for labor’s sake, they had been reputed lazy and disinclined to work! Thus whilst the mind has become accustomed to exercise sternness, without which it is impossible to obtain convict labor, under the convict system, the finer feelings of humanity are lost in that of self interest, and the once kind, generous, English Character, sinks into that of the merciless slaveholder whose principles are boldly espoused, and expends that All, Blacks or Whites, will submit without a murmur to its domineering power.

The several Aborigines now usefully employed in various occupations, although so scattered throughout the Colony, as hardly to be observed, are found equally trustworthy as Europeans, and shew that their intellectual capacities are equal to our own, when in an uncultivated state. Classical Rome, in her zenith of civilisation and plentitude of military glory, when she reigned Mistress of the World, looked down with similar contempt on the poor disarmed, dispirited, miserable, Brutes, the White Aborigines of Albion’s shore, whilst she claimed the British Isles for her possession, and destroyed the Aborigines as savage barbarians, who in cruel rites burned alive their victims to Demons, and were so void of intellectual powers as to be unfit for slaves! “The eloquent Cicero in one of his epistles to his friend Atticus, recommended him not to obtain his slaves from Britain, because they are so stupid and utterly incapable of being taught, that they are unfit to form a part of the household of Atticus!

Such was the character of our forefathers, the White Aborigines, given by her darker colored conquerors, and invaders of her soil: recorded, lest we should forget our state, and thinking more highly of ourselves than we ought to think, cease to remember when God beheld our nation cast out, polluted in our blood!

But how hath the little one become a thousand, and a small one strong Nation! England! Where are thy frail wicker Coracles of Skin? – All forgotten in the splendid iron Vessel thundering forth her mighty powerful steam! The rude rough ponderous wooden car, slowly creeping on its solid wheels, o’er ruts and rugged ways; all now transformed and swifter than the wind, the locomotive [6] carriage glides smoothly on the even iron way! The stupid vanquished White Aborigine, “Unfit to be a slave, and incapable of being taught! How sits she now? – A Glorious Queen, amongst the nations of the earth, nor plunders humbler Queens to enforce reception for Priests of Blood! The pale faced Haggard, the brutal Savage, who revelled in delight whilst tortured human victims were writhing in the flames, and without female modesty danced naked at the midnight fires! What delights thee now? Promulgating from Pole to Pole “Glory to God in the highest and on Earth Peace, good will toward men,” “Liberty to the Captive,” the Sons of Africa are free! And whilst exulting in her Christian peaceful triumphs over Pagan bloody rights, she diffuses widely heavenly knowledge to the uttermost parts of the Sea! But, O! thou anointed Cherub, set upon the mountain of God, in the midst of the Seas! “Look to the Rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged,” and in these Aborigines, of another color, view thy former savage image. In prostrate, proud, imperial Rome, humbled to the very dust, behold a warning, and avert by Righteousness that Fate!

It may not be improper to state for the information of His Excellency the Governor in this early stage of His Excellency’s administration the various employments which have occupied fourteen years of missionary service in this Colony at Lake Macquarie on behalf of the Aborigines.

During my residence in New South Wales, I have sustained a threefold office arising out of my employment as a Missionary, in which I have endeavoured “to exercise myself to have always a conscience void of offence toward God, and toward men,” whether my own Countrymen, or the Aborigines, whenever duty has called for an interference on my part.

1st. As PROTECTOR, – To which circumstances called me, ever since 1825.

2nd. As INTERPRETER.– In many cases which unhappily occurred at the Supreme Court, when several were transported and others hanged.

3rd. As EVANGELIST.– In making known the Gospel to the Aborigines in their own language, &c.

Under this branch it may be observed, that knowledge is increasing, though slowly and almost imperceptibly, amongst them. The answers given by M’Gill, the Aborigine, to His Honor Judge Burton on the Bench, in an examination on the nature of an Oath, Truth, God, and Divine Punishment, &c. which led to the inquiry if I had baptised him, evince that his thoughts had been employed on the subjects, and that he was not answering as a mere parrot. His general conduct is to be deplored with regard to drunkenness, and his consciousness of it as an evil, led him to acknowledge to a lady that he feared he should go to hell when he died, in consequence of his habitual intemperance. Thus manifesting with many Europeans the necessity of receiving the Gospel in the truth and love thereof, conforming thereto in order that they may become “Temperate in all things,” that they may be enabled “To use this world as not abusing it,” “For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.”

The following subjects have also occupied my attention in the Aboriginal Language: –

1. Specimens of the language Printed. Copies expended.

2. An Australian grammar Printed. Copies expended.

3. The Gospel of Luke In Manuscript.

4. The Gospel of Mark In Manuscript.

5. The Gospel of Matthew to the fifth chapter In Manuscript.

6. Selection of prayers In Manuscript.

7. A selection of reading lessons from the Old Testament In Manuscript.

8. An Australian Spelling Book In Print.

Besides laboring with my hands for and with the natives in various occupations for their benefit, whenever necessity required.

Unexpected occurrences, including sickness and death, have impeded my itinerating operations this year. It is hoped that the ensuing one will afford more favourable opportunities of extending them to Port Stevens, such being the only available means of communication with the Aborigines in these districts.

Many circumstances have arisen in the past twelve months connected with the Aborigines, which have in various modes been brought officially before His Excellency, superceding the necessity of introducing them in this report.

Suffocating the Divine favour on our most gracious Majesty the Queen, and on who are in authority in this and every other part of Her Majesty’s Dominions, and that His Excellency the Governor may be guided and directed by heavenly wisdom so to govern, “That we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all Godliness and Honesty.”

I have the honor to remain,

Sir,

Your most obedient and humble servant,

LANCELOT EDWARD THRELKELD.

Transcribed by

Jeremy Steele

Wednesday 22 November 2017

damara or mara: HAND

Body parts are the best documented category of words for many Aboriginal languages because they were the most immediate and most unambiguous items to enquire about, when investigating a new language without shared vocabulary between the investigator and the informant.

The earliest records of the Sydney language were made at Botany Bay by three members of Captain James Cook’s party in 1770, two of whom noted the word for ‘hand’:

Table 1

Table 1 Cook’s party’s records of ‘hand’

However, some linguists doubt the authenticity of the lists attributed to William Monkhouse, Isaac Smith and Zacchary Hicks, but they seem realistic to your researcher.

Dawes

William Dawes, the most reliable recorder of the Sydney Language, confirmed damara as the word for ‘hand’:

Table 2

Table 2 Dawes’s damara record

More precisely, he noted damara as ‘To wipe the hands’, but at the stage when he did so  he was still a beginner in learning the language.

Collins, King, Blackburn

Other First Fleeters, notably David Collins  and Phillip Gidley King …

Table 3

Table 3 Other First Fleet ‘hand’ records

… recorded much the same damara form. It is tempting to suppose that these additional records were independently arrived at. However, it is likely that often in those early days, when the senior figures in the Settlement were so few in number, and when all knew one another and knew each other’s affairs, word lists were shared around and copies made. Thus, for example, nearly every one of David Blackburn’s 136 words has a precise match in the Dawes notebooks — including the ‘To wipe the hands’ entry in Table 2.

It was much the same with the King entry. King had been on Norfolk Island. He returned to Sydney at the expiration of his leadership there, on 3 April 1790, on the Supply. This was the moment when the Settlement learnt of the wrecking of its greatest asset, the Sirius. King was to leave the colony for England a fortnight later, on 17 April, again on the Supply. Its destination was Batavia, from where King was to make his own way to England. In his short time in Sydney King was able to include in his journal a word list of over 280 entries. Of this he wrote: “I shall now add a vocabulary of the language, which I procured from Mr. Collins and Governor Phillip, both of whom had been very assiduous in procuring words to compose it; …*. And there is an added footnote in the 1793 edition: * This Vocabulary was much enlarged by Captain Hunter.

[Hunter, John. An Historical Journal of the Transactions at Port Jackson and Norfolk Island: Including the Journals of Governors Phillip and King, since the Publication of Phillip’s Voyage: With an Abridged Account of the New Discoveries in the South Seas / by John Hunter.  To Which Is Prefixed a Life of the Author and Illustrated with a Map of the Country by Lieut. Dawes and Other Embellishments. London: Printed for John Stockdale, 1793.]

It is not important whether it was Dawes or Collins who made the first record of damara for ‘hand’. They might  even have both done it virtually simultaneously, given the similarity in the records, from the same interview with an Aboriginal person.

Paine

There is another record, made by freeman Daniel Paine on the voyage to Sydney, from February to September 1795, on the Reliance. This ship was carrying the new governor, John Hunter, and also Bennelong, returning from England. Paine developed a list of about 80 words, obviously from Bennelong, including:

Paine

Paine’s original record

Table 4

Hale, Lang and Mathews

Three entries nearly half a century later are of interest. Whether the first two (Hale) were genuinely made from personal experience by the American linguist Horatio Hale when in Sydney in 1839, or whether he too copied them from earlier lists, it is impossible to say.

The third entry in Table 5 occurs in an 11-page vocabulary in the papers of the Rev. J.D. Lang. This list is undated but might be around 1840. It shows evidence of a professional linguistics background, being set out in columns for English, Chinese and Aboriginal, together with references to Polynesian and Malaysian languages. Perhaps it was also prepared by the linguist, Hale, given that he was in Sydney around this time.

Table 5

Table 5 damara record from around 1840

Much later evidence from around 1900 was provided by the surveyor-linguist R.H. Mathews. This too supports the existence of the damara form:

Table 6

Table 6 Mathews’s dama record of around 1900

Records for mara

There are, however, several Sydney Languages entries of mara for ‘hand’, the earliest of these having been provided, mistakenly, by Dawes:

Table 7

Table 7 Dawes’s mara record

Here Dawes was seeking to ask his young informant, Patyegarang, how her finger was, which she had somehow hurt. He composed his enquiry using words he had heard, but clearly had not properly understood. He thought he was asking about her ‘finger’, and whether it was ‘better’. Her reply clarifies the matter, but still Dawes, at this early stage just learning the language, again got it wrong:

Table 8

Table 8 Response to Dawes’s mara record

Dawes thought he was asking ‘Is your finger better?’ In fact the question was: ‘Does your hand hurt’, which elicited the reply, ‘No, it’s my fingernail (that hurts)’. Dawes erroneously formed the impression that garangan meant ‘worse’. Be that as it may, Dawes recorded the word for ‘hand’ as mara and not damara.

mara: Mahroot, Fulton, Brown, Bowman

Others to record ‘hand’ as mara were: the Aboriginal Mahroot the Elder in 1798; the Rev. Henry Fulton in about 1801; the botanist Robert Brown in 1803; and a record here attributed to James Bowman, in around 1835. All attest to the existence of the mara form of the word.

Table 9

Table 9 Various other mara records

Fulton’s

The Fulton’s ‘murrat’ record for ‘hand’ [row 2 in Table 9]

The Fulton ‘Marrah’ record for ‘hand’. This entry, along will all other vocabulary items, were crossed out of the notebook in which they were written, which was then used as a register of births, deaths and marriages by Fulton in his role as minister of religion.

Bowman’s

The Bowman’s ‘murrat’ record for ‘hand’ [row 4 in Table 9]

damara or mara?

The Sydney records lean more heavily towards damara rather than mara as the form for ‘hand’. However, when other languages around the country are considered, the argument lurches decisively the other way. Of ‘hand’, Dixon* writes: “One form is found right across the non-prefixing languages – mara”, and he specifies the areas in which it occurs as follows:

Dixon

* Dixon, R.M.W. Australian Languages, Cambridge Language Surveys. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 2002—p.106.

In fact this comprehensive list is basically the whole of the continent apart from the north-west corner where the ‘prefixing’ languages are located. Interestingly, Dixon’s list does not include ‘O: SYDNEY SUBGROUP’, in which the Sydney Language is placed.

Digression on demonstratives

da, or something like it, is occasionally seen possibly as a demonstrative, ‘that’. Similarly, di for ‘this’:

Table 10

Table 10 Demonstrative forms: da and di

The records for such da/di forms are not plentiful, and are often open to interpretation. Nevertheless they may be sufficient to indicate the existence of a demonstrative function representing ‘that’/‘this’.

There is another form of the demonstrative as well, based on na, as attested by the following sample records:

Table 11

Table 11 Demonstrative forms: na—in Dharawal, Darkinyung, Gundungurra and Sydney languages

Réné Primavera Lesson’s records

Lesson was a French medical officer, who served on the La Coquille, which visited Sydney in 1824. Several of the records he made, possibly after an interview with the Aboriginal Sydney identity Bungaree, might have included a demonstrative. These were not recognised as such at the time:

Table 12

Table 12 Possible demonstratives in the Lesson examples

• In row 1, ‘Date’ could be either the English ‘that’, or the demonstrative da.

• In row 2, the difficulty Aboriginal speakers had with the consonant /s/ (which does not occur in most Aboriginal languages) is evident. Lesson might have been pointing to a scar, on Bungaree’s head.

In rows 3 and 4, row 4 is the correct transcription, as can be seen from the original record reproduced below.

Lesson’s

Lesson’s original record

It is possible this was a transcription of du buli (rather than dubul, as shown in the table), conceivably intended to be ‘da BELLY’, or ‘that (is my) belly’, for which Lesson then recorded ‘ventre’ (belly) as the translation. An alternative possibility, there is a single record for bul (actually bul bul), which might allow the possibility of ‘belly’ as a meaning:

Table 13

But this is irrelevant: the point is that the record du bul might have included a demonstrative, ‘that’.

• Finally, row 5, might reflect the use of the demonstrative form na (nan).

Possible explanation

Demonstratives beginning da, di and na have been presented in Tables 10 and 11.

Could it be that damara is actually a sentence:

da mara

that hand

That (is my) hand

It is not hard to envisage a situation where a European is asking for vocabulary from an Aboriginal informant, pointing to one part of the body after another. In due course the hand is singled out. ‘da mara’, says the informant: ‘That (is my) hand’.

This does seem plausible, but is it right? The following questions arise:

—Can all the damara situations in Tables 1–6 have arisen from ‘this is my hand’ replies? —Even if there were copying, could all of the damara examples provided here be copies? From 1770 through to Mathews in about 1900?

—And what about other body parts? If Aboriginal informants said ‘this is my hand’ so often, then why not ‘this is my eye / leg / tongue’ etc. Other than for Lesson in Table 11, there seem to be no such instances.

Conclusion

Once again there is no real conclusion. The existence of both damara and mara in the Sydney records is just another of the many mysteries that cannot be resolved now owing to the lack of data. It would certainly be much neater if the word for ‘hand’ were really mara, consistent with so much of the rest of the country. But the numerous damara entries cannot be denied. In short … inconclusive.

JEREMY STEELE

Thursday 30 June 2016

====================

Biyal Biyal Australian National Anthem

Here is a version of the Australian National Anthem devised today:

————————

Australians all let us rejoice,

baraya-ba-nyi Australia-gal

sing will we-all AUSTRALIA-people

For we are young and free;

ngyila gurung garigarang

we-all child glad-because

We’ve golden soil and wealth for toil;

bimal yaragal; ganu burug

earth yellow; replete replete

Our home is girt by sea;

ngura gari-garang-arayi

camp sea-having

Our land abounds in nature’s gifts

ngura badu dali mari-dulu

camp water food plenty

Of beauty rich and rare;

dyara marama guwing

red shine sun

In history’s page, let every stage

barani yagu barabugu

yesterday today tomorrow

Advance Australia Fair.

yan-ma-nyi Australia-gal

go will we-all Australia-people

In joyful strains then let us sing,

budyari baraya-ba-nyi

good sing will we-all

Advance Australia Fair.

yan-ma-nyi Australia-gal

go will we-all Australia-people

Copyright ⓒ Jeremy Macdonald Steele 2016

Tuesday 19 January 2016

This work is copyright. Apart from any use permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced by any process, nor may any other exclusive right be exercised, without the permission of Jeremy Macdonald Steele, 107 Rosemead Road, Hornsby NSW 2077: as of 2016. 

————————

 

Old Mans Valley

Just to the west of Hornsby, a northern suburb of Sydney, is Old Mans Valley. One might reasonably assume that the name was inspired by an old man once living there. It would have had its share of old men, as does anywhere else. In Old Mans Valley an occasional black wallaby is to be seen, and the name might actually relate to kangaroos.

In some Aboriginal languages there is a connection between words for ‘man’ and ‘kangaroo‘ — especially male kangaroos.

The by now fairly well-known word koori signifies Aboriginal people. It comes from the northward of Sydney.

TABLE 1 gari / guri: ‘man’ [Newcastle region, NSW]

From the same area come the following ‘kangaroo’ records:

TABLE 2 gari / guri: ‘kangaroo’ [Newcastle region, NSW]

Sydney word lists also provide corresponding examples for each of ‘man’ and ‘kangaroo’:

TABLE 3 gari / guri: ‘man’  and ‘kangaroo’ [Sydney region]

For the ‘old man’ idea, also from Sydney, are the following, the last three coming from the First Fleet days:

TABLE 4 gawal(gang): ‘older male’  and ‘older male kangaroo’ [Sydney region]

Perhaps the strongest links between words for ‘man’ and ‘kangaroo’ come from south-west Western Australia:

TABLE 5 yunga / yanga: ‘man’ [South-west WA]
TABLE 6 yunga / yanga: ‘kangaroo’ [South-west WA]

The following south-west WA example, in ‘Yongerloeelkerup’ exhibits a doubtful transcription:

TABLE 7 yunga / yanga: ‘kangaroo’ [South-west WA]

The second part of the word might really have been ‘boylgerup’ rather than ‘loeelkerup’ (as shown above), especially as words beginning with ‘l’ [ell] do not occur in most Aboriginal languages.

Finally, there is the WA place name Ongerup. As many Aboriginal languages also do not have words beginning with a vowel, the missing initial consonant might have been /w/, /y/ or /ng/. /y/ is assumed for this example.

TABLE 8 yunga / yanga: ‘kangaroo’ [South-west WA]

The ending -up [-ab], common in south-west WA place names, signifies ‘place of’.

Conclusion

Old Mans Valley in Hornsby might more properly have been named ‘Old-Man-Kangaroo Valley’.

JEREMY STEELE

Monday 16 May 2016

=================

Biyal Biyal Australian National Anthem

Screen Shot 2016-01-20 at 11.52.19 AM Screen Shot 2016-01-20 at 11.52.35 AM

Copyright ⓒ Jeremy Macdonald Steele 2016

Tuesday 19 January 2016

This work is copyright. Apart from any use permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced by any process, nor may any other exclusive right be exercised, without the permission of Jeremy Macdonald Steele, 107 Rosemead Road, Hornsby NSW 2077: as of 2016. 

How did this translation come about?

An Aboriginal singer-songwriter acquaintance sent an email inviting Your Amateur Researcher (YAR) to look at what he had just done. He had produced a draft of a translation of the Australian National Anthem. It was soon apparent that this was more a collection of concepts rather than a grammatical narrative. It prompted a new attempt, one that a speaker such as Mr Bennelong might have understood. A line-by-line consideration of this alternative translation follows, including the sources used for the Sydney language words in it.

Line 1 baraya-ba-nyi Australia-gal

Australians all let us rejoice

baraya-ba-nyi

baraya is ‘to sing’ as can be seen from Fig. 3.

The third row in the table shows it suffixed with a past tense marker, and a bound pronoun: ‘thee’ (normally -nya).

Screen Shot 2016-01-21 at 2.48.46 PMFig. 3 baraya: sing

In the anthem the future tense marker -ba is used, together with the bound pronoun for ‘we-all’.

Australia-gal

There was no known word for Australia so the English word is used. Suffixed to it is -gal, denoting a group of people, as in:

Fig 4Fig. 4 The -gal: the ‘people’ suffix

Line 2 ngyila gurung gurigarang

For we are young and free

ngyila

The nominative or subject pronouns ‘I’ and ‘thou’, and their accusative counterparts ‘me’ and ‘thee’ are well known in both free and bound forms:

Fig 5Fig. 5 Table of some singular pronouns

The archaic ‘thou’ and ‘thee’ usage is adopted to avoid of the ambiguity in modern English between singular and plural ‘you’.

As most of the recorded conversational situations in the early days of the European upheaval were of the you-me type, where one person was talking to another, it seems that most of the other pronouns did not get to be recorded. In particular you plural in both its forms of ‘you-two’ and ‘you-all’ seem totally missing, or are possibly there but never identified as such. Some of the other pronouns in the Sydney Language are uncertain, with lingering doubt between the we/us and the they/them forms. This leads to the matter of ngyila.

Fig 6Fig. 6 The principal ngyila records

Despite Your Amateur Researcher’s own earlier interpretations in the yellow column, it seems that ngyila might have been ‘we’ rather than ‘they’. But let you dear reader, be the arbiter in resolving this dilemma. In Fig. 6 the top and bottom entries are the most clearly stated. Today, YAR favours the first of these, and is taking ngyila to mean ‘we-all’, with the ngyilu form meaning ‘we-all alone’, or ‘just us three’.

Next, in Aboriginal languages, there is the question of duality or plurality, a sophistication lacking in English. All except the first of the translations in the yellow column in the table opt for the dual ‘they-two’. This is largely because of the third entry there, about a man and his wife—hence the idea of just two people rather than more.

The last two examples given, manila and yanila, are related and can be considered together. But whether or not we are dealing with two or more here, is the meaning we or they?

Each of the lines in Fig. 6 represents a situation where something was happening. After the first example, all four situations can be read differently from the English translations provided. So, example by example, instead of the ‘they’ forms we might view the circumstances in terms of ‘we’, thus:

—come on, let’s play, let’s all of us (i.e. we-all) play;

—he says, my wife and I, this is what we do, we-two;

—‘Manila!’, shouts Anganángan (actually ngana-ngana, but that is another matter), we’ve caught one! That is, we-two, or we-all, have caught a fish;

—‘Yanila’, ‘we’re going’, might well have been what was said that Dawes heard. Dawes on seeing the people departing might have confirmed the moment to himself as ‘They’re going’, and hence his translation for the word.

But back to the Anthem. Line 2 begins ngyila: it means ‘we-all’, if you accept this reasoning.

The next two words in the line are not ‘young’ and ‘free’, for which there are no Sydney Languages records (and especially not for the abstract concept ‘free’):

Fig 7Fig. 7 gurung child,  guri-garang glad

‘Child’ can reasonably stand for ‘young’; and if you are free, you might well be ‘happy’, ‘glad’ or ‘not angry’. It is a pity there is nothing to back up Dawes on gurigarang meaning ‘glad’. There are words for ‘anger’ that are faintly similar: gulara, wuru and yura, but that is all. But who is to question Dawes at this stage: he was there; he heard it; he wrote it down.

Line 3: bimal yaragal; ganu burug

We’ve golden soil and wealth for toil

The sources for Line 3 are:

Fig 8Fig. 8 earth yellow; full belly

The words in Fig. 8 have been chosen to represent the concepts ‘We’ve golden soil and wealth for toil’. As ‘wealth’ and ‘toil’ are abstract nouns for which no equivalents were recorded, perhaps it is reasonable to evoke a ‘full belly’ to convey the idea of being satisfied with one’s circumstances. If you should think it odd that quite dissimilar words should be used for ‘replete’, the answer might be that ganu perhaps implied ‘satisfied’ or even ‘vegetable food’; and that burug might be a mis-recording of barang meaning ‘belly’.

Line 4: ngura gari-garang-arayi

Our home is girt by sea

Home: A very useful word is ngura, for ‘place’, ‘country’, ‘camp’, and consequently ‘home’.

Having: The lampooned phrase ‘girt by sea’ can be considered as ‘having sea’, or ‘having sea around’. Concepts of ‘having’, and its contrasting ‘lacking’, are ubiquitous in Australian Aboriginal languages. However, although the First Fleeters and those afterwards must have heard it all the time, the word for ‘having’ was never identified for the Sydney Language. They heard the ‘lacking’ form often enough, -buni, and even realised it was sometimes rendered as -muni. However, in Wiradhuri, across the mountains and in other inland NSW languages, the word for ‘having’ is widely attested, as -arayi. YAR, without authority, is suggesting using this suffix for the ‘having’ function. The following table presents some support for this leap:

Fig 9Fig. 9 -arayi / -iriyi: possibly indicating the proprietive suffix ‘having’

sea-having: Thus sea-having is proposed as ……-arayi. But what is the word for  ‘……’: sea? This is another Sydney Language dilemma. The word for ‘sea’ was not badu, which was used for ‘drinking water’. For ‘ocean’, some Aboriginal informants offered a word, biriwal, which might have meant ‘distant’, or even ‘huge’, both of which ideas may reasonably be associated with oceans. But in Sydney the word that repeatedly cropped up for ‘sea’ was garigarang:

Fig 10Fig. 10 gara…: sea, deep / long / tall

The examples in Fig. 10 are persuasive that garigarang did mean ‘sea’. The fact that the word is uncannily similar to gurigarang ‘glad’ (or ‘not angry’) featured in Line 2  above we will have to accept as a coincidence.

The last two examples in Fig. 10 seem to indicate that the sea was perceived as being ‘deep’, and was linked to drowning:

Fig 11Fig. 11 gura: drown, in deep water

Line 5 ngura badu dali mari-dulu

Our land abounds in nature’s gifts

In the Line 5 translation, ngura ‘camp’ (met in the previous line) is used for ‘our land’; and  badu ‘drinking water’ and duli/dali ‘food’ are offered as equivalent to ‘nature’s gifts’. Likewise mari-dulu ‘plenty’ is suggested as a reasonable translation of  ‘abounds’. These are featured in the following table of sources:

Fig 12Fig. 12 Sources for words occurring in Line 5

Line 6 dyara marama guwing

Of beauty rich and rare

Words recorded by Dawes for a sunset are proposed for the Anthem line about ‘beauty rich and rare’:

Fig 13Fig. 13

Line 7 barani yagu baribugu

In history’s page, let every stage

Needless to say, they are no records for  either ‘history’s page’ of ‘letting every stage’. So what is suggested are the following to indicate a time sequence:

Fig 14Fig. 14 Words for yesterday, today and tomorrow

‘Now’ or ‘today’ were recorded as both yagu and yaguna, with yagu being perhaps the commoner. -na was probably a suffix of unresolved significance.

Line 8 yan-ma-nyi Australia-gal

Advance Australia Fair.

No words are to be found in the records for such a concept as ‘advance Australia fair’, so for the Anthem translation it is proposed to use instead something like: ‘Australians, let’s get going!’ The Australians part, Australia-gal for ‘people of Australia’, was dealt with under Line 1 above.

In Line 2 Fig. 6 above, yan was seen as the verb ‘to go’. When conjugated in the future tense we have:

Fig 15Fig. 15 We will go

First Fleeter David Collins, in this Fig. 15 example, records the ‘we-all’ bound pronoun as -nya. However, the more reliable Dawes obtained it precisely as -nyi.

Line 9 budyari baraya-ba-nyi

In joyful strains then let us sing

Once again, there nothing in the records for ‘joyful strains’, so an alternative idea must be proposed for this line. YAR has offered ‘good/well we-all will sing’, or idiomatically ‘let’s all sing well’. The verb  ‘to sing’ was met in the explanation for Line 1, so the only new word here is ‘good’. There are about 40 recordings of this word, from which collection the following is offered:

Fig 16Fig. 16 budyari: ‘good’

Line 10 yan-ma-nyi Australia-gal

Advance Australia Fair

This last line is a repeat of Line 8.

Now the challenge is to sing the words, to match the rhythm of the English.

Grub for grub

Meeting some Tasmanians

It’s the year 1793, and the place later known as Tasmania. Ten years before the first European settlement to be established. There had been occasional European sightings and visits since 1642, and this was one such, by the French. It was the expedition, under Bruny d’Entrecasteaux, that was looking for the lost explorer La Perouse. They were in Recherche Bay, named after their own ship, on the south-east coast.

Piron 1793 Tasmanians prepare a meal

Fig. 1 Tasmanians in 1793 preparing food, by Piron

This painting by the artist Piron records the second of two encounters with the local people. Two of the French met 42 local inhabitants on the first occasion, and a larger group met 17 or so on the second. As can be seen, the Aboriginals wore no clothes. They led a hunting and gathering life style, which meant that they did not get their food from shops (there were none), or out of tins. And that some of the things that served as food people today might not much like the sound of.

 

Collecting words

The French took the opportunity of these friendly meetings to make lists of words, mostly body parts  and things that could be seen round about. A hundred or so words were collected, and Your Amateur Researcher (YAR) happens to have copies of four of the lists, made by the following crew members:

Willaumez senior, Ensign on the Recherche

Mérite, a volunteer on the Recherche

Riche, naturalist on the Esperance

Piron, artist on the Recherche

This last list was probably Piron’s from the signature, but you can decide:

Screen Shot 2015-12-18 at 12.30.34 PM

 

Fig. 2 Illegible signature: Piron [?]

He is marked with the red arrow is this beginning of the list of the ship’s company. Two of the other list compilers are indicated with blue arrows

Screen Shot 2015-12-18 at 2.22.24 PM

Fig. 3 On the Recherche: from:

Labillardière, Jacques Julien Houton de. Relation du Voyage à la Recherche de La Pérouse: Fait par Ordre de l’Assemblée Constituante pendant pes Années 1791, 1792 et pendant la 1ère. et la 2de. Année de la République Françoise. Tome Premier [Vol. I]. Paris: Chez H.J. Jansen, Imprimeur-Libraire, 1800.

 

Are the words correct?

When we see a word list compiled by someone on the spot, and when we see such remarks as that they checked for the meaning by asking various questions and repeating each word to make sure it was right, we tend to believe the compilers. And believe them we must, for how are we to know any differently? Except today we have computers and databases.

Here are words that look as though they sound in more or less the same way, taken down in 1793 during these encounters:

Screen Shot 2015-12-18 at 3.13.02 PM

Fig. 4 baruwi: ‘insect’ [Mérite]

 

Screen Shot 2015-12-18 at 3.13.14 PM

Fig. 5 baruwi: ‘caterpillar’ [Riche]

 

Screen Shot 2015-12-18 at 3.13.29 PM

Fig. 6 baruwa: ‘eat’ [Riche]

 

Screen Shot 2015-12-18 at 3.13.45 PM

Fig. 7 baruwa: ‘for me’ [Piron?]

In the last column you can see who collected the word. The first two examples (by Mérite and Riche) pretty well agree: baruwi means a caterpillar, or an insect. We might call it a ‘grub’. The last two (by Riche again and probably Piron) are given quite different meanings. What could account for this?

First baruwi might be different from baruwa. However, the records do not offer much immediate support for either ‘eat’ or the pronoun ‘for me’.  So could there be anything else to explain the meanings given?

 

Tasty morsel

Screen Shot 2015-12-18 at 1.18.41 PM

Fig. 8 Offering a choice grub

Perhaps this: a person offers a tasty grub to another to eat. ‘For me?’, the other enquires.

 

Were ‘eat’ and ‘for me” complete misunderstandings of what was going on? This is admittedly sheer speculation. But how else can the wordlists sometimes be comprehended?

Jeremy Steele

Friday 18 December 2015

====================

BIG EYE: SUN

It is something of a thrill for Your Amateur Researcher (YAR) when a little bit of the curtain shrouding the mysteries of the Tasmanian vocabularies is pulled aside. Take as an example of this the following records for ‘sun’ collected by French sailors in Recherche Bay on 11 February 1793, and again on a second visit two days later:

Sun wil

Fig. 1 ‘sun’ according to Willaumez senior, Ensign on the Recherche

————————————————————————————————————————————

Screen Shot 2015-12-17 at 9.45.03 AM

Fig. 2 ‘sun’ according to Fier [illegible signature: possibly Piron, draughtsman on the Recherche, or Pierson, astronomer on the Esperance]

————————————————————————————————————————————

Screen Shot 2015-12-17 at 9.45.23 AM

Fig. 3  a second version of ‘sun’ according to Fier [illegible signature: possibly Piron, draughtsman on the Recherche, or Pierson, astronomer on the Esperance]

————————————————————————————————————————————

Sun Mer

Fig. 4 ‘sun’ according to Mérite, volunteer on the Recherche

————————————————————————————————————————————

Sun Ric

Fig. 5 ‘sun’ according to Riche, naturalist on the Esperance

————————————————————————————————————————————

French ships in Tasmania two centuries ago

What were those French ships doing in Van Diemen’s Land in 1793, so soon after the English settlement in Sydney in 1788? It is quite a story, and it is necessary to backtrack a little.

It is worth bearing in mind that during the period covered here, between 1783 and 1793, for a change England and France were not at war — but who on the other side of the world could really know the current political situation at any moment?

Anyway, this particular Tasmanian sideshow began in 1785 when the French explorer La Pérouse (Jean François de Galaup, comte de Lapérouse), under the sponsorship of the French king, Louis XVI, set off on a voyage of scientific discovery of the Pacific in two ships, the Bussoule and the Astrolabe.

The British First Fleet

They weren’t the only adventurers in those days. The British had finally assembled a convoy of 11 ships, containing mostly convicts and stores, for the purpose of setting up a colony on the other side of the world, in Botany Bay, ‘New Holland’—and to stake a claim to it. The fleet left Spithead, Portsmouth, on 13 May 1787, and after an 8-month voyage arrived safely in Botany Bay between 18 and 20 January the following year. The destination of Botany Bay was because of favourable comments made by by the James Cook expedition in the Endeavour 18 years earlier. High hopes of the suitability of this location  for the settlement, however, were to be dashed practically immediately on actual arrival there. This reality induced Governor Arthur Phillip the very next day, on 21 January, to look for somewhere better, setting out very early in a longboat, rowing northwards towards the inlet that Cook had noted and named Port Jackson. Phillip was to discover a stupendously better place, and on his return on 23 January he at once ordered the ships to get ready to transfer there. Guess what happened the very next day.

The French appear

On 24 January, to the ‘infinite surprise of everybody’, two European ships were seen just outside the heads to Botany Bay. This would have been nearly as remarkable as for Neil Armstrong to spot someone else springing about on the moon in July 1969. Well, a bit like that anyway: Phillip did know about the La Perouse expedition, and what was at once guessed in due course turned out to be the the reality and that these were indeed the La Perouse vessels. Were they hostile?

Transfer to Port Jackson

But the removal of the First Fleet northwards had already begun: Governor Phillip left on the Supply, together with four of the ‘transports’ (ships carrying the people), headed for Port Jackson, Phillip getting there the same day, 24 January.

All day on 25 January the French were thwarted by adverse conditions, but on 26 January finally anchored in Botany Bay. John Hunter, captain of the flagship Sirius, sent 2nd Lieutenant William Dawes, who was proficient in the French language, to make contact with the newcomers. For their part, La Perouse and his crews had expected to find the British settlement already well established and had hoped to replenish supplies from it. Instead he was startled to find they had only just arrived, and bizarrely were in the process of leaving again at the very moment of his own arrival. On the return of Dawes, Hunter in the Sirius, along with the remaining transports and storeships, with much difficulty owing to continuing adverse weather conditions, managed to get out of Botany Bay and reach for Port Jackson — leaving the French in the abandoned Botany Bay on their own.

French turmoil

The French were to stay there about six weeks, leaving on 10 March to return home. But alas it was not to be. They were never to be heard from again. This was to cause consternation in France.

There was other reason for consternation in that country too. The French Revolution began in 1789, the Bastille in Paris being ‘stormed’ on 14 July that year, now the national day. But, the missing La Perouse . . . In 1791, such was the anxiety about La Perouse by then, that a search was mounted for him, under Bruny d’Entecasteaux, in two ships, the Recherche and the Esperance.

Back home in France the Revolution well under way. By September 1792 the monarchy had been overthrown and a republic established. They were heady days: in fact the guillotine had been introduced in April that year. And on 21 January 1793, Louis XVI was executed by this means, in what is now the Place de la Concorde. On his way to the scaffold he stoically enquired: ‘A-t-on des nouvelles de monsieur de Lapérouse ?” (Is there any news of La Perouse?’) Famous last words. It was not until 1826 was it to be discovered that disaster had overtaken the the French ships and crew, in the Solomon Islands.

La Perouse search expedition

Meanwhile d’Entecasteaux and his search party were having their own adventures and difficulties in southern oceans. His first visit to Recherche Bay in Tasmania was in May 1791, followed by a second on 22 January 1793. In the interval he had been to New Caledonia, Indonesia and Cape Leeuwin in south-west WA. He had even passed the Solomon Islands, little knowing he was so close to the wrecked La Perouse ships.

It was on this second visit to the bay named after d’Entecasteaux’s own ship Recherche that the above records were taken.

Tasmanian vocabularies

Two of the records are for panubere and two for panumere. While they may seem to be different in reality they are not greatly. The sounds for the letters ‘m’ and ‘b’ are formed in much the same way, with the lips together and a bit of a puff after. They can often be confused as a consequence. In the case of these two words, for the sake of argument, let’s assume the proper version is panubere, respelt as banubiri.

banubiri is something of a long word, and it is reasonable to assume it might actually be two run together. banu biri perhaps? Possibly. There are quite a few biri words, meaning ‘breast’, ‘foot’, ‘nail’ (as in finger / toe-nail), and even ‘presently’, among other meanings. However, it is another word altogether that seems more likely: nubiri, making the division of banubiri: ba nubiri. Two examples of the second part of the word, nubiri, should suffice to give its meaning:

nubiri

Fig. 6 nubiri: ‘eye’

If the sun might reasonably be perceived as an ‘eye’  in the sky, then what might the preceding ba in the combination ba-nubiri represent? A great many words in Tasmanian languages begin with ba, and virtually any might be a candidate for offering a meaning for the sky–eye combination. One of the more promising of these possibilities is bagana: ‘man’. Could it be a man’s eye in the sky? Maybe . . . at least until the database offered a more attractive alternative:

ba big

Fig. 7: ba: ‘big’

In the source column in Fig. 7 above, the small ‘st’ after ‘Plomley’ refers to Charles Sterling. Of this man the document collector, the Rev. T.H. Braim, wrote in about 1832:

“It is now impossible to remedy the loss which has been sustained by Sterling’s death: he was a young man who had made the aboriginal languages his study, and had reduced them to some sort of order.”

From this accolade it might be assumed that Sterling was correct in claiming ba to mean ‘big’.

When that concept is accepted, new ways emerge for regarding some ‘big thing’ ba… words. Consider the following:

baga 6 examples

Fig. 8: ‘big’ things beginning ba…

Of these only the first, ba-gana, is truly satisfying. As gani / gana is a common word for ‘speak’, ba-gana can be literally translated as ‘big speak’, and so equivalent to ‘call’ or ‘shout’.

The examples in Fig. 8 constitute a very select list. There are many other ba… words that have no likely link to the ‘big’ concept. Nevertheless it is indisputable that ‘sea’, ‘porpoise’ and ‘bullcow’ (one of several invented terms in the Bayala databases) are big entities; as is ‘four’ to those who regard numbers greater than two or three as ‘plenty’. And a ‘man’ might well be big, too, from some points of view.

Jeremy Steele

Thursday 17 December 2015

========================

STARS SHINE

The word marama in the Tasmanian word lists caught the attention again today. The meaning given for it is ‘star’.

DEEP TIME

No-one quite knows when the last person was able to walk from the Australian mainland to Tasmania. Why it was possible at all was because it was the ice age — or more precisely the last ice age. In fact we are still in the remnants of that ice age, because ice is still piled up, sometimes kilometres thick it is said, in Antarctica. If it all melted, they say, sea levels would rise, around 60 metres. Your Amateur Researcher (YAR) really knows nothing of all this, but this much can be reasonably surmised. If many of the land masses on the planet in the last ice age looked like Antarctica today, with ice stacked on them say to a depth of two kilometres, and if the same amount of water existed then as now in one form or another, there would be lots of it on the land, and correspondingly much less in the oceans. Everywhere, not just in the Bass Strait. So often you could get from one place to another without a boat.

But eventually the ice age mostly went away, and water returned to the oceans. The sea levels rose and Tasmania was isolated. Thus the Aboriginals who had lived there for say 40 000 years were separated from the rest — let’s say 10 000 years ago. That’s twice the time from the building of the Pyramids to the present. A huge long time, and all the while with nothing ever written down. Now back to today.

marama

So marama means ‘star’, according to the records:

Screen Shot 2015-12-14 at 11.02.30 AM

Fig. 1 Marama: stars

This appears to be the record that various others have subsequently copied. The author of it was one Jorgen Jorgenson, who produced one of the best lists of Tasmanian words. This actual record is from the papers of T.H. Braim, held by the Mitchell Library (State Library of NSW, reference MLA 614). It is in turn recorded on the Tasmanian Bayala Database as follows:

Screen Shot 2015-12-14 at 2.47.08 PMFig. 2 marama: ‘star’

‘T-W’ (i.e. Tasmania West) in the ‘Source’ column reveals that the word was taken down on the western side of the island.

So what? Well, for those who might wonder whether the Tasmanian languages arose entirely separately from those on the mainland, there is the following evidence, or coincidence, to consider.

SYDNEY

In the Anon notebook, compiled by one or more of the First Fleeters around 1790-91, there is the following entry:

dyara marama guwing

Fig. 3 ‘The sun setting red’

This record also features in the Bayala databases, the one entitled ALLSYD, as follows:

Screen Shot 2015-12-14 at 3.44.28 PM

Fig. 4: dyara marama guwing: red shine sun

The question arises, which actual word means what?

Red

While there are several other records suggesting that dyara means ‘bone’ and ‘distress’, there are also the following where it (or a word like it) indicates ‘redness’:

Screen Shot 2015-12-14 at 2.47.31 PM

Fig. 5: dyara: red

Sun

While YAR could readily provide a comprehensive table to show that guwing means  ‘sun’, the following simplest one will do:

Screen Shot 2015-12-14 at 3.45.51 PM

Fig. 6: guwing: ‘sun’

Shine

So that leaves marama, for which the meaning suggested in the yellow column of (Tasmania) Fig. 2 is ‘star’, and in (Sydney) Fig. 4, ‘shine’. Stars shine, that’s a fact. And it could be just a coincidence that the same word for these ideas is used by different languages far apart in space, and by languages far apart in time (Sydney language: AD 1790; Tasmanian: from pre ice age).

More coincidences

Can it also be a coincidence that the Wiradhuri language [Wira] in central NSW, and Muruwari  [Mrwi] up on the Queensland border, also have words identical or similar to marama for ‘shine’ / ‘star’, as indicated in the table below?

Screen Shot 2015-12-14 at 2.47.56 PM

Fig. 7 Inland examples of ‘shine’, ‘star’

CONCLUSION

While ‘star’ and ‘shine’  are from the point of view of modern speakers of English — and other languages — quite different concepts, Aboriginal people might well have used one word for both ideas. Stars do shine. And when Aboriginal informants were asked what those little lights in the night sky were they might have stated the obvious: ‘Shine’.

Perhaps marama is the only such example of a trace of the mainland in Tasmanian languages. In fact it is not. Other words with mainland links include dark, dive, eat, eye, fear, laugh, path, quick, rise, swim, tongue and others. Some of these might possibly have been recorded from Sydney men who had been involuntary visitors to Van Diemen’s Land in the early days. In some such way, ‘kangaroo’ from far north Queensland was recorded in Recherche Bay in south-east Tasmania in the 1790s. However, it would seem unlikely that all such words can have been imports of this sort, and that some at least must have been residual forms from the ancient Australian language presumed to have been common across much of the land mass in prehistoric times.

Jeremy Steele

Monday 14 December 2015

======================

TRUNKETABELLA

One can only surmise what the euphonious NSW place name Trunketabella might mean.

Trunketabella Creek [internet]

We yearn for a translation such as ‘pretty trinkets’, and for an account of the exchanging of beads and looking glasses with the local people by explorers. It is commonly said that Parramatta means ‘the place where eels lie down’, Berowra the  ‘place of many winds’, and Wahroonga ‘our home’.  Where did these endlessly repeated interpretations come from? The reality is that place names can be hard to translate (What are the meanings of Paris, London, Berlin?), and that in Australia some might have arisen from misunderstandings between whitefella and Aboriginal informant. For example, the reputed name of Sydney Cove, Warang, might have been a comment about one side or of the bay or cove, rather than the informant providing the actual name of it — if it had one, even.

Table 1

Table 1 William Dawes’ records for warang for ‘side’ and ‘Sydney Cove’

Nevertheless it is likely that in many of the definitions provided in booklets suggesting names for houses by McCarthy, Tyrrell, Endacott and others there is an element of authenticity. For example, for Parramatta, bara is recorded as meaning ‘eel’ from around 1875. It is the ‘place where they lie down’ that is suspect.

To make a suggestion as to meaning of a place name means a trail through the records. For Trunketabella, there are several strands to follow.

bila

First, start with the easier final portion. It has nothing to do with the Italian bella meaning ‘beautiful’. Almost certainly it means ‘stream’ in one of its guises: ‘creek’, ‘river’, ‘brook’ and so on.

Trunketabella is in south coast, Yuin, country, a little north of Narooma,

IMG_3331 TRUNKETABELLA

round about the bottom of the right-hand leg of the ‘n’ in ‘Yuin’ in the map below, extracted from the AIATSIS map ‘Aboriginal Australia’.

YUIN coast

The surveyor and language enthusiast R.H. Matthews recorded ‘forest oak’ for bila in the Dhurga language, possibly spoken in the area:

Table 2

Table 2 bila: Forest Oak [Data derived from the Bayala Databases <bayaladatabases.blogspot.com>]

The present writer, Your Amateur Researcher [YAR], has few records for this region. However, among them are two other words collected by Matthews:

Table 3

Table 3 bila: ‘wide’ and ‘smell’

If bila really means ‘stream’, then these two might conceivably have been obtained when a wide stream was being considered, or a smelly one.

In view of YAR’s paucity of appropriate South Coast data, the following bila references are some of many  obtained from the Wiradhuri language, territorially the largest language group in New South Wales:

Table 4

Table 4 bila: ‘stream’ — Wiradhuri

That this word bila might have extended from Wiradhuri country eastwards across the Great Dividing Range, to Trunketabella is not so surprising when the following are also considered, from the south-west corner of W.A. on the other side of the continent:

Table 5

Table 5 bila: ‘stream’ — Nyungar, W.A.

Wiradhuri too provides support for the idea that bila also denoted the tree often found beside streams, the River Oak, comparable to the Dhurga Forest Oak in Table 2 above:

Table 6

Table 6 bila: ‘oak’ — Wiradhuri

These are the trees that grew beside the creek, the same word seemingly being used for both concepts. Interestingly, Wiradhuri bila also forms part of bilabang (billabong):

Table 7

Table 7 bila-bang: stream or stream-like feature — Wiradhuri

The component -bang, in the opinion of YAR, is formed of the stem-forming suffix ba– signifying ‘do’, combined with the nominalising or noun-forming ending –ng, together making bila-bang to mean ‘stream doing’.

When bila as ‘River Oak’ is further considered, perhaps it is no coincidence that bila in certain areas is the word used for a spear—made of wood, of course:

Table 8

Table 8 bila ‘spear’ in Kamilaroi and in the Sydney Language

In summary then, the final portion of Trunketabella appears to denote ‘stream’, or possibly the tree type growing beside it. So what about the Trunketa… portion?

Trunketa–

From the south coast there are numerous possibilities of which the following are a few:

Table 9

Table 9 d@r@ng [where @ denotes any letter] — NSW south coast

Of these, dara is a common word for ‘thigh’ across numerous NSW languages. 

Not quite so widespread are durun/dirin-type words indicating ‘hair’. 

Several Coastal—and Inland languages, too—have words for ‘stream’ beginning dar- or dara-, such as the commonly accepted word for the Hawkesbury River, ‘Deerubbin’, and even the Tarban Creek Bridge immediately northward of the Gladesville Bridge in Sydney. 

06 Tarban Creek Bridge N V [B]

Tarban Creek Bridge

Coastal languages from Sydney southwards have dara- words for ‘stand’, but not northwards, nor Inland.

There are as well quite numerous examples in Coastal and Inland languages of birds beginning d-r-, making the last example, ‘the little night owl’, not altogether out of place in the list.

In short the first part of Trunketabella could indicate any of the ideas in Table 9.

Perhaps the Wiradhuri or other Inland records offer other insights. The following tables present some of the many possibilities from that language area.

Table 10

Table 10 diran-: ‘high’, or ‘red’

From Table 10 it would appear that perhaps diran/dirang might mean ‘high’ or ‘red’. The glosses ‘bank’ and ‘spider’ in the second-last column, derived from the original translation, are almost certainly incorrect.

Table 11

Table 11 durung: ‘snake’

Perhaps durung or similar means ‘snake’ of something long, thin and wriggly.

Table 12

Table 12 d@r@ng: something to do with trees

The Table 12 tree words return us to the realm of the River or Forest Oak concept for bila.

Such d@r@ng-word speculation could readily be extended, but the principal possibilities have probably been canvassed. The examples also ignore the suffixes following the stem not because they are considered irrelevant (far from it), but because of the possible unreliability of their precise recording, and because of YAR’s unfamiliarity with the languages of the region. 

Assuming for a moment that bila should mean ‘stream’, then Trunketa– [darangada ?] might have meant something appropriate to a stream, otherwise why juxtapose the words? Of all the ideas presented above, perhaps the tree concept is the most likely: trees line creeks just about everywhere.  Now wait a moment … the very proposing in this paragraph of darangada as the possible re-spelling for Trunketa– brings to mind some words provided by the Sydney-based botanist George Caley in the early 1800s:

Table 13

Table 13 George Caley’s Dharug tree names collected southwards of Sydney

The first of these tree names, daranGura, looks much like the postulated darangada for Trunketa–. Could it be that the meaning sought is as follows:

Trunketabella

darangura bila

Ironbark creek

And just when that seems settled, this crops up:

LONG DICK Extract

Extract from Mann, John Frederick. c.1842. Australian Aborigines—A few notes on their language etc. Information obtained from Long Dick an influential native of the Cammeray Tribe a son of Bungaree and Queen Gooseberry. Sydney (Mitchell Library).

In the middle of concluding notes to a word-list provided by Long Dick, is a portion marked ‘on the Coast, together with a mention of the very place being looked at in this essay. Appended is a reference to ‘convenient localities’. Perhaps Bodalla, Eurobodalla, Bergalia [?], ‘Trunkabella’ and Ulladulla were all regarded as convenient localities, this phrase not being an actual translation of anything, and thus the gloss for Trunketabella here tentatively arrived being allowable to stand.

Jeremy Steele

Wednesday 2 December 2015

======================

TASMANIAN WHITE FEATHER

22 November 2015

The Tasmanian Bayala database keeps throwing up small insights into the Tasmanian languages, and suggests the launching of a goose chase.

Your Amateur Researcher happened to be checking the word ‘munwaddia’, given as meaning ‘feather’.
Fig. 1 ‘Feather’
When this word is analysed into what are assumed to be its component parts, in this case fixing mun- as the stem, the database automatically throws up other words beginning the same way.
Apart from ‘feather’ beginning mun-, there are ‘flour’ and ‘white’ and ‘parrot’, seen in the second column in Fig. 2:
Fig. 2 Other mun… words
What can flour, white and parrot possibly have in common?
White birds and their feathers, and white flour
Fig. 3 Some white things: cockatoo and bag of flour
Nothing, except that some parrots, and their feathers — as well as flour — are white.
With this discovery you are encouraged to look further into the database to see what else might crop up.
So here are two additional entries beginning mun… that might well be linked to the underlying theme of ‘white’: fog and cloud.
Fig. 4 More white things: ‘fog’ and ‘cloud’
Clouds, and fog, are both white at times.
White skulls
Next, ‘skull’ presents itself. Skulls are white, round, bones:
Fig. 5 Another white thing: ‘skull’ is possible ‘white’
What about the suffixes?
By the way, this all makes you wonder about the suffixes on all these mun- words. And of course about the quality of the records.
For example, could -wadya in Fig. 1 mean something specific? Could -dum in Fig. 2 really indicate ‘heavy’? (Probably not.)
Fig. 5 suggests that perhaps the stem is is actually mu- rather than mun…, with suffixes -naand -gina. There are certainly many examples of both -na and -gina suffixes elsewhere in the database. However, what the significance of these two suffixes is has yet to be determined.
What does braga mean?
The last example (in Fig. 5) prompts an inquiry into the first part of the word for ‘skull’:
Fig. 6 Skull
Above are the completed records for ‘skull’
What could braga / briga mean?
Try asking the database:
Fig. 7 Possibly ‘breast’ and other meanings
Could it be that the link between ‘skull’ and ‘breast’ (if ‘breast’ is actually correct) is something ‘round’, which both might be said to be? Unfortunately there is nothing in the database to support this view. Then what could the connection be?
dragaraga and possibly braga: ‘spear’
More speculation required. It is just possible that braga might be ‘spear’. Spears have points, which would fit some examples in Fig. 7, but skulls do not. Some other spear words have a form not unlike bragadraga and raga.
Fig. 8 draga / raga: ‘spear’
Features of Tasmanian languages
One intriguing feature of Tasmanian languages is that consonant clusters are permitted: such as ‘dr-’ in draga. Another is that sometimes words have prefixes: thus raga, and draga with a prefixing d-, are both ‘spear’. Could it conceivably be that braga- in Fig. 7 is also a version of ‘spear‘ — rather than ‘breast’ as suggested above? But this is approaching the far fetched, and the goose chase has at this stage become wild. (Yet another such feature not pursued here is syllables inserted into the stems of words.)
mun…: ‘white’ after all?
Finallly, having run ourselves into the ground, let us return to mun-, meaning ‘white’, where we began. Now what do we make of the following record?
Fig. 9 mun- here meaning ‘black’ rather than white
Conclusion: inconclusive
This short essay has been a glimpse into the tantalising character of the Tasmanian records. When a glimmer of light seems to offer a clue to interpreting them, the picture soon becomes as confused as ever. Can we draw any conclusions from this latest scamper through them? Probably that mun- has something to do with ‘white’.
Jeremy Steele
Sunday 22 November 2015
====================

mocha early: Salt water in Tasmania

  First visit to SOAS
On Monday 3 April 1995 your Sydney-based amateur researcher into Australian languages called on the  ‘School of African and Oriental Studies [SOAS] in London in a vain quest to look up studies of the Sydney Aboriginal language by First Fleeter William Dawes’. It was known that they held the notebooks compiled by Dawes. A diary entry further records that ‘however, one needed a letter of introduction to gain access, from an authority such as a professor anywhere.  My own business card from the University of Sydney where I was an employee in its administration was not good enough’.
 
Yemmerawannie
Three years later, on another visit to London, another diary entry records a busy day: Monday 5 October 1998: ‘Then to St John the Baptist church, Eltham, to see the register of Yemmerawannie’s burial. This was an old book about 450 x 250 mm, brown leather bound with two large clasps, with entries from the 1600s. Photographed the Yemmerawannie entry.’ Yemmerawannie was one of two Aboriginals taken to London in 1792 by retiring Governor Arthur Phillip. He arrived in 1793, and died there a year later,a ged about 19.
 
Second visit to SOAS
Then that afternoon having caught the train to Charing Cross — the diary continues: ‘Walked to the School of Oriental and African Studies in Bloomsbury, where three years ago had been denied admission. This time, with a letter of introduction obtained from the professor of Classics at Sydney University, got in without trouble [and so to the library and] to the Special Reserve, where after a fright of their not holding the material, they finally found it. The purpose of the journey: to see the word lists of the Sydney Aboriginal language compiled around 1790 by Lt William Dawes, Royal Marine on the First Fleet.
Dawes’s notebooks
The precious packet, a small cardboard envelope-folder containing two pocket notebooks [was produced]. The slightly larger had a coloured cover, affecting waterworn stones. The smaller with a plain cover was a re-binding of two notebooks, one a word list arranged alphabetically, the other a ‘grammar’, all in Dawes’s own elegant handwriting. 
I was not required to handle these with surgical gloves, nor prevented from writing on them. The only security control was signs saying only portable computers and pencils could be used in the room: yet there was no frisking or search for ballpoints or pens. There I was, with Dawes’s actual notebooks, probably the best record anywhere of the Sydney Aboriginal language.
Tasmanian word lists
On beginning to make a few notes, I found in a home-made sleeve in the back of the large notebook some lists on differently sized pieces of paper of words of the Van Dieman’s Land language made by the French in 1792 or 1793. Amazingly, these included in two separate lists the word ‘kanguru’ for ‘kangourou’, (spelt in one case with k and the other with c). This suggested the possibility or probability that the word for ‘kangaroo’, already known not to be from Sydney, is of Tasmanian origin. I had always supposed that it might be from Cooktown, the other place where Cook had had some contact with Aborigines when his ship the Endeavour was repaired there after being damaged on the Great Barrier Reef. When was the word first used by white people? From Cook’s (1770) or Phillip’s (1788) visits?’
Database
A small database was begun of the 200 or so words in the SOAS Tasmanian lists, and that area was allowed to slip from the mind.
Book gift
On your researcher’s completing a master’s research degree on the Sydney language, his Macquarie University supervisor generously made him a present of a book by way of congratulations: a work on Tasmanian languages. That duly was placed on the bookshelves and dismissed from the mind. And so the years passed.
Visiting Tasmania
A tourist visit was made to Tasmania in October 1999, your researcher’s first experience of the island. A briefer visit was made in the present year, 2015, when various modest enquiries were made about languages on visiting various museums. 
Vocabularies
A volunteer in one was kind enough to go home and fetch a book she had on the subject, and on being shown it your researcher thought it looked familiar. On returning home a few days lated he found it was the very work presented to him in 2005-06. This is a collection of all the known 40 or so vocabularies:
Plomley, Norman James Brian. 1976. A word-list of the Tasmanian Aboriginal languages. Launceston: N.J.B. Plomley in association with the Government of Tasmania.
 
This is a work of 478 pages, in which all the records are presented in the manner of a dictionary, English word alphabetically by English word, with all the Tasmanian records listed below for each, with all the diverse spellings of them, together with information of the recorder and informant, and the area (where known in Tasmania) where it was collected.
Noted scholar of Australian languages R.W.W. Dixon wrote in:
Dixon, R.M.W. 1980. The Languages of Australia. Edited by W. S. Allen and et al., Cambridge Language Surveys. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.:
  • “A handful of word lists were taken down by early settlers but these are of extremely poor quality; they were compiled by people who for the most part had little respect for the Tasmanians or their languages, and no clear idea of how to represent the sounds they heard. Within the last few decades a new manuscript vocabulary has come to light, compiled by George Augustus Robinson, a self-styled missionary who rounded up the survivors of Tasmanian tribes between 1829 and 1834 and transported them to offshore islands, effectively there to die off. Robinson took down a considerable quantity of  vocabulary, some of it from parts of the island that had not been represented in previous lists; but the standard of his transcription was even worse than the rest.”

 

Processing the records
Your researcher considered that it was time to look at the Tasmanian language records, especially given that he appeared to have virtually all of them in a book in his own study. By a process of scanning, optical character recognition and other manipulation, he added all the records to his tiny Tasmanian database, thereby enlarging it from 200 records to 10500. But this is just the beginning. The next step is to respell all the records consistently, and to provide consistent translations. These processes will reveal points of interest and enable searches to be made. 

 

Various scholars have already concluded that there were probably several languages on the island, and here is a map by one of them, Claire Bowern, in 2012. She has identified five languages. A sixth area coloured grey on the map was largely uninhabited, and hence had no language recorded for it.
 
First example of what the database can reveal
After the foregoing introduction, a small point is to be made for this blog entry.
There is a record :
mocha early: salt water
It is by:
Braim in History of New South Wales (1846); (bmm) manuscript vocabulary, Braim papers, Mitchell Library.
The database is already able to provide the following analysis.
 
mocha early” is nothing to do with being ‘early’. Rather mocha is a word for ‘water’. 
And “early” is nothing more than a misreading of the original handwriting of “carty”, as porvided in: 
Vocabulary of Jorgen Jorgenson: (jj) words collected by Jorgen
“carty”, respelt as /gadi/ turns out to be a word for ‘bad’.
Consequently “mocha carty” or /mudya gadi/ is ‘water bad’, or ‘bad water’.
‘Bad water’ is one of the ways the Tasmanians spoke of ‘salt water’, or the ‘sea’. It was, after all, not drinkable.
This then shows that the translation of “mocha carty” in the 5th line of the table above contains an error in the translation. It does not mean ‘water bag’ but rather ‘water bad’.
 
This analysis already confirms what Dixon stated: the Tasmanian records are ‘of extremely poor quality’.
 
 

 

JMS Monday 25 May 2015

TASMANIA: Having a look at suffixes

Affixes: prefixes, infixes, suffixes — the lot
Joseph Milligan, who provided more extensive vocabularies than anyone else, famously stated about the Tasmanian languages:
“The affixes, which signify nothing, are la, lah, le, leh, leah, na, ne, nah, ba, be, beah, bo, ma, me, meah, pa, poo, ra, re, ta, te, ak, ek, ik, etc.”
 
He further declared: “The distinctly different pronunciation of a word by the same person on different occasions is very perplexing, until the radical or essential part of the word, apart from prefixes and suffixes, is caught hold of.”
 
Today we can only take his word on the matter of pronunciation. And he is right about there being prefixes and suffixes. But it is a pity that when he had the chance to enquire as to the specific meaning of the suffixes he did not do so, instead dismissing them as meaningless. You might equally say of English that its prepositions are meaningless. In Aboriginal languages, the suffixes are what make them all work.
 
Pronouns and cases
Milligan was not alone in giving no explanation of the suffixes. Hardly any of the multitude of them are identified by any of the recorders. One word often appearing as a suffix, mina: 1sg — ‘I’ and ‘me‘ — is identified; as equally is nina 2sg ‘thou’, ‘thee’ (you). But what about ‘we’, ‘you’ (plural), and ‘they’? And did the pronouns have ‘you-two’ and ‘you-all’ forms in common with other Aboriginal languages? And likewise ‘we-two’ and ‘we-all’ (as well as inclusive and exclusive versions of these), and ‘they-two’ and ‘they-all’? There is virtually no trace of these vital words in any of the lists.
 
Similarly, what about the case endings of nouns? There is no information, or practically none,  about nominative (subject) and accusative (object) functions. Nor about the possessive (of), the dative — whether ‘to’, ‘towards’ or ‘for’ (known as allative and purposive by some specialists), nor the ablative (‘by’: causitive; ‘from’: elative; ‘with’: comitative; and ‘at’, ‘in’, ‘on’: locative). Nor instrumental ‘with’, ‘using’ (as ‘I hit the nail with a hammer’). These are all common in Aboriginal languages, and may well have been present in the list of suffixes ‘signifying nothing’ to Milligan.
 
Tasmanian languages
So it is that your amateur researcher (YAR) is currently investigating the vocabularies of the several languages of Tasmania, in an attempt to establish that Milligan’s list really did mean something after all. The Tasmanian languages are shown in the following illustration: 
 
Map by Claire Bowern
 
in counter-clockwise sequence from where they were first encountered in the south:
South-East
Oyster Bay
North-East
North
West
together with possibly South; and perhaps others.
 
While large numbers of suffixes have been determined from the records, many may not have been accurately fixed. For as Milligan cautioned, it is necessary to catch hold of the STEM of a word, and separate it from any SUFFIX present. But the question remains: where does a particular stem end and a suffix start? Very often it is not easy to tell …
karnamoonalané conversation (a great talking)
mar.pe.gen.ne.mar.tun.ni I think
mur.man.a.wee.bob.ar.ree fighting
Try it yourself.
 
 
Proprietive: ‘having’
The main purpose of the present essay is to propose the identification of one suffix, which might even be a combination of two.
 
Aboriginal languages probably universally have a pair of contrasting suffixes for the concepts ‘having’ and ‘lacking’, sometimes termed proprietive, and abessive or privative, respectively.
 
One particular suffix had been noted in the Tasmanian database, which is combined with a variety of words without any apparent connection with one another. Here it is:
-wadina:
 
 
 
Fig. 1 -wadina records
The suffix concerned: -wadina. The last, purple, column reveals the source of the records, and the language where known. Many records include no such territorial information, but where it occurs in the examples above it is NE in all instances — except one for neighbouring Oyster Bay. This would suggest that the corresponding suffix for other languages might be something different.
 
The proposed meaning for the -wadina suffix is the proprietive ‘having’. The first two examples suggested it might mean ‘red’, as part of the term ‘ochre red’ but on further reflection this explanation seemed unlikely. 
And such is the impoverished quality of the Tasmanian records generally that in almost every case in the table when YAR attempted to establish a precise meaning he was unable to find anything worth reporting to back up the suggestion that the linking concept for -wadina might be ‘having’.
 
Body parts?
It might be briefly noted that some of the entries are for body parts; but as many are not, that does not appear to be a feasible interpretation of -wadina either. 
Note also that ‘spit’ in the centre of the table might actually be a mis-transcription of ‘shut’. 
And the record for ‘child’ might in reality mean ‘woman-having’, this being confirmed in part by Fig. 5 (luwa: ‘woman’) as well as by multitudinous other examples in the database. But ‘woman-having’ would be a more appropriate term for a ‘husband’ (one who has a woman) than for a child — unless ‘child’ were to be viewed as ‘mother-having’. 
 
Many meanings of luwina
A rare record occurs in the database where luwi actually means ‘child’ rather than ‘woman’:
 
Fig. 2 luwi-na: ‘child’
 
Note, however, that the word luwi- (with diverse suffixes) also happens to mean a variety of other things, among which are ‘blue wren’, ‘cold’ (weather), ‘cut’ (wood with axe), ‘gun’, ‘hip bone’, ‘itch’, ‘moon’, ‘navel’, ‘night’, ‘one’, ‘plenty’, ‘rub’, ‘sister’, ‘sky’, ‘snake’, ‘stone’, ‘sun’, ‘three’, tree’ and ‘tuber’. This might seem an oddly diverse collection, but sometimes some possible links can be dimly perceived. Thus the group [cold / night / moon / sun / plenty] might all be to do with looking at the heavens, at night, when it might be cold, and when there are myriads of celestial objects to look at: the European recorder catching the words at the time might well have jumped to incorrect conclusions as to meanings. Even [cut / gun / itch] might conceivably be linked through ‘weapon’, old muskets when discharged with shot perhaps causing ‘itch’ rather than severe wounding. And so on.
 
baga: child
Consider then three other examples:
Fig. 3 Child-having
 
In Fig. 3 it is assumed that baga and biga are different renderings of the same word, ‘child’.
There are many records for ‘testicles’ (apologies here for any indelicacy in mentioning this word and subject) in the Tasmanian Bayala database. Most are similar to the following, which was collected in 1793 by the officers of the French frigates La Recherche and l’Espérance, at Recherche Bay in the south-east of the island.
 
Fig. 4 Ball
 
mada indicates circularity, roundness, or ‘ball’.
 
But two of the examples in Fig. 3 have a different (i.e. non-mada) concept for ‘testicle’. The third example has (at first sight improbably) the identical form to the second, but an entirely different meaning: not ‘testicle’ but ‘mother’.
 
Perhaps from Fig. 3 it might be inferred that the Tasmanians had real understanding of the procreative process, for how else might the different attributed meanings be reconciled?
 
The next table merely provides some common words for ‘child’ and ‘woman’.
 
Fig. 5 ‘child’ and ‘woman’
 
Conclusion
YAR is not particularly happy with the identification of -wadina as meaning ‘having’, but puts it forward in the hope that some reader might be prompted to offer a more plausible interpretation.
 
The intention is to provide, in due course, suggestions as to what other suffixes might mean.
 
 
 
JEREMY STEELE
Tuesday 20 October 2015

 

====================

Tasmanian: rana: ‘bone’

Working on the Tasmanian vocabuaries
Here is a typical fragment of Tasmanian vocabulary:
Fig. 1 Extract from the Joseph Milligan list held by the Mitchell Library <http://www.acmssearch.sl.nsw.gov.au/search/itemDetailPaged.cgi?itemID=430548>
It is by Joseph Milligan, in 1857.
It features long words. Here is part of what Your Amateur Researcher (YAR) has made of this particular fragment:
Fig. 2 Extract from the Tasmanian database, in the Bayala series of Australian language databases developed by YAR
In the above database extract the green numbers on the left are where the words occur in N.J.B. Plomely’s book, by page and line number:
Plomley, Norman James Brian. 1976. A word-list of the Tasmanian Aboriginal languages. Launceston: N.J.B. Plomley in association with the Government of Tasmania.
As reading the above fragment is to too difficult, here is a detail:
Fig. 3 ‘brother/, ‘brow’
And here is another, from near the end of the list:
Fig. 4 ‘chin’, ‘chine’
Just to explain what is going on, the grey columns feature the original records: the Tasmanian words in the bold-type column, and their translations in the other grey column.
The brown columns are respellings in a standard way of the original Tasmanian words.
If a particular word has been analysed into components, the full word is placed in the paler of the two brown columns.
The yellow column is YAR’s own estimation of what any entry actually means.
As for the blue and red middle columns, they are where the analysed sub-components are placed. Such placing is admittedly somewhat arbitrary, although not entirely. It should be added too that the dividing of words into constituent elements owes much to guesswork at this stage. As more knowledge is acquired, the guesswork becomes less wild.
As of the time of writing, this database has over 15000 entries.
A small discovery: rana
What a database does is to enable comparisons to be made among the records. It is the main advantage a present-day researcher has over the original recorders. They had access to the language speakers, but they did not have computers.
What interests YAR in this particular fragment of records is the suffix -rana, in the bright red central column, or as a separate word in the dark brown column. The words ‘brother’, brow’ and ‘chine (backbone) feature rana as a word or suffix, as shown in the two detailed extracts.
As is the case in so many Tasmanian words, something like rana crops up quite often. mina is another instance of a word or part-word with frequent occurrences. It would of course just be too simple to identify what such an item means in one instance, and assume it meant that for all. Too simple indeed. But it does appear that with ‘brow’ and ‘chine’ we have a common meaning: ‘bone’. What the rana in brother (and various other instances) signifies has yet to be determined.
rana: bone suffix
The following table presents evidence of where -rana might indicate ‘bone’. You will notice that the word ‘bone’ actually forms part of the original (grey) translations in some instances while in others it does not. For example, in the first entry, bada is one of the Tasmanian words for ‘head’, giving bada-rana ‘head bone’ rather than ‘skull’:
Fig. 5 Words featuring -rana ‘bone’
Fig. 6 bada: ‘head’
rana as a word
rana does not occur only as a suffix. The following table presents several instances of when rana features as an independent word. The table also offers an insight into the mindset of the original Tasmanians. For rana was not just bone as we know it, but something hard, bone-like. In fact only the first of the examples is specifically for ‘bone’. But a waddy (club), fingernail, and shell are all hard (bone-like) things.
Fig. 7 rana: bone
More than one Tasmanian language: chin
Should you be wondering about  gumi and waba both meaning ‘chin’ in Fig. 4, this is because the words come from difference languages within Tasmania:
WABA: south-east
Fig. 8 South-east: waba chin
GAMU: north-east
Fig. 8 North-east: gumi chin
YAR still has a very long way to go in making sense of the Tasmanian lists.
Jeremy Steele
Sunday 30 August 2015

 

==================

Mistakes in the word lists

Europeans encountered Aboriginal people from before the upheaval that began in 1788. Lists of words were obtained in Botany bay in 1770, and then at Cooktown. The scene below is representative of such occasions.
‘The first settlers discover Buckley’ by Frederick William Woodhouse, 1861 [State Library of Victoria]. This work is out of copyright.
However, in the moment depicted here, it is unlikely that any word lists were made. The occasion was when the escaped convict William Buckley (1780-1857), who had lived for years among Aboriginals at the south-west of Port Phillip Bay in Victoria, arrived at John Batman’s camp in July 1835.
But now and again vocabulary items were sought when Europeans found themselves in company with the original inhabitants. So you can imagine a scene somewhere in Tasmania where a white man (let’s call him Riyana) was with an Aboriginal (say, Balawa). They had no shared language, but Riyana was keen to learn some words, and was taking notes. Time and again in such settings the questions would begin with words for what it is seemingly easiest to ascertain: the names for parts of the body. So Mr Riyana might point to his own hand with an enquiring look, and be given a word for it. He would then write the word down, with ‘hand’ alongside. But any words given at such a moment might in reality include ‘my hand’, ‘that’s my hand’, ‘finger’, palm of the hand’, thumb’, ‘fist’, even ‘forearm’, ‘wrist’ and so on. Mr Riyana cannot recognise these subtleties, and so just writes ‘hand’ for whatever Balawa has told him.
Let us continue the speculation. Just below where they are sitting there is a creek. Now Mr Riyana points towards the creek enquiringly once again. Dutifully he writes down the response, with ‘creek’ beside his entry. Only later — perhaps much later by someone with a database — it is revealed that Balawa’s word was not ‘creek’ but ‘frog’, he having mistaken the croaking going on in the creek for what Riyana was asking about. Next Riyana points to a distant hill and asks its name. Balawa sees the stretched out pointing arm, with Riyana apparently holding out his finger for consideration, having no idea that for the moment they have stopped talking about body parts. Balawa, seeing the white finger displayed, asserts: “That’s your ‘finger’”. Riyana dutifully records the name of the hill as ‘Finger’, which of course it is not.
The opportunities for getting the wrong end of the stick are numerous, and accordingly the stated meanings in word lists should be regarded with caution.
Imagine Riyana now points at Balawa’s nose, his finger close but not actually touching.
In the Tasmanian records are the following, probably from situations much as described:
Fig. 1 The main entries for ‘nose’
In the records there are several similar entries for each row in the table. Those appearing in Fig. 1 are just one from each group.
Below are additional ‘nose’ records but with perhaps only a single instance of each:
Fig. 2: Lesser entries for ‘nose’
Accordingly these might be taken as less certain.
It is, however, the first group, Fig. 1, that is of especial interest, and in particular the last three, nos 6-8, the mina collection.
Personal
Let us digress briefly. Obtaining the names of body parts in this way is a somewhat personal business. The most personal item of all in a language is the first person singular pronoun, ‘I’ (1sgNOM), and ‘me’ (1sgACC). These in some of the Tasmanian languages are both mina. There appears to have been no distinction in the nominative and accusative usages.
Fig. 3 ‘I’, ‘we’: the first person singular nominative and accusative pronoun in some Tasmanian languages
Is is chance alone that has the same word mina occurring in words for ‘nose’, and for ‘I’, and ‘me’? Perhaps not. For when Riyana pointed to Balawa’s nose, Balawa might well have thought Riyana was pointing directly at him, not specifically at his nose, so giving the response ‘me’, and not ‘nose’. [See Fig.1, Row 6]
In the next two rows, Balawa might have replied, ‘my nose’ (mina riwari, or mina wari). Indeed there are traces of the word for ‘nose’ riwari and wari in Rows 1, 4 and 5 (drawaridiya, muniwara, rawariga).
It is tempting to consider the same mistake occurring in words for tongue, in Fig. 4:
Fig. 4 Words for ‘tongue’, the number of records for each being shown in the last column
However, while mina does occur for ‘tongue’, there are only four records for it. There are far more (15) for the nearly similar word mini, and quite a few (7) for a somewhat less similar collection beginning m-m... So ‘nose’ probably really was mini, with mina as a variant, or a mis-recording, of mini. The mini–mina similarity was probably just a coincidence.
Further confusion
Tantalisingly, mina seems to have had a role as a suffix, for both nouns and verbs. Two tables follow, one for each of these parts of speech. Admittedly, in some of the examples mina could be interpreted as the 1sg pronoun, but how are we now to know?
NOUNS
Fig. 5: Nouns suffixed with mina. These can’t all have meant ‘my’, could they?
VERBS
“punna meena”
bana mina =
“burn (hurt by fire)”
smoke xxx :
Plomley mj [A610:177:19] [OyB]
“pẽn’ãghĕrĕrmẽnĕr”
binagara mina =
“vomit”
vomit :
Plomley sn [:387:9] []
“plõogămĩnnĕr”
blugamina =
“whistle”
whistle :
Plomley sn [:467:39] []
“tagarramena”
dagara-mina =
“weep”
cry :
Plomley mj [:194:1] [OyB]
“tyackaree – meena”
diyagari-mina =
“spit”
spit :
Plomley mj [:406:10] [OyB]
“kamena meena”
gami-na-mina =
“spit”
spit :
Plomley mj [:405:37] [T-se]
“leghromena”
ligrumina =
“sweat”
sweat :
Plomley mj [:420:15] [T-se]
“mãrnĕrmĩnnĕr”
mana-mina =
“spit”
spit :
Plomley sn [:405:40] []
“mone.meen.er”
munmina =
“to black with charcoal”
blacken :
Plomley gar [:165:35] [OyB]
“wore.ter.moe.nim.men.ner”
wadamunimina =
“sleep”
sleep :
Plomley gar [:396:4] [T-NE]
Fig. 6 Verbs suffixed with mina. These , too, can’t all have meant ‘my’, could they?
Examples of confusion
The following tables show instances of apparent misunderstanding between the European word collector and his informant. (‘His’? Alas, in Your Amateur Researcher’s records the major collectors were all men, apart from Mary Everitt for Gundungarra.)
Frog and stream
Fig. 7 ‘frog’ and ‘stream’ confusion
Finger
The ‘finger’ story really happened, at least once:
Fig. 8: birili: Sydney language word for ‘finger’
Fig. 9: Map showing Berrilee, 30 or so kilometres from Sydney, off the highway to Newcastle.
Final word
In 1824 the French medical officer and explorer R.P. Lesson had an encounter with the wife of the noted Sydney Aboriginal man Bungaree. Her English name was Gooseberry. Whether she was making fun of the hapless Frenchman we know not, but here are three of his records of interview.
Fig. 10 Records from an interview between R.P. Lesson and Gooseberry, in 1824, somewhere to the northward of Sydney
When Lesson pointed at her eye, Gooseberry said ‘Gooseberry’, that is to say ‘me’. Just as described above for ‘nose’.
When he pointed to her lip, she said ‘kiss’, clearly knowing some English.
And Lesson recorded nandara for ‘teeth’, but what Gooseberry actually said was two words: ‘that tooth’ (that is a tooth).
JEREMY STEELE

 

Wednesday 19 August 2015

Tasmanian HAIR

Hair? In Aboriginal languages there are often different words for it. Hair on the head, beard, and the not politely mentioned pubic hair. And the Tasmanians just the same.
 
A search in the Tasmanian Bayala database brings up 97 responses to ‘hair’, although numerous of them are duplicates either occurring more than once in the Plomley records …
 
Plomley, Norman James Brian. 1976. A word-list of the Tasmanian Aboriginal languages. Launceston: N.J.B. Plomley in association with the Government of Tasmania.
 
… or because the same word was collected more than once, by different recorders.
 
One of the most common of these ‘hair’ words, accounting, in various forms, for almost 20 of the entries is the following:
 
Fig. 1 gidana: ‘hair’ words
 
 
Tasmanian long words
The last in this group appears to be two words. Or was it just another of the notoriously long Tasmanian word such as:
 
Fig. 2 lagumabana: ‘hair‘ — a typically long Tasmanian word
 
In the opinion of Your Amateur Researcher (YAR) there were no more long words in Tasmanian than in Aboriginal languages generally. That is, words were usually of two or perhaps three syllables. Consequently any word that smacked of being a long one was probably two or more words run together, or conceivably a single word with a combination of suffixes appended. Unfortunately the suffixes were never identified in the records. Joseph Milligan, one of the most extensive recorders, dismissed them as follows:
 
The distinctly different pronunciation of a word by the same person on different occasions is very perplexing, until the radical or essential part of the word, apart from prefixes and suffixes, is caught hold of. The affixes, which signify nothing, are la, lah, le, leh, leah, na, ne, nah, ba, be, beah, bo, ma, me, meah, pa, poo, Ta, re, ta, te, ak, ek, ik, etc. [Plomley, p.30]
 
‘Signify nothing’, indeed. The suffixes are, like prepositions in English, the gears that make the whole language machine operate.
 
More ‘hair’ words from different parts of the island
Here are some other groups of records for ‘hair’, with the number of instances given in the final (green) column:
 
Fig. 3 Other groups of words for ‘hair’
 
There are a few more examples still for ‘hair’, not included in the Fig. 3 table.
 
The purple column shows the region, and hence the language, the words come from: West, Oyster Bay (central east), South-East, North-East.
 
As mentioned, sometimes the original records show more than one word, other times a ‘long’ word. A separation of the word into its component parts has been attempted in the brown ‘respelt’ column in Fig. 3, and elsewhere. This is often just a guess.
 
Beard
There is something missing in this analysis so far: ‘beard’. Here are some typical records
 
Fig. 4 ‘Beard’ examples
 
What do the first two examples actually mean? And are the others really ‘beard’ or ‘chin’?
 
Undisclosed words for ‘hair’
The first two examples in Fig. 4 are two-word items. The next four of the examples give a clue as to the meaning of the first word in each: either ‘chin’ or ‘beard’. In the opinion of YAR, the real meaning of this word is ‘chin’. So what about the second word in each of the first two examples?
 
Fig. 5 ‘Hair’
 
Neither wagili nor burina / barana are listed in the ‘hair’ words in the records, but we can deduce from Fig. 5 that they actually mean ‘hair’. In fact anything thin, wavy and growing seems to have been regarded in much the same way:
 
Fig. 5 ‘reed‘ — hair-like
 
Armpit
Having gone this far, we might as well try to crack one more puzzle, ‘armpit’:
 
Fig. 6 ‘armpit’
 
 
The first two examples in Fig. 6 are double barrelled once again. Surely at this stage we safely infer that burina, the second component, means ‘hair’. And the third item in Fig. 6, gada, is revealed as meaning ‘armpit’. So gadi burina would appear to mean not ‘armpit’ but ‘armpit hair’.
 
Final puzzle solved
Likewise the first two items in Fig. 4, reproduced below:
 
Fig. 7 ‘chin hair
 
do not mean ‘beard’ but rather ‘chin hair’.
 
Jeremy Steele
Sunday 9 August 2015

 

====================

RECLINE OR FIB

For those of us who actually speak English we often fail to see what the difficulties in it are. English seems the simplest of languages: no complicated endings for verbs — as in French and others; no nonsense with genders. Spelling can be a bit tricky, until you get the hang of it.
 
But every now and then a problem comes up, such as with the word ‘lie’ in vocabularies. What problem? Well, does it mean ‘lie down’, or ‘tell a lie’?
 
In the Tasmania vocabularies ‘lie’ crops up quite often. Here is an example:
 
Fig. 1 ‘lies down’ or ‘tell lies’?
 
“in.er.kie.the.came.cow.wer.min.came” is quite a mouthful for the simple word ‘lie’. And yinagiDigamgawaminGam is almost certainly wrong respelling of it. In reality it is probably several words, but how to split them up correctly? —
 
yinagi Digamga waminGam perhaps? 
 
Probably not. And unless you can find meanings for the constituent portions you are just guessing.
 
Let us look at some other examples of ‘lie’, which might give some ideas.
Three tables are presented for the ‘lie’ examples.
 
Lie down
Fig. 2 ‘lie down’: this meaning is made plain by the given translation in the central grey column
 
Tell lies
Fig. 3 ‘tell lies’, or ‘fib’: this meaning is made plain by the given translation
 
Mystery
 
Fig. 4 Meaning of ‘lie’ uncertain.
 
The examples in Fig. 4 reveal Your Amateur Researcher’s initial guess as to the meaning intended. ‘Fib’ in all cases except the first, gadina.
 
Items 2-3: lini group (Fig. 4)
In Fig. 4, item 3 linugi nuwili means ‘xxx bad’. The translation ‘bad’ comes from the ‘bad’ examples below”:
 
Fig. 5 nuwili: ‘bad’
 
What might the first word linugi mean if not ‘fib’?
 

Perhaps lini means ‘shame’? Here are some apposite examples:

 
Fig. 6 lini: ‘shame’
 

From this enquiry, linugi nuwili might actually mean ‘shame bad’, which in turn might reasonably be interpreted as ‘lie’, or ‘fib’.

 
Items 4-6: danga and manin group (Fig. 4)
A search of the database for matches to the words danga and manin produced results that suggested this group of words was to do with ‘lying down’ rather than ‘mendacity’.
 
Fig. 7 danga and manin
 
The first two, danga, meaning ‘fall’ and ‘stupid’ suggest being prostrate more than verbal cleverness. You might end up prostrate if you fell or were stupid.
 
Likewise the next eight items featuring minin or similar are about what might cause someone to be horizontal: death, fighting, injury or sleep.
 
Realise, dear sole reader, that these are not the only examples that could have been selected for these d-nga and m-n-n letter sequences. They are, however, the ones that tilt either in the direction of ‘telling lies’ or ‘lying down’.
 
Items 7-9: The last three mysteries (of  Fig. 4)
Fig. 8 Remaining mysteries
 
Of the last three items, the first is clearly a variant of “towlangany” (Fig. 3, item 3), there stated to mean “tell lies”; while the last remains puzzling after superficial investigation. Only wangini yields new information:
 
Fig. 9 Wangi: Could be either ‘fib’ or ‘prostrate’
 
Unfortunately, this new information is inconclusive. As can be seen from Fig. 9 above, wangi can mean either ‘speak’ (suggesting ‘fib’) or ‘sit’ (lie) — and even ‘kill’, the result of which would be to lie down.
 
gadina :  item 1, Fig. 4
And so to the the final item among the mysteries of Fig. 4 above.
Fig. 10 gadina: ‘to lie’
 

The following examples for gadina from the Bayala Tasmanian database throw light on some possibilities of meaning for this word:

 
Fig. 11 The gadina records
 
 
The purple source column reveals the providers of these records: jj, cr, lh and gar (respectively Jorgen Jorgenson, Charles Robinson, Alexander McGeary [published by John Lhotsky], and George Augustus Robinson, father of Charles Robinson).
 
Only in the case of the last record do we know who the informant was: Pair.he.le.hoin (which might be transcribed Bariliyun). However, there must have been an informant for each of the records, each in turn representing a moment or circumstance when the word was elicited. In our minds we can conjure up scenes of cows, crows and pigs, and sleeping. In looking at this collection of nine records, together with the original one (reproduced in Fig. 10), we might wonder at the range of meanings a single word might have. Yet on further reflection one might also wonder whether all might actually have a common meaning, the one stated in the first (Fig. 10), i.e. ‘lie’. 
 
Cows and pigs are notorious for lying down. When asked about the animal concerned, the informant might have not stated its name as fauna (especially given that neither cows nor pigs were native animals), but responded instead with the word for what it was doing: lying down.
 
In the case of ‘crow’, this could have been either a crow perched (lying?) on a twig; or perhaps a mis-transcription of ‘cow’ as ‘crow’.
 
The final three records are for ‘sleep’. What one does when asleep is ‘lie down’.
Fig. 12 A demonstration of ‘lie’ meaning ‘lie down’
 
In each case, then, the informant might have been referring to the action or state of the protagonist (lying down) rather than what sort of entity the protagonist was (cow, crow?, pig).
 
Conclusion
‘Lie’ can have two quite different meanings. In order to avoid perpetuating such confusion the Bayala databases occasionally coin new words, or define what a word means in the databases. So the following are used, for example:
lie = lie down, sleep, rest
fib = tell untruth, lie
bullcow = singular of ‘cattle’
 
Jeremy Steele

 

Monday 27 July 2015

TEA-LEAVES AT DAWN

Trying to make sense of the Tasmanian language records is difficult, and akin to reading the future from tea-leaf arrangements in a cup. Take this as an example:
war.ka.la we.tin.ne.ger
when the sun rise
The record indicates two words. So perhaps one is ‘sun’ and the other ‘rise’.
 
Fig. 1 wagala widiniga: ‘when the sun rise’
 
You can be sure there are lots of different records for both ‘sun’ and ‘rise’.
 
Here are some:
 
SUN
Fig. 2 Some records for ‘sun’
 
RISE
Fig. 3 Some records for ‘rise’
 
Obvious conclusion
Figs 2 (sun) and 3 (rise) present a broad range of possibilities for both ‘sun’ and ‘rise’.
 
It is tempting to opt for the apparently obvious choices for wagala widiniga, namely:
wa-gi-lina “sun, moon”
widi “get up”
to yield ‘sun rise’.
Even so, it could be prudent to attempt to be more thorough. 
 
Further research
What about considering wagala and widiniga, in their respelt forms?
Given that the original recorders’ classing of vowels was often uncertain, a search is necessary for both w-g-l- and w-d-…… words.
 
wagili etc.
Here are some results for w-g-l-:
 
Fig. 4 Records featuring w-g-l-
 
The least objectionable of this group for resolving our present puzzle is the last: wugali: ‘jump’. To jump is to rise.
 
wadina etc.
“war.ka.la we.tin.ne.ger”
wagala widiniga
when the sun rise
 
For the second word, w-d-n-g-, there was only the one result: the very one we began with, above.
 
Consequently the search was then broadened to …w-d-n-…, that is, for the w-d-n- sequence occurring in the middle or at any part of a word or phrase. This time there were no fewer than 100 results. Too broad to be useful.
 
So a new search was attempted with w-d-n-… exclusively at the beginning of a word. The results dropped to a more manageable 57 (including repetitions where several similar original records appeared).
Some key findings from this reduced group were these:
 

 

Fig. 5 Records featuring w-d-n-…
 
Reduced selection or not, it was a daunting range of possible meanings for w-d-n-… words.
 
Conundrum of the Tasmanian records
In the above list the parentheses — [ — in the grey columns indicate that the wadina etc. word is part of a longer expression. 
Note that the EngJSM translation (yellow column) does not always match the original ‘English’ (grey column) translation. This is because the original translation might relate to a two- or three-word original record. So the yellow translation might be a temporary ‘best guess’ at the significance of the wadina etc. portion.
Where there is no entry in the yellow column, this means that so far it has not been possible to hazard a meaning for either (or any) portion of the original record. To insert a wild (and possibly wrong) guess impairs the functioning of the database. Hence the blanks.
 
The large size of the Fig. 5 table demonstrates the difficulty of making sense of the Tasmanian records. From such an array of potential meanings, fixing on an actual true meaning would seem often little better than guesswork.
 
The purple ‘source’ column in the tables includes the regional language, or area, where known. Thus ‘T-NE’ represents Tasmania: North-East, and OyB indicates Oyster Bay, the five language areas being marked on this map:
 
Fig. 6 Language ares in Tasmania
 
 
What does wagala widiniga really mean?
The challenge in arriving at a meaning for the original record
“war.ka.la we.tin.ne.ger”
wagala widiniga
when the sun rise
 
seems hopeless, given the range of second-word possibilities. 
 
widi… words
When, however, a search was made exclusively for widi words, the following were among those that  resulted:
 
Fig. 7 Records featuring widi…
 
Apart from two items in Fig. 7 (widi), all records were to do with ‘up’ in some form: sky, high, rise, moon, sun — even ‘head’. Perhaps all were right, but for the present exercise we might opt for widi to mean ‘sun’ (or equally ‘moon’).
 
Drawing it together
Back to the beginning then, and 
“war.ka.la we.tin.ne.ger”
wagala widiniga
when the sun rise
 
The object is to consider the results presented in the tables, to determine if there might be any reasonable matches for the ‘when the sun rise’ original translation.
 
In Fig. 4 (wagili etc.), the records meaning ‘hair’ seemed unlikely to have anything to do with ‘sun rise’ and could thus be safely discounted. Likewise, too, the meanings of ‘calf’ and ‘shellfish’ could be dismissed. This left the single most likely  possibility: ‘jump’.
 
In Fig. 5 (wadina etc.), the only records seeming likely candidates were ‘high’ and ‘heaven / sky’, when hyena, black, testicles and all the improbable rest were omitted.
 
Fig. 7 (widi…) seemed promising. widi was featured with extras: either suffixes, or perhaps additional words. Reflecting on this, it seemed profitable to re-examine the original record, widiniga:
 
Fig. 8  widiniga
 
An aside
By the way, the Wiradhuri word for ‘fire’ is wi.
And the Sydney language word for ‘fire’ is gwiyang, which includes the element -wi-.
The sun is a big fire in the sky.
This observation might, of course, be regarded as an entirely irrelevant coincidence — except for the fact that traces of mainland languages keep cropping up in the Tasmanian lists.
 
A final reflection
If widiniga were perchance two words, widi niga, what might niga mean?
 
Time for a final search.
 
Fig. 9 niga
 
There were more results for niga than shown in Fig. 9, but this last table is a reasonable summary nevertheless. 
It seemed safe to discount the first item ‘bird’ as having nothing to do with the sun, or rising.
It seemed equally safe to reject the last item in the table, ‘this’ for the same reason.  There are many records for the demonstrative ‘this’ in the Tasmanian database, mainly as nigu, nigi, niga and nginigu
This left three items in the middle of the table, ‘there’ and ‘hill’. These could be related: a ‘hill’ might be viewed as ‘over there’. 
 
So just for fun it was postulated that in this case niga was indeed ‘hill’. 
 
Tentative conclusion
So how does the original record look now?
“war.ka.la we.tin.ne.ger”
wagala widi niga
when the sun rise
 
wagala: jump
widi: sun
niga: hill
 
This yielded a final (and of course possibly erroneous) translation for:
“war.ka.la we.tin.ne.ger”
wagala widiniga
as ‘jump sun hill’.
 
Fig. 10 wagala widi niga: jump sun hill
 
The sun jumping over the hill conjures up a new, and charming, way of thinking about a sunrise.
 
JEREMY STEELE

 

Sunday 19 July 2015

SHOULDER SHELLFISH BIRD

It is very easy to grab the wrong end of the stick. It is very easy to jump to wrong conclusions. Perhaps that is being done here.
 
In the early Tasmanian records collected by Plomley:
Plomley, Norman James Brian. 1976. A word-list of the Tasmanian Aboriginal languages. Launceston: N.J.B. Plomley in association with the Government of Tasmania.
 
there is a section about the upper arm. It comprises small groups of words in the series:
bara / bari 
baga / bagi
dala / dila / dula
wana
 
dala group
It was the dala / dila / dula group that first caught the attention of Your Amateur Research (YAR).
 
Fig. 1 Shoulder: dala etc.
 
It was then noticed there were some similar words:
Fig. 2 Other body parts near, and somewhat akin to, shoulder
 
Plomley himself states:
“… the Tasmanians appear not to have distinguished the upper arm from the forearm; and there were other differences of conception, from which the conclusion may be drawn that the natives thought of the body in relation to regions rather than to segments.” [p.82]
 

Plomley adds:

“The shoulder is not clearly distinguished from either the arm or the back. Thus, wer.ne.ner (one record by cr [Charles Robinson]) belongs to the wer.ner group (arm): and the to.len.ner group (perhaps also tal.lar.ner) to the tole.len.ner group (back).
 
The parangana – par.ren.ner – puggarenna series makes up the only words which appear to refer exclusively to the shoulder, …” [p.82]
 
The question is: what was in the minds of the Tasmanians in using these words? Apparently not exactly the same viewpoint as the Europeans’.
 
 
Given the fact that for the most part we are dealing with word stems of two or three syllables only, to which many distinguishing suffixes may be aded, there is the possibility for the researcher today to make an incorrect analysis. There are, for example, in the Plomley records about 350 words of the form beginning bVrV, where ‘V’ is any vowel. Three hundred and forty-seven in fact, which is a great many — and great is the possibility for drawing wrong conclusions.
 
In the dala / dila / dula group are to be found the following, among many other words:
 
Fig. 3 Shellfish have ‘arms’, or ‘shoulders’
 
There is also the following:
Fig. 4 A bird has an ‘arm’, or ‘wing’
 
Why pick these out? What connection might they have to some human body parts? Because, perhaps, the Tasmanians were seeing a fauna-object with arms / wings rather than specifically ‘shoulder’ etc. as provided in the given English translation.
 
 
bagi group
The same process can be identified in the baga / bagi group.

Fig. 5 Shoulder bagi etc.

 
Once again, the word is ‘shoulder’, or perhaps ‘arm’.
 
In passing, note that the second record, ‘bagny’, has here been taken to be a mis-transcription of the same original handwriting of ‘baguy’  in the record above — confirmed by ‘bagui’ in the record below it.
And now, a final record to consider:
Fig. 6 Feather bagi etc.
 
In Fig. 6 the record is virtually identical to the final one in Fig. 5, yet now with the meaning ‘feather’. But what if ‘feather’ were itself an incorrect interpretation of what the unknown Oyster Bay  informant were trying to convey: ‘wing’ (i.e. an ‘arm’ of a bird)?
 
Conclusion

 

If this analysis were to be correct, it demonstrates that the records cannot be taken at face value, and that the given translations are a clue to what the Tasmanian word meant, rather than an absolute indicator. Scrutiny of the records can yield insights.
 
Jeremy Steele
Sunday 5 July 2015

PLAYING POSSUM

There is a sequence b–d–n… in the Tasmanian language records. There are many examples of it. 
 
Little
Here are a few such records:
 
 
Fig. 1 ‘little’
 
From these it would seem that badani / budini and the like might signify ‘little’.
 
budinibuwid is ‘little’.
badani is ‘child’, and a child is something little.
bayaDini bunguDini luguDinini appears to be ‘little possum xxx’.
 
And there is confirmation that luguDini in this phrase means ‘possum’:
 
 
Fig. 2 ‘ringtailed possum’
 
From this it would seem that badani, or words of the b–d–n…  sequence, means ‘little.
Even the 5th and last record in Fig. 1 above lends weight to the idea: badinuyiru might mean the little voice of whispering. However, the records did not bear this idea out.
 
Rat kangaroo
The ‘little’ hypothesis would appear to be supported, at first sight’ by ‘rat kangaroo’:
 
 
Fig. 3 ‘rat kangaroo’
 

nanabaDina is, apparently, ‘little rat kangaroo’, suggesting that badina is ‘little’, and thus that nana might be ‘rat kangaroo’.

So in which case, in the top record, what is rubrana? The 4th record in Fig. 3 suggests that rubrana or ribrinana itself means ‘rat kangaroo’. A search for nina or nana yielded nothing to indicate that nana / nina meant ‘rat kangaroo’.
 
Birds
Further b–d–n… records pop up in the ‘Tasmanian’ Bayala database, all to do with birds:
 
 
Fig. 4 ‘birds’
 

The first of this new set of records in Fig. 4 tends to support the ‘little’ theory: badina means ‘egg’, and eggs are little. A swan’s egg, buradina, is morphologically close, and might also be regarded as ‘little’, thus justifying a loose or mis-translation of ‘little’ as ‘egg’.

 
But the ‘little’ hypothesis is virtually exploded anew when it is noticed that most of the other bird records end in the the b–d–n… sequence. They can hardly all mean ‘little’. 
The last, badanawunda, ‘emu’, begins with the b–d–n… sequence.
From this one might reasonably ask: could badana be something to do with fauna?
 
Fauna
Support for the fauna concept is provided by the following group of records:
 
 
Fig. 5’ fauna’
 
Bandicoot, respelt badina or bayaDina, is grouped with ‘kangaroo’ nabiDinina in this new b–d–n… collection. ‘Fauna’ begins to appear a real possibility.
 
A ‘den’ in the 4th record in Fig. 5 is a home for fauna, the details of this particular record being:
 
 
Fig. 6 ‘den’
 
budina in Fig. 6, meaning ‘cave’, is is not strictly fauna, although it is certainly fauna asociated, in the meaning of ‘den’.
 
The last two records of Fig.5 ‘fauna’ are other mammals, ‘whiteman’ and ‘boy’.
 
And after all this we are not able confidently to assert a meaning for the b–d–n… sequence.
One final example lends no further help.
 
Flora
There is only one flora example so far identified in the database:
 
 
Fig. 7 ‘flora’
 
dinbudina, ‘tea-tree’ completes this ultimately inconclusive search for a significance of the b–d–n… sequence.
 
Perhaps a reader of this tentative essay might be able to suggest something enlightening.
 
Jeremy Steele

 

Tuesday 30 June 2015

TASMANIAN HEBREW: ‘shin’

N.J.B. Plomley had provided a 10 000 or so long word list of Tasmanian words in:
 
Plomley, N.J.B. 1976. A word-list of the Tasmanian Aboriginal languages. Launceston: N.J.B. Plomley in association with the Government of Tasmania.
The respelling of the few remaining entries in this list had proceeded slightly since the last blog entry (‘Tasmanian snake pain’) was devised and posted an hour ago. The illustration below shows the addition of four words after bawaya: ‘pain in bowels’ in the top line:
 
The time had arrived to consider the curious entry ‘hebrew’ in the 5th line in the table above. Eventually this was rendered as dibaru. What follows explains why this respelling was chosen.
 
Review
But first, let us backtrack a little. When looking at vocabulary documents from nearly 200 years ago it is tempting to dismiss as fanciful some of the stranger entries, and ‘hebrew’ here seemed a case in point.
 
Nevertheless in the previous post it was ventured that ‘hebrew’ might possibly be a considered attempt at rendering a real Tasmanian word into an understandable English form. That is to say it might have been a genuine respelling rather than an apparent and wholly unexpected reference to Judaic people. Note, too, that it is spelt ‘hebrew’ and not ‘Hebrew’. In the previous blog post yibru had been proposed as a modern respelling for it.
 
Now, in an attempt to give credit to the original recorder, Your Amateur Researcher (YAR) carried out searches in the database for ‘yibru’ or ‘…ibru…’, or just ‘…bru…’. This was reasonable given that some of the recorders had noted that ‘consonant clusters’ were commonly found in Tasmania. These ‘clusters’ refer to consonants put together in a manner very common in English, as is the case in ‘cl’ and ‘st’ in the very word ‘cluster’. Three-letter clusters are also common in English, and the practice is taken still further in the case of, say, strength, or the -ftsb- in ‘Shaftsbury’. 
 
Cluster-pairs do occur in the Sydney language (the subject of the original Bayala database) but mostly only with with -mb- and -nd-, and in a more limited way in the -lg-, -nb- and -nm- and a few other pairings. Much more frequently, indeed almost invariably except as noted, consonants in Australian Indigenous languages are separated by a vowel.
 
While the same might once have been the case with Tasmanian, the recorders appear to have heard cluster-pairs in common use.
 
Hebrew/yibru
But back to the searches for words of the form ‘yibru’. These enquiries came to nought. Nevertheless it was noted that the word rendered as ‘hebrew’ was purported to mean ‘skin’ or ‘shin’.
 
Still with a desire to give the original recorder of ‘hebrew’ the benefit of the doubt, YAR set about improving his still rudimentary Tasmanian database to include a feature found in the others in the Bayala database series: word classification. So he identified and classified all words (about 1400) in the Tasmanian collection that were body parts (as were ‘skin’ and ‘shin’). When this had been completed a new search was carried out for words in the body parts group, but now using the formula:
*ib@r*
 
The non-letter characters in this formula have specific functions in a search:
* [asterisk] = ‘any number of unspecified letters’
@ = ‘any single unspecified letter’
 
This formula meant that words were being looked for:
—beginning with anything,
—followed by ‘ib
—followed then by any vowel (or letter)
—followed by ‘r
—finally followed by anything.
 
 
That is to say, when ‘hebrew / yibru’ was re-tested as yib-ru with a consonant separating the syllables, the following  were the possibilities:
 
Possible search results for the combination -ib-ru
 
Ot these ten possibilities, those that actually yielded results in the search (featuring only the only fixtures were b and r as in -b-r-) are tinted above in blue. 
These featured the initial letters ‘d’, ‘l’ and ‘n’, all of which are somewhat related to ‘h’ by shape. 
Here are the key search results:
 
Body-parts search results for the combination -ib-r-
 
The most promising of these four examples, by translation, are not the ‘l’ words (‘neck’ and ‘thumb’). Instead the ‘leg’ and ‘knee’ words are of the greater interest—not because they began with d- and n- but because they are most closely in meaning to ‘skin/shin’. ‘Skin’, incidentally, can probably now be discounted as a mis-reading of ‘shin’, leaving the principal word under consideration  as ‘shin’. 
 
Precision in terminology
In Indigenous languages more specific words were used for the limbs than in English. Thus where we loosely say ‘arm’, Indigenous people used precise words for either ‘forearm’ or ‘upper arm’. Likewise in the case of ‘leg’ they had separate words for ‘leg below the knee’ and ‘leg above the knee’ (thigh). As the word ‘shin’ has been offered in the example under examination, and based on the word given for ‘leg’: diburig (‘tee.bur.ic’), it is possible that the word given for it, transcribed as ‘hebrew’, might have been dibaru
 
Compare the examples in the table above with the corresponding summary for ‘hebrew’:
 
 
So rather than ‘hebrew’ being an example of 19th century nonsense to be dismissed out of hand, the entry for it might have actually provided more specific information about another entry: the one featuring diburig. For ‘hebrew / dibaru’ appears to reveal that not just approximately ‘leg’ was intended in that instance but specifically ‘leg below the knee’, with the nearest word for this in English being ‘shin’.
 
Jeremy Steele

 

Wednesday 17 June 2015

TASMANIAN SNAKE PAIN

N.J.B. Plomley has provided a splendid resource for information on the languages of Tasmania, and there probably were several,. His book of nearly 500 pages:
Plomley, N.J.B. 1976. A word-list of the Tasmanian Aboriginal languages. Launceston: N.J.B. Plomley in association with the Government of Tasmania.
This lists all the records Plomley uncovered, arranged somewhat  in the manner of a dictionary. For example, starting on page 385 he presents all the words to do with illness, under the headword ‘sick’.
He has given all the ways in which the numerous reorders spelt the indigenous word for the various disorders shown.
A few of the Plomley entries for ‘sick’.
Note especially “har.war.yer” near the top
From this extract it can be seen that the spellings used for the words are often unclear.
In order to make better sense of the words, Your Amateur Researcher has attempted to respell the Tasmanian words in a consistent fashion so as to try to begin to understand a little more of the language(s).
Here is another fragment, illustrating this process:
Respelling in progress in the Bayala Tasmanian database
The green columns indicate the page and line number in Plomley’s work. The grey columns are the entries featuring the Indigenous word as originally spelt by the recorder. together with the English translation. The brown column is an attempt at consistent respelling of each item.
Why this particular, and odd, collection is here is that it includes some of the more challenging items for respelling.
For example, in the first entry, what is one to make of ‘h’ in the middle?
And in the very last line (397:26) the entry includes ‘fire’. Is this the English word fire? The same question applies in the fourth last line (‘here’); and the 7th last (‘hebrew’).
Is ‘fire’ a respelling of an indigenous word, including a non-permitted /f/, to be re-spelt, say, biri when considered letter by letter, or baya when considered for the English sound of fire?
Likewise is ‘here’, an Indigenous word with the non-permitted /h/, supposed to be respelt, say, yiri, or possibly yiya to rhyme with the English sound for here?
And is ‘hebrew’ possibly yibru, when the English sound is held in mind?
The letter /h/ is particularly challenging.
—Given that the spellings in the typeset book are all interpretations of the original handwriting by someone (perhaps Plomley himself, or the typesetter perhaps, or possibly an editor) …
—the /h/ might easily have been a /b/ as these twi letters have much the same shape;
—or if the beginning stroke was a little generous, perhaps it was intended as an /n/.
—And because in the nineteenth century, when most of the recordings were made, the idea of words beginning with ‘ng-’ was unfamiliar, given that the English language does not contain a single such example, a Tasmanian word with an oddly sounding beginning featuring ng- might have been rendered with an ‘h-’ start.
This is just speculation, but one needs to speculate to make sense of some of the entries.
The respelling list above has numerous examples with ‘v’, another non-permitted consonant in most Indigenous languages, as are the others so far mentioned.
—Often a /b/ might be misheard, and rendered as a ‘v’;
—or the original handwriting of ‘w’ might be transcribed as ‘v’;
—or in some common styles of handwriting an ‘r’ might also often resemble a ‘v’.
And what is one to make of the second-last entry, ‘lough.we’? Is this an English-sounding ‘ough’? if so, which ‘-ough’?
Which of the following seven ‘-ough-’ sounds might one select?
The challenge
It is, however, the entry near the middle of the respelling group that is the focus of attention in this brief essay:
385:9 har.war.yer ‘pain in the bowels’
The question is, how to handle the ‘h’? The rest of the word is fairly straightforward:
— a / wa / ya
So a word that ends with the sound ‘-awaya’.
But how might it have begun? What was the initial letter?
A search in the now extensive Bayala Tasmanian database reveals just the one possibility:
bawaya
In the second entry in the coloured table, “pow.wer.yer”, respelt as bawaya, means ‘snake’. At first sight this is an unlikely match for ‘sick’ in the entry above it, especially ‘sick’ meaning specifically ‘pain in bowels’. The “pow.wer.yer” record was made by George Augustus Robinson, but who told it to him is unknown.
However, it is conceivable that the informant had a pain, perhaps even in the bowels, after an encounter with a snake that did not agree with him (or her). This pain might have been caused by a bite. Or perhaps eating the snake caused a pain in the bowels.
Accordingly a correct translation for ‘har.war.yer’ might be ‘snake’ rather than ‘pain in bowels’.
Jeremy Steele

 

Wednesday 17 June 2015

Mocha early: Tasmanian salt water

First visit to SOAS
Twenty years ago, on Monday 3 April 1995, your Sydney-based amateur researcher into Australian languages called on the  ‘School of Oriental and African Studies [SOAS: part of the University of London] in London in a vain quest to look up information on the Sydney Aboriginal language gathered by First Fleeter William Dawes’. It was known that they held the notebooks compiled by Dawes. A diary entry further records that: ‘however, one needed a letter of introduction to gain access, from an authority such as a professor anywhere.  My own business card from the University of Sydney, where I was an employee in its administration, was not good enough’.
Yemmerawannie
Three years later, on another visit to London, another diary entry records a busy day: Monday 5 October 1998: ‘Then to St John the Baptist church, Eltham, to see the register of Yemmerawannie’s burial. This was an old book about 450 x 250 mm, brown leather bound with two large clasps, with entries from the 1600s. Photographed the Yemmerawannie entry.’ Yemmerawannie was one of two Aboriginals taken to London in 1792 by retiring Governor Arthur Phillip. Yemmerawannie arrived in England in 1793, and died there a year later, aged about 19.
Second visit to SOAS
Then that afternoon having caught the train to Charing Cross — the diary continues: ‘Walked to the School of Oriental and African Studies in Bloomsbury, where three years ago had been denied admission. This time, with a letter of introduction obtained from the professor of Classics at Sydney University, got in without trouble [and so to the library and] to the Special Reserve, where after a fright of their not holding the material —they being the school of Oriental and African (not Australian) studies), they finally found it. The purpose of the journey: to see the word lists of the Sydney Aboriginal language compiled around 1790 by Lt William Dawes, Royal Marine on the First Fleet. …
Dawes’s notebooks
‘The precious packet, a small cardboard envelope-folder containing two pocket notebooks [was produced]. The slightly larger had a coloured cover, affecting waterworn stones. The smaller with a plain cover was a re-binding of two notebooks, one a word list arranged alphabetically, the other a “grammar”, all in Dawes’s own elegant handwriting.
I was not required to handle these with surgical gloves, nor prevented from writing on them. The only security control was signs saying only portable computers and pencils could be used in the room: yet there was no frisking or search for ballpoints or pens. There I was, with Dawes’s actual notebooks, probably the best record anywhere of the Sydney Aboriginal language.
Tasmanian word lists
‘On beginning to make a few notes, I found in a home-made sleeve in the back of the large notebook some lists on differently sized pieces of paper of words of the Van Dieman’s Land language made by the French in 1792 or 1793. Amazingly, these included in two separate lists the word ‘kanguru’ for ‘kangourou’, (spelt in one case with k and the other with c). This suggested the possibility or probability that the word for ‘kangaroo’, already known not to be from Sydney, is of Tasmanian origin. I had always supposed that it might be from Cooktown, the other place where Cook had had some contact with Aborigines when his ship the Endeavour was repaired there after being damaged on the Great Barrier Reef. When was the word first used by white people? From Cook’s (1770) or Phillip’s (1788) visits?’
On later reflection your researcher concluded that the Guugu-Yimidhirr word /gaŋuru/ must have been brought to Tasmania by even earlier ships visiting the island, the Aboriginals repeating it back to the subsequently visiting members of the Bruni d’Entrecasteaux party in Recherché Bay.
Database
Following the 1998 visit to London, a small database was begun of the 200 or so words in the SOAS Van Diemen’s Land  lists, and once completed that area was allowed to slip from the mind.
Book gift
On your researcher’s completing a master’s research degree on the Sydney language in 2005, his Macquarie University supervisor generously presented him with a book by way of congratulation. This was a work on Tasmanian languages. It was placed on the bookshelves and, like the SOAS vocabularies, slipped from the mind. And so the years passed.
Visiting Tasmania
In the meantime a tourist visit had been made to Tasmania, in October 1999, being your researcher’s first experience of the island. It was not until the present year, 2015, that a second, briefer, visit was made there, during the course of which modest enquiries were made about languages in the course of visiting various museums. 
 
Vocabularies
A volunteer in one of the local museums was kind enough to go home and fetch a book she had on the subject of languages, and on being shown it your researcher thought it looked familiar. Indeed on returning home a few days lated he found it was the very work presented to him in 2005-06. This is a collection of all the known 40 or so vocabularies:
Plomley, Norman James Brian. 1976. A word-list of the Tasmanian Aboriginal languages. Launceston: N.J.B. Plomley in association with the Government of Tasmania.
It is a work of 478 pages, in which all the word-list entries are presented in the manner of a dictionary, English head word alphabetically by English head word, with all the Tasmanian records listed below for each, complete with all the diverse and often bizarre spellings of them, together with information of the recorder and informant for each, and the area (where known in Tasmania) where it was collected.
Of the Tasmanian vocabularies noted scholar of Australian languages R.M.W. Dixon wrote in 1980:
Dixon, R.M.W. 1980. The Languages of Australia. Edited by W. S. Allen and et al., Cambridge Language Surveys. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.:
  • “A handful of word lists were taken down by early settlers but these are of extremely poor quality; they were compiled by people who for the most part had little respect for the Tasmanians or their languages, and no clear idea of how to represent the sounds they heard. Within the last few decades a new manuscript vocabulary has come to light, compiled by George Augustus Robinson, a self-styled missionary who rounded up the survivors of Tasmanian tribes between 1829 and 1834 and transported them to offshore islands, effectively there to die off. Robinson took down a considerable quantity of  vocabulary, some of it from parts of the island that had not been represented in previous lists; but the standard of his transcription was even worse than the rest.”
Processing the records
Your researcher considered that it was time to look at the Tasmanian language records more closely, especially given that he appeared to have virtually all of them in a book in his own study. By a process of scanning, optical character recognition and other manipulation, he added all the records to his initial tiny Tasmanian database, thereby enlarging it from 200 records to 10500. But this is just the beginning. The next step is to respell all the records consistently, and to provide consistent translations. These processes will reveal points of interest and enable searches to be made.
Various scholars have already concluded that there were probably several languages on the island, and here is a language map by one of them, Claire Bowern, in 2012. She has identified five languages. A sixth area — coloured grey on the map — was largely uninhabited, and hence had no language recorded for it.
First example of what the database can reveal
After the foregoing introduction, your researcher now offers a small point for this blog entry.
There is a record :
mocha early: salt water
It is by:
Braim in History of New South Wales (1846); 
(bmm) manuscript vocabulary, Braim papers, Mitchell Library.
The database is already able to provide the following analysis:
“mocha early” is nothing to do with being ‘early’. Rather mocha is a word for ‘water’.
And “early” is in all probability a misreading of the original handwriting of “carty”, as porvided in:
Vocabulary of Jorgen Jorgenson: (jj) words collected by Jorgen
featured in the 5th line of the table above. “carty”, respelt as /gadi/ turns out to be a word for ‘bad’.
Consequently “mocha carty” or /mudya gadi/ (in the 6th line) is ‘water bad’, or ‘bad water’.
‘Bad water’ is one of the ways the Tasmanians spoke of ‘salt water’, or the ‘sea’. It was, after all, not drinkable.
This in turn reveals that the translation of “mocha carty” in the 5th line of the table above itself contains an error in the translation. It does not mean ‘water bag’ but rather ‘water bad’.
This brief enquiry already confirms what Dixon stated so bluntly: the Tasmanian records are ‘of extremely poor quality’.

 

JMS Monday 25 May 2015

BUTTERFLY

A friend wrote:
If possible would you email the aboriginal word for butterfly.”
Here is the reply:
————————–
Thank you for your enquiry about the Sydney Language word for ‘butterfly’.
As far as we know it is burudira.
As for the ‘Aboriginal’ word for ‘butterfly’, there were 250 ‘Aboriginal’ languages, so there could have been as many as 250 different ‘Aboriginal words’ for ‘butterfly’.
Here is one record, for the Aboriginal language of Sydney:
This is also the first record in the coloured table below.
Australian
respelt
English
EngJSM
Source
“Bur-ru-die-ra”
burudira =
“Butterfly”
butterfly  :
Anon (c) [c:24:9] [BB]
“bur-roo-die-ra”
burudira =
“A butterfly”
butterfly  :
Collins 1 [:512.2:13] [BB]
We only have these two records for ‘butterfly’.
PUZZLES
Things in foreign languages are often not as simple as they seem at first sight.
Butterflies are lovely in various languages it seems:
French: papillon
English: butterfly
Italian: farfalla
if not so much in German
German: schmetterling
So in the Sydney Language, what was recorded as the lovely ‘butterfly’ might have had a connection with the unlovely ‘louse’:
“Boóroodoo”
burudu =
“A louse”
louse  :
Dawes (b) [b:3:18] [BB]
“boo-rŏo-dah”
buruda =
“a Louse”
louse  :
Southwell [:147.3:5] [BB]
Thus burudira might have meant ‘louse-having’, or ‘like a louse’ (like an insect, perhaps).
MYSTERY
One additional record is a mystery. It is by the excellent William Dawes:

Booróody burudayi = Better better  : Dawes (b) [b:22:9] [BB]

Dawes here is contrasting the words for ‘worse’ and ‘better.
On contemplating his entry you can see he wrote :
Wauloomy. Worse.
He did this with a well-inked pen, the ink almost dropping off the nib onto the paper.
Sometime later he has copied into his notebook the related contrasting concept:
Booróody Better.
Clearly the penmanship is different.
“Booróody”
burudayi =
“Better”
better  :
Dawes (b) [b:22:9] [BB]
So what?
Well, there is no supporting evidence anywhere that burudayi (Dawes’s ‘Booróody’) meaning ‘better’.
But burudayi is really quite similar to burudira, and ‘better’ is quite similar to ‘butter(fly)’.
Could Dawes have made a mistake, misreading a rough entry:
Booróody butter… [better…] (butterfly?)
for ‘better’, hence his possibly erroneous handwritten entry above?

 

Jeremy Steele, Thursday 19 February 2015

Millers Point: yilgan maladul

In an article in the Sydney Morning Herald on 4 February 2015, written by Leesha McKenny, the matter is raised about giving the name of Barangaroo Point to the headland southwest of Walsh Bay known as Millers Point.
It is likely that the Indigenous people of Sydney in 1788 had a name for this point, as they did for many parts of the Harbour. Gradually the First Fleet Europeans got an inkling of what some of these names might have been, although their understanding of the language then was rudimentary, and so many mistakes in communication are likely, and consequently the names ascribed to places is uncertain.
The person acknowledged then most proficient in the language of Sydney (known as the ‘Sydney Language’ as no name for the language was recorded, though an indigenous name that might be attributed to it is Biyal-Biyal) was junior officer of the Marines, Second-Lieutenant William Dawes. Dawes was, according to historian Professor G. Arnold Wood of the University of Sydney writing in 1924, ‘the scholar of the expedition’.
Dawes laid out the street plans for Sydney and Parramatta. He made the first meteorological records of Australia recording every day of the First Fleet period. An engineer, he set up the defences of the colony at Dawes Point. And an astronomer, he set up an observatory there too as directed by the Astronomer Royal in London before the First Fleet sailed. And Dawes lived at the astronomy at what became know as Dawes Point, but which Dawes recorded as Dara in a sketch map he drew at the beginning of the first of two language notebooks he compiled, based on conversations with the local indigenous people. He never intended it as a real map, because cartogaphy was another of his accomplishments.
Here is the map, which includes the name ‘Dara’—which word features in some of his language records:
Dawes’ sketch map
Loosely redrawn
From the records compiled by Dawes and others it is possible to establish two reference points on this map:
1. Dara (Dawes Point) and
2. Memel (Goat island)
A third is:
3. Kowang
The local language was not written, until by Europeans, and consequently it is possible that Dawes’ ‘Kowang’ is the same place as the following record:
“Cow-wan
gawan =
Ross Farm
  :
Anon (c) [c:38:16] [BB]
Lt Governor Ross had a farm at ‘Cowan’. The location of this farm is given on an anonymous chart of Port Jackson, drawn in February 1788, published in Art of the First Fleet (Smith and Wheeler, 1988: p. 73), an extract from which is in the the centre of the three maps below:
Dawes’ map, rotated
Anonymous map of Feb. 1788
Modern (NRMA) map
Ross’s Farm is shown at the middle of the left side of the centre map, on the Balmain Pensinula.
The other places maked by Dawes are:
4. Ilkan máladúl
5. Wari-wal
6. Kaneagang (Kameagang?)
7. Koowarinang
‘Koowarinang’ is written upside down and hard to read.
The following enlargements enable others to hazard what the word actually was:
The maps above enable speculation as to where Dawes’s places actually were.
1. Dara: Dawes Point
2. Memel: Goat Island
3. Kowang: Peacock Point (Balmain East)
4. Ilkan maladul: Millers Point (southern end of Walsh Bay,where the finger wharves are)
5. Wariwal: southern end of Goat Island
6. Kaneagang: Pyrmont Peninsula [?]
7. Koowarinang: Sydney Cove (also separately recorded as Warang)
Ilkan maladul
Study of the Sydney language reveals that no words started with a vowel.
Consequently ‘ilkan’ cannot be correct.
Words recorded as starting with a vowel were those where the initial consonant was not detected,
and where the initial consonant was so unusual to speakers of English that it was ignored.
So ‘ilkan’ might have been one of:
wilgan
yilgan
ngilgan
and of these three, yilgan is the most probable.
Searches in the records reveal no instances of either yilgan or yilgang.
This does not mean that the word did not exist, but rather that is was not recorded.
What did emerge were the following few possibilities:
“Ilga”
yilga =
“To leap”
jump  :
King in Hunter [:409.1:22] [BB]
“Yélga”
yilga =
“The barb of a spear”
barb  :
Dawes (b) [b:23:13] [BB]
“Yal-ga”
yalga =
“Barb on a spear”
barb  :
Anon (c) [c:27:4] [BB]
“yelga”
yilga =
“Chest “
chest  :
Mathews KML/Dwl [:276.1:24] [Dwl]
“Yegal”
yigal =
“(grass-tree flowering top)”
spike  grass tree:
Hunter Sketch Book [:69:1] [BB]
“Ye-gal”
yigal =
“The tree itself is named Ye-gal'”
grass tree  :
Collins 2 [2:120:45] [BB]
Although there were no yilgan(g) instances, when a word such a yilga has –ng suffixed to it, it may denote a noun. So if yilga is ‘leap’, yilgan could conceivably be ‘a leap’.

Similarly, if yilga means ‘barb’, yilgang might be the process of making a barb. This gives a suggestion as to a possible meaning for yilgan maladul. Recalling that it is a headland, where there might have ben native vegetation, or where people went bathing in the water, there could have been barbs being made for spears, or there could have been swimming.

Thus first three examples in the table above seem plausible beginnings in a quest for a meaning.

Investigations based on wilgan or ngilgan yielded no encouraging results.
maladul
The same pursuit of possible meanings was undertaken for maladul.
The only slightly promising results were those in the table below.
“milluttung”
miladang =
“Waddy-shield”
shield  waddy shield:
Mathews DARK 1903 [:281.2:1] [Dark]
“millathunth”
milaDunD =
“Waddy-shield”
shield  :
Mathews DG 1901 [:159.2:27] [DG]
“Militong”
milidang =
“a guard”
shield  guard:
Bowman: Camden [:18:60] [DG]
“Mal-lat”
malad =
“Fillets”
headband  :
Anon (c) [c:4:6] [BB]

Shields are needed for protection against barbs. But the link to yilga: ‘barb’ is tenuous.

The first two of the examples in the table, by Matthews, are out of the immediate language area being to the north and to the south of the Sydney district. They were also recorded over a century after the First Fleet.
The third entry by Bowman is from the right time period, but also a little out of the area.
Finally, all four example are for miladang or similar, rather than maladul.
The fourth entry malad is probably just a red herring.
If maladul were to be two words, mala dul, the possibility arises that both might mean ‘man’.
“˚ Múlla ˚”
mala =
“˚ A man, or husband ˚”
man  :
Dawes (b) [b:13:3] [BB]
“mu-lā”
mala =
“A man”
man  :
Collins 1 [:509.1:0.2] [BB]
“Mùl-la”
mala =
“The first time Colbee saw a monkey, he called Wùr-ra (a rat); but on examining its paws, he exclaimed, with astonishment and affright, Mùl-la (a man).”
man  :
Tench [:270:25] [BB]
“Dul”
dul =
“white man”
whiteman  :
SofM 18960912 [13.5: Fulton BB] [:13.5:16] [BB]
“Tali”
dalayi =
“Man”
man  :
Bowman: Camden [:15:13] [DG]
“dullai”
dalayi =
“Man”
man  :
KAOL Rowley [DgR table] [:122:1.6] [DG]
This analysis raises the possibility that Ilkan maladul (yilgan mala dul) might mean ‘jump man’. But this is far fetched.

Nevertheless, yilgan maladul does seem a likely genuine name for what has long been known as Millers Point.

The language examples cited above are taken from the Bayala Databases.

Jeremy Steele
Friday 6 February 2015

DETECTIVE MYSTERIES

Although William Dawes is a splendid resource for understanding the classical Aboriginal language of Sydney (Biyal Biyal) there are numerous mysteries. Some of these he left deliberately, being too modest to put in writing the blunt truth. One instance of this is:
TABLE 1
Australian
respelt
English
EngJSM
source
“Yạ´nga”
yanga =
“NO TRANSLATION”
copulate  :
Dawes (a) [a:33:0.2] [BB]
But your researcher has filled in the translation, based on the less prudish entries in the Anon notebook:
 
TABLE 2
“Yang-a”
yanga =
“Copulate”
copulate  :
Anon (c) [c:28:9] [BB]
“Yang-a”
yanga =
“For Copulation he uses all these words”
copulate  :
Anon (c) [c:23:11.1] [BB]
“Can-na-ding-ga”
gana-di-nga =
“For copulation he uses all these words”
burn  :
Anon (c) [c:23:11.2] [BB]
From the Anon records it was possible to put in the meanings for another two of Dawes’s entries, left untranslated:
TABLE 3
“Yangadĭóu-ĭ”
yanga-dya-wi =
“They did”
copulate did they-all:
Dawes (a) [a:34:1] [BB]
“Kóinyérăna yanga Bigúna”
Ganyirana yanga Bayiguna =
“Bigun ……. s Kóinyera”
Bayigun copulates with Ganyíra  :
Dawes (b) [b:32:3] [BB]
There are nearly forty untranslated entries in Dawes’s notebooks. Some of these are from modesty, such as:
TABLE 4
“Wå´wi bowanára wå ngóra”
wawi bawanara wangara =
“NO TRANSLATION”
pubic hair woman /  stare / boy  :
Dawes (b) [b:33:21] [BB]
the translation of which was assisted by Dawes himself with the entry:
TABLE 5
“Wóe”
wuwi =
“The hair of the dyin”
hair  pubic female:
Dawes (b) [b:24:10] [BB]
It took a while to realise that “wå ngóra” was a single word and not two, meaning:
TABLE 6
“Wongera”
wungara =
“Male child”
boy  :
Anon (c) [c:23:4] [BB]
… ‘boy’.

And 

 
TABLE 7
“Bolwara”
balwara =
“To stare, or open the eyes”
stare  :
King in Hunter [:407.2:22] [BB]
“[Mi mi ga. Mīm bowanára mi ga]”
bawa-nara =
“[What are you looking for, what]”
stare PURP :
Dawes (b) [b:17:11.4] [BB]
… made possible the deducing that “bowanára” probably meant ‘stare’. So a boy was presumably looking where decorum indicated that he should not, even — or especially — in those days when clothing was not regarded as required.
One of the NO TRANSLATION lines was given by Dawes in two versions:
 
TABLE 8: THE MYSTERY
“Kanamarál kariadyémi”
ganamaral garayadyimi =
“[NO TRANSLATION]”
  :
Dawes (b) [b:18:11.1] [BB]
“Kanamarálmi kariyi´”
ganamaralmi gariyayi =
“[NO TRANSLATION]”
  :
Dawes (b) [b:18:11.3] [BB]
And this is what the present short essay is all about.
It is likely that in many of the instances Dawes genuinely did not know what certain words meant that he clearly heard, and recorded. But there is the possibility that prudery was the reason for the absence of meaning given, and with that thought in mind this immediately above mystery pair can be contemplated.
Perhaps Table 2 line 3  gives a clue as to the meaning of the first mystery word:
 
TABLE 9
“[Kanamarál kariadyémi]”
gana-ma-ra-l =
“[NO TRANSLATION]”
xxx  :
Dawes (b) [b:18:11.11] [BB]
“[Kanamarálmi kariyi´]”
gana-ma-ra-l-mi =
“[NO TRANSLATION]”
xxx  thou:
Dawes (b) [b:18:11.31] [BB]
The normal meaning for gana is ‘burn’ or ‘cook’. There are many possible examples but the following will suffice as evidence:
TABLE 10
“Cannadinga”
gana-di-nga =
“To burn”
burn  :
King MS [:401:18] [BB]
“kunnama”
gana-ma =
“Cook, as food”
cook  :
Mathews DG 1901 [:160.2:13] [DG]
For whatever reason gana appears to have been linked in some way to copulation. Making an intuitive leap here, we might assume that ‘copulation’ is its meaning in the mystery examples being considered. In which case the following word reproduced in the next table would plausibly be related to this idea. If so, this unfortunately takes us into the realm of unseemly speculation, for which apologies are offered. Be that as it may, let us press on.
The alternatives of the word are:
TABLE 11
“[Kanamarál kariadyémi]”
gara-ya-dyi-mi =
“[NO TRANSLATION]”
xxx did thou:
Dawes (b) [b:18:11.12] [BB]
“[Kanamarálmi kariyi´]”
gari-ya-yi =
“[NO TRANSLATION]”
xxx did :
Dawes (b) [b:18:11.32] [BB]
We know these are verbs in the past tense, and in the first example that the -mi at the end is the second person singular pronoun ‘thou’ (or ‘you’ in modern English). Which leaves us to speculate over gara / gari.
There are some words in the Sydney (and other) Aboriginal language(s) that have a multiplicity of meanings, and these include bara / gara / wara, which can also be bura / gura / wura or bari / gari / wari. This is not to say that the speakers in those times necessarily were imprecise, for the variations could have carried subtleties of meaning that are not yet understood. Perhaps instead the recorders of the words varied the writings for the reason that two people will often give different renderings for words they hear that are unknown to them.
In the case of gara, here are some interpretational possibilities. There were many other examples that could also have been included in Table 12.
TABLE 12
HARD
“Karü´ngül”
gara-ngal =
“Hard. Difficult to break.”
hard  :
Dawes (b) [b:12:1] [BB]
“Cah-rah-ne”
gara-ni =
“Biscuit”
hard  :
Anon (c) [c:9:14] [BB]
NAIL
“Kă-rung-ān”
gara-ngan =
“Finger Nail”
nail  :
Southwell [:147.3:28] [BB]
“garranan”
gara-nan =
“the nail”
nail  :
Fulton AONSW [:7:12] [BB]
STONE
“Karrah”
gara =
“Stones”
stone  :
Lang: NSW Vocab [:7:204.2] [DG]
“Gur-go”
gura-gu =
“A meteor, or shooting star”
meteor  :
King in Hunter [:409.1:14] [BB]
HAIL
“Coura”
gura =
“Hail”
hail  :
Bowman: Camden [:22:137] [DG]
“Go-ra”
gura =
“Hail”
hail  :
Collins 1 [:513:6.1] [BB]
“go-ri-ba”
guri-ba =
“Hail”
hail  :
Collins 1 [:513:6.2] [BB]
MORE
“Gōre gōre”
guri guri =
“More more”
more  :
Dawes (b) [b:8:8] [BB]
“Go-ray”
gura =
“More”
more:
Anon (c) [c:17:9] [BB]
“Curra”
gura =
“More”
more:
Southwell [148.1:19] [BB]
Your researcher has found it helpful, when faced with a perplexing variety of this sort, to try to hit on an underlying fundamental idea. And in the above list there are two competing such ideas. They are ‘hard’ and ‘grow’. Thus fingernails, stones (including meteors) and hail are all ‘hard’ things; while more and fingernail (again) suggest ‘grow’.
Two further examples may be considered, one from the Wiradhuri ‘inland’ language, introducing yet another interpretation: ‘grow’.
TABLE 13
GROW
“[Brúwi kar˙adyuwi ngábüng]”
gara-dyu-wi =
“[(All) three have large breasts—that is. They are all three women grown]”
more did they-all:
Dawes (b) [b:35:3.21] [BB]
“Groongal-kooroongal”
garungal =
“grown up”
grown up  :
SofM 18960912 [12.2 JJB-Narrandera] [:12.21:53] [Wira]
The full translation of the first example in Table 13 is:
TABLE 14
“Brúwi kar˙adyuwi ngábüng”
buruwi garadyuwi ngabang =
“(All) three have large breasts—that is. They are all three women grown”
three grow did they-all breast  :
Dawes (b) [b:35:3] [BB]
And in this translation it is suggested that gara more probably means ‘grow’ than ‘more’ — although ‘growing’, and becoming ‘more’ or ‘bigger’, are really the same idea. The Wiradhuri example, the second of the two in Table 13, featuring garungal (grown up), confirms this notion.
TIME FOR YOU TO BE THE DETECTIVE
The above has set out some basic data for one possible solution to the mystery posed by Dawes. However, your researcher aligns himself with William Dawes in being reluctant to state the obvious or unseemly. Nevertheless, if the first word in each example in Mystery Table 8 is to do with copulation, then the second word, possibly meaning grow, increase, hard may have a meaning rhyming with ‘detection’.
JEREMY STEELE

 

Sunday 15 December 2013

Distant uncle

The Anon Notebook gives ‘Cow-wan’ as the name or place of Ross Farm, the farm of Major Robert Ross of the Marines, the Lieutenant Governor on the First Fleet.
“Cow-wangawan = “Ross Farm”   : Anon (c) [c:38:16] [BB]
The location of Ross’s Farm was indicated on an anonymous chart of Port Jackson, drawn in February 1788, held by the Natural History Museum, London, and published in Art of the First Fleet (Smith and Wheeler, 1988: p. 73), now East Balmain. It is shown in the above sketch map, along with some other indigenous names for the familiar Sydney landmarks of Sydney Cove, Blues Point, Goat Island, Millers Point, and Darling Harbour, and a couple of others.
Does gawan have a meaning?
One meaning attributed to the word gawan  is ‘uncle’. This term for mother’s or father’s brother was not one used by Australian indigenous people in the early days, being too imprecise to be useful. Indigenous people living in small groups needed to know exactly where they stood for parenting reasons; and so meticulous arrangements — and taboos —covered this aspect of life everywhere. 
However, the word gawan was recorded as meaning ‘uncle’, somewhat to the north of Sydney, as early as c.1827-35 by the Rev. Lancelot Threlkeld:
Australian
respelt
English
EngJSM
source
“Cowun”
gawan =
“[Unc]le”
uncle  :
Tkld GDG Aust Voc  [:125.1:4] [Gdg?]
“Cow-un”
gawan =
“Uncle”
uncle  :
Tkld KRE c.1835 [:137:17] [Kre]
 
The details of uncles and aunts, as well as the many other words describing kinship positions, were for the most part not discovered for the Sydney language. It may, however, be assumed that at the time of the First Fleet gawan did not mean ‘uncle’ for the reason just stated. So what might it have meant?
While nothing leaps out from the Sydney language records, on the other hand, and again to the northwards of Sydney, some words were noticed by the surveyor R.H. Mathews to do with ‘this side’ or ‘other side’ or ‘there’ or ‘yonder’:
Australian
respelt
English
EngJSM
source
“gâwin”
gawin =
“this side (this is best)”
side  near:
Mathews 8006/3/7- No 7 [7:80:15.3] [Dark]
“gauinda”
gawi-nda =
“Yonder”
yonder  :
Mathews DARK 1903 [:274:23.4] [Dark]
“Gauinda”
gawi-nda =
“There”
yonder  :
Mathews 8006/3/7- No 7 [7:80:10] [Dark]
“Gauinda nyê”
gawi-nda-nyi =
“on the other side”
yonder xxx :
Mathews 8006/3/7- No 7 [7:80:14] [Dark]
With this collection as a start, it was then possible to find some confirmation from the Sydney lists, provided by John Rowley. They are given below, but are in fact the one and the same record in two different publications of 1875 and 1878 respectively :
“kaundi”
gawu-ndi =
“away”
yonder  :
KAOL Rowley GeoR [:107:34] [DG]
“kaundi”
gawu-ndi =
“away”
yonder  :
AL&T Rowley GeoR [:261:40] [DG]

It was then realised that the the ‘yonder’ or ‘distant’ concept might have been present in three further records from the Sydney region that related to something truly distant — the stars.  Here are those tantalising additional examples, for ‘star’:

“Káo”
gawu =
“Stars”
star  :
Lang: NSW Vocab [:3:72] [DG]
“Cow [?]”
gawu =
“Star”
star  :
Bowman: Camden [:15:3] [DG]
“Cow Curry”
gawu gari =
“The stars”
star  :
Leigh [:3:4] [DG]
However,  with so few examples to consider, it is not really possible to affirm with confidence that there is a genuine relationship between the meanings of side / yonder / away in the one group of words and ‘stars’ in the other.
 
Conclusion
Despite uncertainty about any link between remote stars and objects simply ‘over there’, it does seem likely that Ross’s Farm, Gawan, on the other side of what is now Darling Harbour, was at a place simply described as ‘yonder’.
Jeremy Steele

 

Friday 6 December 2013
 

Guns, sticks and Mrs Bennelong

One of the most noticeable things about guns, when they are used, is that they go ‘bang!’ 
It is obvious, but we do not think about it much.
First Fleeter Watkin Tench wrote about the Indigenous Australians of Sydney:
“a gun, for instance, they call Goòroobeera, that is — a stick of fire.” [Tench 292:24]
Another obvious thing is that Aboriginal dances commonly feature men moving about, stamping the ground, with much clapping together of sticks, and the sound of singing, perhaps accompanied by a didgeridoo. The ‘Anon’ notebook recorded ‘Another mode of dancing’ as Car-rib-ber-re.

“Bennillong, previous to his visit to England, was possessed of two wives …, both living with him and attending on him wherever he went. One named Ba-rang-a-roo, who … lived with him at the time he was seized and brought a captive to the settlement 
and before her death he had brought off from Botany Bay… Go-roo-bar-roo-bool-lo

and she continued with him until his departure for England. [Collins 1: 464:2]”
Bennelong’s wife Ba-rang-a-roo died in 1792. 
Goo-roo-bar-roo-boo-lo is spelt by William Dawes as  Kurúbarabúla
Bennelong was taken to England in 1792 by retiring Governor Phillip.
 
These details may be presented in a table:
TABLE 1: gun / corroboree / person’s name
Australian
respelt
English
EngJSM
source
“Goòroobeera”
guru-bi-ra =
“a gun, for instance, they call Goòroobeera, that is — a stick of fire. — Sometimes also, by a licence of language, they call those who carry guns by the same name.”
gun  [fire stick]:
Tench [:292:25.1] [BB]
“Car-rib-ber-re”
garibari =
“Another mode of dancing”
corroboree  [dancing]:
Anon (c) [c:8:11] [BB]
“Kurúbărăbúla”
Gurubara bula =
“[Aged ] 17”
Gurubara bula  :
Dawes (b) [b:41:15.1] [BB]
When these three records are put together in this way the idea emerges that they might be related. The three words gurubira, garibari, and gurubara bula have a resemblance the one to the other. But there is more. 
 
When the clapsticks used in a corroboree are smacked together they go ‘bang!’, not unlike a gunshot. Moreover there are always two of them, one in each hand. So perhaps the ‘other mode of dancing’ was the type featuring clapsticks (a corroboree); 
— guns were called ‘clapsticks’ because of the similar sound they made when fired; 
— and perhaps near at hand at the time of  Kurúbărăbúla’s birth clapsticks (inevitably two) were at hand.
The records may be looked at more closely. 
TABLE 2: garibari
The following suggest a pronunciation of garibari / garibara or similar:
“Car-rib-ber-re”
garibari =
“Another mode of dancing”
corroboree– dancing:
Anon (c) [c:8:11] [Biyal Biyal]
“carib-berie”
garibari =
“dance”
corroboree  jump-having:
Hunter’s Journal [:145:11] [BB]
“Că-rab-bă-ră”
garabara =
“To dance”
corroboree– dance:
Southwell [:148.2:5] [Biyal Biyal]
“korrobra”
garabara =
“to dance”
corroboree– dance:
AL&T Rowley GeoR [:261:12] [Dharug (Ridley)]
“korobra”
garabara =
“dance”
corroboree– dance:
KAOL Rowley GeoR [:107:2] [Dharug (Ridley)]
“corobori”
garabari =
“corroboree”
corroboree– jump-having:
Lesson, R.P. [:280:9] [Dharug (Ridley)]
“corroboree”
garabari =
“a friendly “corroboree,” which was a dance”
corroboree  jump-having:
Hill, Richard [:1:10] []
TABLE 3: dyari-ba-[ra]
By contrast, another group suggests there might be another word entirely:
“Ger-rub-ber”
dyara-ba =
“What gives fire”
fire stick  :
Anon (c) [c:29:11.1] [BB]
“Ge-re-bar”
dyara-ba =
“What gives fire”
fire stick  :
Anon (c) [c:29:11.2] [BB]
“Ger-rub-ber”
dyara-ba =
“Anything that gives fire, as a gun etc.”
fire stick  [gun]:
King in Hunter [:408.2:33] [BB]
“Ger-rub-ber”
dyara-ba =
“that gives fire”
fire stick  :
King MS [:402:30] [BB]
“Gerri.barra”
dyiri-ba-ra =
“Musket”
gun  [musket]:
Larmer, James: JRSNSW, 1898 (1834 list) [:224.1:7] []
“Dje-ra-bar”
dyira-ba =
“The name given to the musquet;”
gun  [fire stick]:
Anon (c) [c:16:19.1] [BB]
“Je-rab-ber”
dyira-ba =
“The name given to the musquet”
gun  [fire stick]:
Anon (c) [c:16:19.2] [BB]
“jererburra”
dyara-bara =
“gun”
gun  [fire stick]:
KAOL Rowley GeoR [:105:41] [DG]
It might be the case that there are two distinct words garibari and dyaraba(ra), one to do with corroborees and the other with guns (or fire).
On the other hand, it might be the confusion caused by English spellings, and the possibility that ‘g’ can be pronounced as ‘j’ as in ‘ginger’ and ‘George’. So the first five of the dyara-ba words above might equally be transcribed as gara-ba. This leaves the last three in the table as ‘j’ words, all to do with ‘fire stick’. This might be a confusion, as the first record in Table 1 has gurubira, i.e. with a ‘g’.
But in the Sydney language at least, there are often further doubts. It concerns ‘red’:
TABLE 4: gari: red
“gur´ree”
gari =
“red”
red  :
Mathews 8006/3/5 -5 [108–Dharug] [:111:20] [DG]
“gorea”
gariya =
“kangaroo (red)”
kangaroo  red:
AL&T Rowley GeoR [:259:5] [DG]
“gōreā”
gariya =
“kangaroo (red)”
kangaroo  red:
KAOL Rowley GeoR [:104:9] [DG]
“go-ra-go-ro”
gara gara =
“Red ditto (possum)”
possum  red:
Collins 1 [:511.2:24] [BB]
“Goo-reet”
gurid =
“”Red-breasted Parrot”, native name “Goo-reet”…”
lorikeet  rainbow:
Painters [::] [BB]
“Goeril”
guril =
“”Red-breasted or Blue-bellied Parrot”, native name “Goeril” …”
lorikeet  rainbow, blue-bellied:
Painters [::] [BB]
“Karreet”
garid =
“Scarlet-breasted Flycatcher”, native name “Karreet “
robin  flame:
Painters [::] [BB]
While the spelling gari is no problem, the word means ‘red’ (akin to ‘fire’, or ‘what gives fire’), and hence not a ‘clapstick’. So while the idea that garibari ‘corroboree’ might really mean ‘clapstick’, perhaps there was another similar word garaba(ra) meaning ‘produce (red) fire’.

 

JEREMY STEELE
Thursday 7 November 2013

Rising, falling, and holding up

 

To ask ‘What was the Sydney Language word for “rise”’ would seem a simple question, but it is not.
The earliest records suggest the word for ‘rise’ was burbaga (or barbaga) in the vicinity of the Harbour at least, as indicated in Section 1 of the table of examples below (Table 2).
Yet Section 3 of that table offers instances of the same word meaning effectively the opposite, with ideas of ‘drop’, ‘fall’, ‘sink’ associated with it.
Pronunciation
The position is not helped by the fact that it is now anyone’s guess as to how the recorded words were pronounced. The pronunciation could have made a difference. Was it:
ba- or bu- ?
bar- or bur- ?
bar- or bara- ?
bur- or bura- ?
ga- or gu- ?
Was bi- pronounced as in BI-cycle, or as in BI-nnacle?
Contronym ?
In section 3b of Table 2, Threlkeld says specifically that bur- indicated ‘drop’. Yet this contradicts the evidence in Section 1 where it means ‘rise’. Could it be that for users of the Sydney Language ‘rise’ and ‘fall’ were somehow two sides of the same coin? Could the word mean both ideas, the interpretation depending on the context? (There are somewhat similar examples in English, such as cleave: ‘to split’ or ‘to join together’; consult: about advice — to seek it, or in the case of a consultant, to provide it; weather: endure ‘to weather the storm’, or erode, as of rocks or other surfaces.) There are other more direct examples in Australian Indigenous languages such as the use of the same word for ‘tomorrow’ and ‘yesterday’.
Deliberate of accidental distinctions?
In Section 1, is the single example of bur-ba-nga different on purpose from the other examples (bar-ba-ga) — or was that just bad recording and should all the examples have been the same? It is entirely possible that the difference (-nga and -ga) was real and intended.
Somewhat similarly, in Sections 5 and 6 (and the last example in Section 3b), a lone -l- occurs in the words. Was this a mistake in recording, or was it deliberate and accurately captured in the records? In fact there is evidence in the records to suggest that both the suffix -nga, and also -l-, might have been markers to indicate transitivity — which is a feature of verbs, when something happens to something else rather than just happening. Transitivity may be illustrated by considering:
the dog barked (intransitive) (just happening: other examples are ‘swim’, ‘think’, ‘run’ and many more)
the dog bit the stick (transitive) (happens to something else: other examples are ‘hit’, ‘build’, ‘annoy’ and many more)
Possible reasons for variation in the examples
The examples in Section 2 of Table 2 are different from those of Section 1 perhaps because they were collected later, or were gathered in a different location having a different dialect or language (even though clearly it must have been a related language); or because the meaning was in fact to some extent different.
Nuances of meaning
Given the examples found it the table someone today could wring his or her hands and complain that the original speakers were careless in what they said, seeming to jumble up syllables with tiresome inconsistency. 
Or someone today might seek to condemn the people who made the records not only for their carelessness in how they wrote the words down so that we today have little idea as to how the words were pronounced (as mentioned above).
On the other hand the modern person of today might conclude that perhaps the words were recorded more or less correctly but that nuances of meaning are now lost. Such nuances would have been conveyed in those little syllables shown in Table 1 immediately below, known as derivational suffixes, which attached to the stem or root of the words. In English we use prepositions and phrases  to cover the meanings conveyed by derivational suffixes in Australian Indigenous languages. 
Threlkeld has suggested in Table 2, Section 3b) that a root was bur-/bar-. 
Examining the examples in Table 2 uncovers various derivational suffixes, for which possible meanings have been suggested:
Table 1: Derivational suffixes
possible significance
-ba-
-bi-
do / make
-bu-
-nga-
ngGa
be
-ga-
-gi-
be
-gu-
to
-ra-
-ri-
away
-li-
continuous
reflexive / reciprocal
-la-
imperative
-yi- [?]
-wa-
-wi-
location / place
-wu-
These meaning have not been plucked out of thin air. It was Threlkeld who first pointed out that suffixes appeared to convey aspects of meaning in a systematic way. He outlined his concept on page 19 of his ‘Key’1.
 ———-
1 Threlkeld, Lancelot Edward. 1850. A key to the structure of the Aboriginal language being an analysis of the particles used as affixes, to form the various modifications of the verbs: shewing the essential powers, abstract roots, and other peculiarities of the language spoken by the Aborigines in the vicinity of Hunter River, Lake Macquarie, etc., New South Wales: together with comparisons of Polynesian and other dialects. Sydney: Printed by Kemp and Fairfax.

 

———-
The forms ending in -a appear to be more immediate, active, emphatic or operational, while those in -i suggest a more passive, quiet, relaxed state. But detailed consideration of derivational suffixes is a story for another day.
Recommendation
If someone today wished to settle on a word to suggest the idea of ‘rise’, ‘awake’, ‘get up’ I would recommend the word used by Dawes, burbaga. However, If for whatever reason the word buraga were to be preferred, I could offer no cogent objection.
Table 2: Examples from the records in the Bayala Databases
Australian
respelt
English
EngJSM
source
1. BARBAGA: rise
rise
“[P to G. Gonang. poerbungāna]”
bur-ba-nga =
“[Gonang. Take hold of my hand and help me up:]”
raise  :
Dawes (b) [b:29:13.1] [BB]
“Barbuka”
bar-ba-ga =
“To get up”
rise  :
King in Hunter [:407.2:19] [BB]
“Bur-boga”
bur-ba-ga =
“To rise”
rise  :
King in Hunter [:407.2:3] [BB]
“Porbü´ga”
bur-ba-ga =
“Awake. Or to awake”
rise  :
Dawes (b) [b:16:14] [BB]
“Borr-buggah”
bur-ba-ga =
“Get up”
rise  :
Lang: NSW Vocab [:7:191] [DG]
2. BU-RA-GA: rise
“Bô´-ra-ga”
bu-ra-ga =
“get up! Arise!”
rise  :
Mathews 8006/3/5 -5 [108–Dharug] [:112:11] [DG]
“[Jillock bâ-ra-bee]”
ba-ra-bi =
“[moon rising]”
rise  :
Mathews 8006/3/5 -5 [108–Dharug] [:110:18.2] [DG]
“Bōrig-o-lier [bong-o-lier ?]”
ba-ri-ga-li-ya =
“Get up”
rise  :
Tkld KRE c.1835 [:131:22] [Kre]
“Boo-reek´-ka”
bu-ri-ga =
“Get up”
rise  :
Mathews 8006/3/7- No 7 [7:4:32] [Dark]
“barraka”
ba-ra-ga =
“Arise”
rise  :
Mathews NYMBA 1904 [:231.1:25] [Nymba]
3a. BAR-BA-GA: lose / drop / fall
“Parrbuggy´”
bar-ba-ga-yi =
“I have lost it”
drop did :
Dawes (b) [b:16:2] [BB]
“Parrbuggy´”
bar-ba-ga-yi =
“I have lost it”
drop did :
Dawes (b) [b:33:2] [BB]
“Barbuggi”
bar-ba-ga-yi =
“Lost”
drop did :
Anon (c) [c:6:4] [BB]
“[Berá pars`bügi´]”
bar-ba-ga-yi =
“[I have lost a fish hook]”
drop did :
Dawes (b) [b:17:12.2] [BB]
“pór-buġ-gulliko”
bur-ba-ngGa-li-gu =
“to compel to drop.”
drop compel :
Tkld/Frsr AWA Aust Voc  [:61:32] [Awa]
“pórburrilliko”
bur-ba-ri-li-gu =
“to cause to drop by means of something.”
drop using :
Tkld/Frsr AWA Aust Voc  [:61:33] [Awa]
3b. BUR-GA… : lose / drop / fall
“pór”
bar =
“to drop down, to be born”
drop  :
Tkld/Frsr AWA 1892 [:49:7.2] [Awa]
“[Pór-kålléün tia wonnai emmoumba; ]”
bar-ga-li-yan-diya =
“[Dropped-has me child mine {or my}. / m., {My child is born, or, }unto me my child is born.]”
drop PAST [born]:
Tkld/Frsr AWA Illus Sent [:78:4.1] [Awa]
“pór-kakilliko”
bur-ga-gi-li-gu =
“to be dropped, to be born.”
drop be :
Tkld/Frsr AWA Aust Voc  [:61:35] [Awa]
“bulpór-buġ-gulliko”
bu-l-bur-ba-ngGa-li-gu =
“to cause to be lost property, to lose.”
lose act something [compel]:
Tkld/Frsr AWA Aust Voc  [:57:59] [Awa]
4. BA-BU-BA: (sun)rise
“By-bo-bar”
ba-bu-ba =
“Sun Rise”
rise  :
Anon (c) [c:27:5.1] [BB]
“Coing by-bo-bar”
guwing ba-bu-ba =
“Sun Rise”
sun rise  :
Anon (c) [c:27:5.2] [BB]
“[Coing-bibo-la]”
ba-bu-la =
“[Sun-rise]”
rise  :
King MS [:401:5.2] [BB]
“co-ing bi-bo-bā “
guwing ba-bu-ba =
“Sun rising”
sun rise– :
Collins 1 [:507.1:11] [Biyal Biyal]
“[co-ing bi-bo-bā ]”
ba-bu-ba =
“[Sun rising]”
rise  :
Collins 1 [:507.1:11.2] [BB]
“[Jillock bâ-ra-bee]”
ba-ra-bi =
“[moon rising]”
rise  :
Mathews 8006/3/5 -5 [108–Dharug] [:110:18.2] [DG]
“bouġ-buġ-gulliko”
bung-ba-ngGa-li-gu =
“to cause another to arise, to compel to arise.”
rise act compel :
Tkld/Frsr AWA Aust Voc  [:57:55] [Awa]
“bouġ-gulliko”
bung-Ga-li-gu =
“to raise one’s self up, to arise,”
rise be :
Tkld/Frsr AWA Aust Voc  [:57:56] [Awa]
“[win´-yoo-a boong´-bâ-min]”
bung-ba-ma-n =
“[Sun-rise; lit., sun rises]”
rise  he:
M&E: GGA 1900 [:271:19.2] [Gga]
5. BU-L-BA-GA: drop
“Bool-bag-a-dei-me”
bu-l-ba-ga-dyi-mi =
“Space occasioned by the loss of the eye or hind tooth”
drop did thou:
Anon (c) [c:22:20] [BB]
“bool-bag-ga”
bu-l-ba-ga =
““to denote the loss of any other tooth the word bool-bag-ga was applied.” [[tooth loss (not by initiation)]]”
drop  tooth missing:
Collins 1 [:485:25] [BB]
6. GU-L-BANGA: hold up
“Gūlbangabaou”
gu-l-banga-ba-wu =
“I will hold it up.”
hold up will I:
Dawes (b) [b:8:14.1] [BB]
7. BU-RA-WA: up, drop
“Boo-row-e”
bu-ra-wi =
“clouds”
cloud  :
Collins 1 [:454:25] [BB]
“[Gwå´ra buráwå]”
bu-ra-wa =
“[The wind is fallen]”
drop  :
Dawes (b) [b:8:16.2] [BB]
“burwura”
bur-wu-ra =
“Fall down”
fall  drop, to:
Mathews KML/Dwl [:279.3:27] [Dwl]
“[Yūgungai yerrimaiadha bŭrwa-marraia nguttanbulali nhari yauangga.]”
bura-wa =
“[and as he sowed, some fell by the wayside] [dropped: Nbk 4: 17:14]”
drop  :
Mathews 8006/3/6- Nbk 4 [DWL] [:23:2.31] [Dwl]
SEE ALSO KEYWORD bara: rise / jump
 
Jeremy Steele
Tuesday 7 May 2013
==================

MUOGAMARRA

 

The following was included in a notice about a future public visit to Muogamarra, dated 15 April 2013:
Muogamarra Nature Reserve is a Protected Place
Muogamarra (pronounced Moo-o-ga-marra) lies between the outer Sydney suburb of Cowan (to the south) and the Hawkesbury River (to the north.) 
But is this guide to pronunciation correct?
muogamarra is a word from the Wiradhuri language, and there is only one reference for it:
Australian
respelt
English
EngJSM
source
“Muogamarra”
muwaga-ma-ra =
“to keep in reserve for future use.”
keep  :
Günther (Fraser) [:100:1] [Wira]
The definition provided by Archdeacon Günther is curiously specific: ‘to keep in reserve for future use’, and this idea is probably what attracted those who bestowed the name on the nature reserve even though the language is inappropriate. The reserve actually falls in Dharug–Kuring-gai country.
The spelling beginning muog– could be rendered either as mug– or muwag-, and there is probably no native speaker today who could say for certain how the word should be pronounced or precisely what it meant. Consequently all that can be done is to look at other words starting more or less the same way, to see if they offer any help as to meaning, and perhaps pronunciation.
There are around eighty such Wiradhuri records to look at in this group. As will be seen, many are variations the one on the other.
The most promising of these is:
Australian
respelt
English
EngJSM
source
“Muoyarra”
muwa-ya-ra =
“to tell behind the back; to speak secretly.”
secret  speak:
Günther (Fraser) [:100:5] [Wira]
A tenuous connection might be inferred to muogamara.
In ‘Muoyarra’, the suffix –yara is the portion than means ‘speak’. In which case ‘muwa-’ might mean ‘secret’. 
In ‘Muogamarra’, the suffix –mara means ‘to do’, ‘to make’. The intermediate suffix –ga might indicate ‘be’. So the whole word might be interpreted as ‘secret-be-make’, and with a stretch of imagination this might yield ‘to keep in reserve for future use’.
As this is admittedly quite a speculative leap, it is worth considering some of the other mug– and muwag– words alluded to above. These follow, being only a few from each group to give the idea, with the number in each group indicated in each heading.
THREE: hatchet
Australian
respelt
English
EngJSM
source
“Moog’ goo”
mugu =
“(The stone tomahawk. Cracks or divides. To pierce.”
hatchet  :
SofM 19020923 [133 Richards] [:134.2:9] [Wira]
“Mo-gel”
mugil =
“stone axe”
hatchet  :
Garnsey [:27:3] [Wira]
SIX: find
“Moog-gaa’”
mugA =
“To find.”
find  :
SofM 19020923 [133 Richards] [:134.2:20] [Wira]
“Moog-gai’ nyee—dtoo”
muga-nyi-Du =
“(I found”
find did I:
SofM 19020923 [133 Richards] [:134.2:22] [Wira]
THREE: blunt
“mugu”
mugu =
“Blunt edge”
blunt  :
Mathews 1904 [:301:112] [Wira]
“Mogo”
mugu =
“Blunt”
blunt  :
SofM 19010321 [26 Thomas–Wiraiari] [:27.4:21] [Wira]
FOUR: medical or inside
“muguma”
muguma =
“Inside”
inside  :
Mathews 1904 [:290:21.2] [Wira]
“Moog’ goo-ma”
muguma =
“To feel bad or pained. To be stung. To place divided.”
ill  :
SofM 19020923 [133 Richards] [:134.2:18] [Wira]
SEVEN: kin terms
Australian
respelt
English
EngJSM
source
“Moog-ging—gaa-lang”
muging-[G]Alang =
“Old women. An aged being. One of luck or providence (to have lived so long).”
matriach  :
SofM 19020923 [133 Richards] [:134.2:26] [Wira]
“{míkigaŋ, múgugaŋ}”
mugu-gang =
“{young woman (unmarried)}”
lass  :
HALE pace WATSON [:510:12.2] [Wira]
“muki”
mugi =
“Mother’s mother”
mother  mother of:
Mathews NYMBA 1904 [:225.2:32] [Nymba]
“muagan”
muwagan =
“sister”
sister  :
KAOL Ridley [WIRA] [:122:13.2] [Wira]
FOUR: ‘lacking’ (privative) suffix
“-múgu”
-mugu =
“The terminations -mubaġ and -múgu denote the absence of some quality”
lacking  :
Günther (Fraser) [:65:4.2] [Wira]
“Mogu”
-mugu =
“is affixed to nouns to signify destitution or privation”
lacking  :
HALE pace WATSON [:501:1] [Wira]
“[wuttha-muku]”
-mugu =
“[Deaf]”
lacking  [ear]:
Mathews NYMBA 1904 [:230.1:24.2] [Nymba]
SEVEN: trees and flora
Australian
respelt
English
EngJSM
source
“Moog-gil’ bang”
mugil-bang =
“The “wild lemon” tree.”
tree  type:
SofM 19020923 [133 Richards] [:134.2:16] [Wira]
“Muogalambin”
muwaga-la-mbin =
“a kind of boxtree”
box  fuzzy:
Günther (Fraser) [:100:19] [Wira]
“Moog’ garr”
mugar =
““Porcupine” grass (spinifex). Possesses to pierce or divide.”
spinifex  :
SofM 19020923 [133 Richards] [:134.2:13] [Wira]
NINE: fauna (birds, mammals, insects, reptiles)
“Múge”
mugi =
“an owl”
owl  :
Günther (Fraser) [:99:15] [Wira]
“Moog’ gein(y)”
muginy =
“Mosquitoes. Who are to pierce.”
mosquito  :
SofM 19020923 [133 Richards] [:134.2:11] [Wira]
“Mūgunda”
muganda =
“Death adder”
adder  death:
Mathews 8006/3/7/ – CRITERION [:28.2:2.1] [Wira]
TWENTY: bodily state (alive, blind, deaf, dumb, sleepy etc.)
Australian
respelt
English
EngJSM
source
“mūun”
muwan =
“Alive”
alive  :
AL&T Honery (Ridley) [NYMBA] [:248.4:1] [Nymba]
“Mookeen”
mugin =
“Blind”
blind  :
SofM 18960810 [12.7: JM-Wooradjery] [:13.1:42] [Wira]
“mugudha”
mugu-Da =
“Deaf”
deaf  :
Mathews 1904 [:301:98] [Wira]
“{Mogle or Neamogle}”
mugal =
“{Dumb}”
dumb  :
SofM 19001121 [166: Thomas–Dubbo] [:167.2:30.1] [Wira]
“Muggaigawanna”
muga-gawa-na =
“to go to sleep.”
sleep inst :
Günther (Fraser) [:99:29] [Wira]
The above are the main categories of words in the collection of around eighty. There are a few others, for ‘luck’, ‘end’, ‘hell’, ‘net’ and one or two others besides.
After having reviewed them all, anyone can form his or her own conclusion as to the real meaning and pronunciation of muogamarra. My own preference at present is for muogamarra to mean ‘secret-be-make’. And note that this is a verb: ‘to make (something) secret).
SECRET, HIDE, CONCEAL
Finally, a search for words meaning ‘secret’, ‘hide’ and conceal’ yielded the following among others.
Australian
respelt
English
EngJSM
source
“Muggugalúrgarra”
magu galur-ga-ra =
“to conceal, to keep secret.”
hide  :
Günther (Fraser) [:99:30] [Wira]
“Goon’ noong-aa”
gunu-ngA =
“Hidden”
hide did :
SofM 19020623 [81 Richards] [:82.3:50] [Wira]
While the first example tends to endorse the notion of muogamarra meaning ‘secret-be-make’ (through magu-), there are no further supporting records. 
The second example is one of seven records of similar form, suggesting gununga as a more likely word for ‘hide’. So the idea of ‘hide’ or ‘hiding’ would appear to have nothing to do with muogamarra.
JEREMY STEELE
Monday 15 April 2013
=================

SYDNEY CLAN BOUNDARIES: Cadigal and Wangal

 

For a number of years the University of Sydney has been acknowledging that it is situated ‘on Cadigal land’. But is it?  There are few historical records giving an indication of the territory of the Cadigal clan. Some are presented here:

John Hunter
“The tribe of Camerra inhabit the north side of Port Jackson. The tribe of Cadi inhabit the south side, extending from the south head to Long-Cove; at which place the district of Wanne, and the tribe of Wangal, commences, extending as far as Par-ra-mata, or Rose-Hill. The tribe of Wallumede inhabit the north shore opposite Warrane, or Sydney-Cove, and are called Walumetta. I have already observed that the space between Rose- Hill and Prospect-Hill is distinguished by eight different names, although the distance is only four miles.”
Hunter, John. 1968 [1793]. An Historical Journal of Events at Sydney and at Sea, 1787-1792 / by Captain John Hunter, Commander H.M.S. Sirius; with further accounts by Governor Arthur Phillip, Lieutenant P. G. King, and Lieutenant H. L. Ball. Edited by J. Bach. Sydney: Angus and Robertson in association with the Royal Australian Historical Society. —p. 275
Watkin Tench
“The tribes derive their appellations from the places they inhabit: thus Càmeeragal, means the men who reside in the bay of Cameera; Càdigal, those who reside in the bay of Cadi; and so of the others.”
Tench, Watkin. 1979 [1789, 1793]. Sydney’s First Four Years, being a reprint of ‘A narrative of the Expedition to Botany Bay; with an account of New South Wales, its Productions, Inhabitants, &c., to which is subjoined, A List of the Civil and Military Establishments at Port Jackson’ and ‘A Complete Account of the Settlement at Port Jackson in New South Wales, including an accurate description of the Situation of the Colony; of the Natives; and of its Natural Productions’. Sydney: Library of Australian History in association with the Royal Australian Historical Society. —p. 292
Philip Gidley King
Australian
respelt
English
JSM
source
Cadi
Gadi =
“The tribe of Cadi are on the South side, extending from the South head to Long-Cove; at which place the district of Wanne, & the tribe of Wangal commences, extending as far as Par-ra-mata, or Rose-Hill.”
Cadi  :
King MS [:405:17] [BB]
Anon Notebook
Càdigal
gadigal =
“tribe at, near, Sydney; by bay of Cadi”
underneath-men  :
Anon (c) [:43:3] [Syd]
Science of Man: Dept of Mines 1901
Caddie
gadi =
“South side of Sydney Harbour, from South Reef to Long Nose Point, Balmain.”
  :
SofM 19011022 [148 MINES–NSW] [:148.2:3] [Syd]
George Thornton
CaddieGadi = “The native name of the country lying between Longnose Point, Balmain, and South Head, was “Caddie,” and the aboriginal term for a tribe or clan being at that time “Gal,” the tribe inhabiting that stretch of country between the points named were called “Caddie Gal.”” Cadi  : Thornton, Notes [:7:2] [Syd]
 
LONG NOSE POINT

Two of the above refer to Long Nose Point—seen at the centre top of the following map:

From selectively drawing on the above information, modern websites confidently affirm precise clan boundaries — as in the following instance:

The Cadigal and Wangal people
The Inner West Environment Group acknowledges that the corridor we are establishing runs through the lands of the Cadigal and Wangal clans of the Eora nation. Hawthorne Canal, formerly called Long Cove Creek, was the boundary between the Cadigal and the Wangal peoples’ lands.” 

Hawthorne Canal is the blue streak descending from the bottom of Iron Cove

This website has deduced that Long Cove was Iron Cove, and accordingly that Cadigal territory extended to the Hawthorne Canal, at the head of Iron Cove, the location of which appears in the accompanying Google map.

The following historical photo also identifies Iron Cove with Long Cove:

The description reads: Long (Iron) Cove Bridge, Sydney
However, is this right? Where in reality is or was ‘Long Cove’? It is either Darling Harbour or Iron Cove. 
 
LONG COVE: THE CASE FOR DARLING HARBOUR
Modern websites
A Wikipedia entry states:
 
“When the First Fleet reached Sydney Cove in January 1788, a consignment of 5,000 bricks and 12 wooden moulds for making bricks was included in the cargo carried by the transport Scarborough. This token consignment was adequate enough to enable the first settlers to make a start on the colony’s first buildings, until the location of a suitable site for brick-making could be found. A site deemed suitable for this endeavour would need to have a plentiful supply of clay and a ready source of fresh water. Approximately a mile from the settlement, at the head of a long cove (and consequently so named), a suitable site for brick-making was located. This site was later named Cockle Bay, and still later, Darling Harbour.[1]”
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cockle_Bay_(Sydney)]
The Darling Harbour case is supported by another website:
“Until the arrival of Europeans, the Cadigal people, the original inhabitants of the area around Sydney Cove, called Darling Harbour Tumbalong (place where seafood is found).

When Sydney was founded in 1788, the bay was called Long Cove because of its unusual length. The large shell middens left by generations of Cadigal people in the area soon saw the name Cockle Bay come into everyday use.”
[http://www.darlingharbour.com/sydney-Education-Heritage_and_History.htm]
David Collins: First Fleet Historian
Collins, in hsid Volume I, provided indicators of what was intended by ‘Long Cove’ in the following excerpts:
 
Page 17: bricks
A gang of convicts was employed, under the direction of a person who understood the business, in making bricks at a spot about a mile from the settlement, at the head of Long Cove; at which place also two acres of ground were marked out for such officers as were willing to cultivate them and raise a little grain for their stock; 
 
Comment

Bricks were made at the head of Cockle Bay/Darling Harbour, as the following extract attests:

[http://www.frankmurray.com.au/?page_id=288]
Two more Collins extracts
Page 101: at the back of the settlement
“At a muster of the convicts which was directed during this month, one man only was unaccounted for, James Haydon. Soon after the muster was over, word was brought to the commissary, that his body had been found drowned in Long Cove, at the back of the settlement.
Page 17: ‘a capital view’ of Long Cove from Government House
“The government-house was to be constructed on the summit of a hill commanding a capital view of Long Cove, and other parts of the harbour; but this was to be a work of after-consideration; for the present, as the ground was not cleared, it was sufficient to point out the situation and define the limits of the future buildings.”
 
Distances: ‘A mile from the settlement’



From the map above, the head of Darling Harbour (Cockle Bay) is under 2 km or about one mile from ‘the settlement’. This matches Collins’s description. By contrast, the head of Iron Cove is about 6-7 km at least from ‘the settlement’ or about four miles.

 
Further, Government House is unlikely to have had a ‘capital view’ of the head of Iron Cove, but might have had such a view of the head of Cockle Bay.

CONCLUSIONS
The evidence extracted from the writers of the First Fleet period indicates that Cadigal territory extended to the head of Darling Harbour (Long Cove), at which point Wangal territory commenced, and extended to Parramatta.
 
The University of Sydney would consequently be placed in in the District of Wanne, and not in the Cadi district.
 
Watkin Tench (cited above) stated:
“The tribes derive their appellations from the places they inhabit: thus Càmeeragal, means the men who reside in the bay of Cameera; Càdigal, those who reside in the bay of Cadi; and so of the others.”

On the modern UBD street directory map above, ‘the bay of Cadi’ may be identifies as Watsons Bayfrom the beach at its southern extremity trans-cribed on the map as ‘Kutti’, but indubit-ably pro-nounced the same. (It can be seen at the bottom of the map, to the right of the in-scription ‘Village Point’.)

 
SYDNEY CLANS
Finally, the following is a map of clans and indigenous place names of the eastern Sydney Harbour region:

Thursday 27 September 2012
===================

Mooney Mooney

Mooney Mooney is on the Hawkesbury River. There is a club there where lunch may be had, with a balcony offering a view over the water; noisy mynas tormented a kookaburra sitting on telegraph wires. The question presented itself as to what this placename might mean. The receptionist at the club visited for the lunch, a resident for the past forty years, asserted it meant ‘many rivers‘ — something he had learnt from other locals. This explanation did not sound likely.

The internet was consulted:
http://www.gosford.nsw.gov.au/ Mooney Mooney: aboriginal origin, meaning unknown.
So the Bayala Databases were later referred to, with the following principal possibilities emerging as to meaning: ‘kangaroo’ and ‘ill’.
kangaroo
Australian
respelt
English
JSM
source
“moane”
muni =
“kangaroo”
kangaroo  :
KAOL Ridley [Lr HUNT] [:124:15.4] [NrN]
“*moani”
muni =
“kangaroo”
kangaroo  :
Schmidt, P.W.: NORTH [:117.21:19] [Awa/Kgai?]
“moani”
muni =
“the kangaroo.”
kangaroo  :
Tkld/Frsr AWA Aust Voc  [:54:54] [Awa]
“Munnee”
mani =
“Paddymelon”
pademelon  :
SofM 19000922 [132.1 Rankin–Richmond Tweed R] [:133.1:51] [Bjlg]
“Munnee”
mani =
“Paddymelon”
pademelon  :
SofM 19000922 [132.1 Rankin–Richmond Tweed R] [:133.1:51] [Bjlg]
“Munnee”
mani =
“Paddymelon”
pademelon  :
SofM 19000922 [132.1 Rankin–Richmond Tweed R] [:133.1:51] [Bjlg]
“Ulan mulla boora money”
yulan mala bura mani =
“Skin that kangaroo”
skin that extract kangaroo  :
SofM 19000322 [28: Thomas–Clarence R] [:29.4:31] [Bjlg]
“Munee”
mani =
“Paddymelon (Nambucca district)”
pademelon  :
AntSoc 456 [42 Critchett Walker–NSW] [:63:63] [Gmbgr]
“Moanee”
muni =
“Kangaroo”
kangaroo  :
SofM 18991221 [209.1 Gostelow-Bathurst] [:209.2:23] []
ill
“munni”
mani =
“sickness”
ill  :
Tkld AWA Key 1850 [K:23:14.1] [Awa]
“munni kolāng”
mani-gulang =
“about to sicken”
ill about to :
Tkld AWA Key 1850 [K:23:14.2] [Awa]
“munni”
mani =
“sickness.”
ill  :
Tkld/Frsr AWA Aust Voc  [:54:62] [Awa]
“munni”
mani =
“to be sick, ill, or to be diseased.”
ill  :
Tkld/Frsr AWA Aust Voc  [:60:29] [Awa]
“munni”
mani =
“sickness”
ill  :
Tkld/Frsr AWA 1892 [:ix:43] [Awa]
On the assumption that reduplication in the case of ‘Mooney Mooney’ is an intensifier, a plural or a ‘very’ may be assumed. Thus one might suppose Mooney Mooney to mean either ‘many kangaroos’ or ‘very ill’.
Other possible meanings are ‘take’ (in the sense of ‘catch’, but in the past tense; and also  ‘run‘ — in examples from south of Botany Bay. However, Mooney Mooney is northward of Sydney; and a verb in the past tense would seem an unlikely in a place name. Consequently either ‘kangaroo’ or ‘ill’ would seem the more probable meanings; and of these two choices, ‘kangaroo’ would again seem the more probable.
It can be noted that the word ‘muni’ for ‘kangaroo’ (or similar — e.g. pademelon, wallaby) appears to have had currency from the Hunter River area up to Queensland (Lismore, Gold Coast: Bandjalang), including Nambucca Heads and Coffs Harbour (Gumbaynggir), with even a further example in an 1899 list from E. Gostelow of Bathurst, but the locality of the word was not recorded so may not have been from the Bathurst district.
Friday 31 August 2012

REPETITIVE yar

When reviewing Wiradhuri records made by Archdeacon James Gunther around 1837, your database compiler chanced upon:

Australian
respelt
English
JSM
source
“Yarbarra”
yarba-ra =
“to dig, scrape with the spade.”
dig  :
Günther (Fraser) [:108:31] [Wira]
This called to mind a Threlkeld entry from Awabakal (or the Hunter River language), which was then found:
“yarr-bulliko”
yarba-li-gu =
“to saw …”
saw  :
Tkld/Frsr AWA 1892 [:101:27] [Awa]
“yarr-bulla”
yarba-la =
“saw (mandatory): do saw”
saw IMP! :
Tkld/Frsr AWA 1892 [:101:34] [Awa]
“yarr-bulli kolaġ”
yarba-li-gulang =
“to be about to saw  [about to be sawing]”
saw ing about to :
Tkld/Frsr AWA 1892 [:101:28] [Awa]
“yarr-bulli-ġél”
yarba-li-ngil =
“the sawing-place; a saw-pit”
saw ing place :
Tkld/Frsr AWA 1892 [:101:32] [Awa]
In fact there were several more , with variations of yar… meaning ‘to saw’.
The full entry for the first item in the above group is:
“yarr-bulliko”
yarba-li-gu =
“to saw [‘to be in the act of causing by its own act the sound of yarr’; or, in English, ‘to saw’]”
saw  :
Tkld/Frsr AWA 1892 [:101:27] [Awa]
The Rev. Lancelot Threkeld has taken ‘yar’ to be the indigenous best effort of capturing the English word ‘saw’, a logical-enough conclusion given that there is no /s/ in indigenous languages of the region.
However, the slight similarity between the actions of ‘digging’ in the initial example to ‘sawing’ noticed by Threlkeld led to further enquiries concerning ‘yar’ words. There are a great number of these across the languages of south-eastern NSW, but when ‘repetitive action’ was looked for, the following were uncovered.
SWIM
“Yar´-ruh”
yara =
“to swim”
swim  :
Enright GDG 1900 [:114:83] [Gdg]
“Yarromarrie”
yaru-ma-ri =
“Swimming”
swim  :
SofM 19000322 [28: Thomas–Clarence R] [:28.4:43] [Bjlg]
“Yeromilla”
yaru-mi-la =
“To swim”
swim  :
SofM 19000922 [132.1 Rankin–Richmond Tweed R] [:134.1:65] [Bjlg]
“yerra”
yira =
“Swim”
swim  :
Mathews NGWL [:305:41] [Gga/Ngwl]
“[Boó-roo yar´-râ-min, gool-ân´-doo yar´-râ-moó-goo-moon]”
yara-mi-n =
“[kangaroo swims, at sometime swims not]”
swim   he:
M&E: GGA 1900 [:273:27.2] [Gga]
“[Boó-roo yar´-râ-min, gool-ân´-doo yar´-râ-moó-goo-moon]”
yara-mugu-mu-n =
“[kangaroo swims, at sometime swims not]”
swim  not he:
M&E: GGA 1900 [:273:27.4] [Gga]
NOD
“Yurbarra”
yurba-ra =
“to nod in sleep, to be sleepy.”
nod  [sleepy]:
Günther (Fraser) [:109:58] [Wira]
“Yurbayurba”
yurba yurba =
“sleepy”
nod  nod [sleepy]:
Günther (Fraser) [:109:59] [Wira]
SHARPEN
“Yāra”
yara =
“To sharpen the points of a muting or fish gig”
sharpen  :
Dawes (b) [b:23:22.1] [BB]
“Yurūlbaradyú”
yuru-l-ba-ra-dyu =
“I am sharpening the tyi bong (by rubbing it on a stone)”
sharp do I:
Dawes (b) [b:23:20.1] [BB]
FLUTTER (FLY)
“Yar´-rat-ba-ga”
yara-d-ba-ga =
“Fly”
flutter  fly I:
Mathews DGA 1901 [:72:54] [DGA]
“Yurreemillemañ”
yari-mi-li-ma-ny =
“to fly”
flutter  he:
Mathews 8006/3/7- No 7 [:22:23] [Gga]
OTHER
“Yar-ra-ran-jar´”
yara-ra-ndya =
“Spread”
spread  :
Mathews DGA 1901 [:73.1:1] [DGA]
“Yarrakál”
yaragal =
“Clean”
clean  :
Dawes (b) [b:23:21] [BB]
“Yarra-yarra”
yara yara =
“ever flowing”
flow ing :
SofM 18960912 [12.2 JJB-Narrandera] [:12.3:64] [Wira]
“Yarrarbai”
yara-ba-yi =
“creaking, as shoes”
creak  as shoes:
Günther (Fraser) [:108:51] [Wira]
“Yarradunna”
yara-da-na =
“to beat on the bargan, q.v.”
clack  :
Günther (Fraser) [:108:39] [Wira]
“Yarra”
yara =
“Birds singing”
chirp  :
SofM 19010321 [26 Thomas–Wiraiari] [:26.3:2] [Wira]
The second (respelt) column gives words spelt yar-, yur- and yir-. The variations can be ascribed to different hearing by different recorders, and to the spellings those recorders used. It is plausible to assume that, say, ‘yar-’ with an audible /r/ as in say ‘yarba’ and ‘yurba’, indicated repetition.
Some of the examples have the syllable ‘-ba’ attached. This is a suffix indicating ‘do’, as was suggested in ‘Five verbal suffixes’ of March 2012 in the naabawinya blog [“-ba and -ma do not appear to be ‘status suffixes’ but rather stem-forming suffixes, indicating ‘do’ and ‘make’ ”
Dig, saw, swim, nod, sharpen, flutter (fly), as well as spread, (to) clean, flow, creak, clack and chirp all are repetitive actions.
———–
As to the word ‘flutter’, it was used simply to distinguish the verb ‘to fly’ from the insect ‘fly’. The need for an alternative word to distinguish similar forms occurs from time to time, producing occasional oddities. So the alternative for ‘bark’ (of a tree) is ‘woof’ (for what dogs do). And ‘light’ (such as given by a torch) is distinguished by ‘lite‘ — an admittedly invented spelling to indicate ‘not-heavy’.
Sometimes English lacks convenient words, where there is no such problem in Australian languages. For example: young man, young woman, old man, old woman. There are also words for boy, girl and child, but English has these ready equivalents. The Bayala Databases have opted for:
young man
youth
young woman
lass
old man
patriarch
old woman
matriarch
For the last two, ‘crone’ and ‘codger’ were considered but rejected as being pejorative in tone. ‘Patriarch’ and ‘matriarch’ are not right either, but they are not offensive.
If anyone can think of better solutions, they can leave suggestions as a response to this blog entry. They would be welcome.
JEREMY STEELE
Sunday 1 July 2012
===============

GÜNTHER AND THE WIRADHURI REFLEXIVE

 

One of a number of puzzles in Archdeacon Günther’s work on Wiradhuri, as printed in Fraser 1892*, relates to the reflexive. Günther had provided the following information on page 62:

—————
1 Günther, James. 1892. Grammar and Vocabulary of the Aboriginal Dialect called The Wirradhuri. In An Australian language as spoken by the Awabakal, the people of Awaba or Lake Macquarie (near Newcastle, New South Wales) being an account of their language, traditions and customs, edited by J. Fraser. Sydney: Charles Potter, Govt. Printer. Original edition, c.1840.
————–

6. Dillinga dilli
(reflexive); as, 
[Gunther example]
[JS RETRANSCRIPTION]
[Gunther translation]
bumangi-dillinga,
buma-ngi-dili-nga
‘to beat one’s self’; 
mirama-dillinga, 
mira-ma-dili-nga
‘to defend one’s self.’
From this, Günther is stating that the derivational suffix marking the reflexive is ‘-dili’. This is akin to the reflexive suffix in such nearby NSW languages as the Sydney language (Biyal Biyal: BB) and the Hunter River language (Awabakal: AWA), where it is -li.
A few pages later, in a section specifically on the reflexive, Günther offers examples corresponding to ten tenses. He does this without offering translations, so provoking difficulties for later readers. The passage in question, with modification to presentation as in the table above, is the following, from page 67:
REFLEXIVE MOOD.
[Gunther example]
[JS RETRANSCRIPTION]
[JS TRANSLATION]
l.
Dalġydyillinga 
da-l-ngidyi-li-nga
eat oneself now
2
Dalġidyillingarrinni 
da-l-ngi-dyili-ngari-ni 
was eating oneself this morning
3
Dalġidyillingurranni 
da-l-ngi-dyili-ngara-ni
was eating oneself recently
4
Dalġidyillinyi 
da-l-ngi-dyili-nyi 
did eat oneself at some former period
5
Dalġidyillin 
da-l-ngi-dyili-n
did eat oneself this morning
6
Déinġidyillin
diyi-ngi-dyili-n 
had eaten oneself before some event
7
Dalliġidyilligirri
da-li-ngi-dyili-giri
going to eat oneself now
8
Wari dalliġidyillingarriawagirri
wari da-li-ngi-dyili-ngari-yawa-giri 
will eat oneself this morning
9
Wari dalliġidyillingarri
wari da-li-ngi-dyili-ngari-giri
will eat oneself at some time hereafter
l0.
Wari déinġidyillingirri
wari diyi-ngi-dyili-nGiri 
certainly eat oneself will
Note: The ġ (with the overdot) in the examples is a character used by the editor, John Fraser, to mark the ‘eng’ (or ŋ) sound, as in ‘sing’.
There really are only three tenses in languages such as Wiradhuri, not ten. In the table, two of these are clearly marked. Of these, ‘Future’ is the clearer, with its ‘-giri’ final suffix (examples #7-10 in the table).
‘Past’ is almost as clear, indicated by the final suffix variants of –ni (#2 and #3), –nyi (#4), and -n (#5 and #6). 
The first example in the table is in the present tense. 
Shades of meaning are provided by the insertion of various ‘derivational suffixes’ such as –ngari / –ngara in #2, #3 and #8 indicating time close to the present, whether ‘just now’ (past) or ‘presently’ (future).
Given that the examples arise in a section purporting to be on the reflexive, and given that elsewhere in Fraser’s work the ten tenses are defined, some translations are inevitable. The problem is the actual resulting translations, when set boldly in print. Take the first, for example — ‘eat oneself now’. Really? The others can be seen to be equally improbable statements. 
Such apparent near absurdities (one might imagine someone eating himself, but only just) force this collection of examples to be questioned. Do they really indicate what is claimed? And if not, what if anything might they actually mean?
In the table, the central retranscription column offers a tentative word division into component elements. This analysis is probably wrong, in parts at least. Let us now consider some of its constituent items in the set of examples: the suffixes.
-l
After the stem da-, which means ‘eat’, there is ‘-l’. This is a transitiviser, and is frequently found. It means eating something, rather than just ‘eating’.
-ngi, or -ngidyi, or dyili
Let us leave these aside for the moment.
-li (at the end of -dyili etc.)
Perhaps –li is a separate entity. In BB and AWA it does indicate reflexive, but for these particular examples, on the basis of the absurdity already noted, reflexive does not seem likely here.
Perhaps –li might indicate something else. In fact, –li both in BB and AWA also may indicate continuity, and the same applies also at times in Wiradhuri. On translation into English, this is marked on verbs with the suffix ‘-ing’, as in ‘eating’.
There is another possibility. A number of examples elsewhere in Günther’s text offer a further meaning for –li in Wiradhuri: ‘may’. However, such a usage does not fit these examples with elegance.
-ngari
As stated above, –ngari indicates time close to the present, such as ‘this morning’.
-yawa (see #8)
Indicates ‘instantly’
-ngi
In the Wiradhuri database there are many examples of ‘-ngi’ as a stem-forming suffix. As such, it is one of several of as yet unclear function. –ngi might indicate ‘be’. In the present instances, such a role might indicate eating simply taking place, or ‘being’. While this is possible, it is now conjectured that this may not be what is happening in the case of the examples in the table. Instead, here follows the alternative suggestion.
ngidyi = ‘here’
In the Bayala database for Wiradhuri there are the following examples:
Australian
respelt
English
Eng JSM
source
“ngidyi”
ngidyi =
“here”
here  :
Günther WIRA (Fraser) [:65:43.1] [Wira]
“Ngidye”
ngidyi =
“here; there”
here  [there]:
Günther WIRA (Fraser) [:92:53] [Wira]
“Ngidyegallila”
ngidyi-gali-la =
“here; emph.”
here emph :
Günther WIRA (Fraser) [:92:54] [Wira]
“Ngidyinguor”
ngidyi-nguwur =
“on this side”
here place :
Günther WIRA (Fraser) [:92:56] [Wira]
“Wiraidu nidge ngindilu bungalli ngindi”
wirayidu ngidyi ngindila bangali ngindi =
“I do not like this place.”
not I here want  place from want  :
Günther WIRA (Fraser) [:114:19] [Wira]
“Ngidyi (ngadhi) ngulumugu.”
ngidyi (ngadi) ngulumugu =
“Here (there) is an end”
here (there) face-lacking:
Günther WIRA (Fraser) [:115:2] 
“Ngadhu ngidyi gigulle waiangagiri”
ngadu ngidyi gigali wayangagiri =
“I that tree go-round-will”
I here tree go-round will  :
Mathews WIRA 1904 [:290:27.1] [Wira][Wira]
Each of this new set of examples features ‘ngidyi’, meaning ‘here’. There is no reason why the adverb ‘here’ should not be inserted as a link in the suffix chain. Generally, such a suffix would need to appear after any  stem-forming suffixes, and after the transitiviser, and before any tense markers or bound pronouns. In the supposed ‘reflexive’ examples, –ngidyi does this.
So, imagining that the examples might all contain ngidyi ‘here’ (as divided up originally in the first example), the meanings for the ten examples, and analysis, might be revised as:
REVISED TRANSCRIPTION
REVISED TRANSLATION
Idiomatic
l.
da-l-ngidyi-li-nga
eat here -ing now
eating here now
2
da-l-ngidyi-li-ngari-ni 
eat here -ing a.m. did
was eating here this morning
3
da-l-ngidyi-li-ngara-ni
eat here -ing a.m. did
was eating here this morning
4
da-l-ngidyi-li-nyi 
eat here -ing did
was eating here
5
da-l-ngidyi-li-n
eat here -ing did
was eating here
6
diyi-ngidyi-li-n 
eat here -ing did
was eating here
7
da-li-ngidyi-li-giri
eat here -ing will
will be eating here
8
wari da-li-ngidyi-li-ngari-yawa-giri 
eat here -ing presently instantly will
presently will start immediately eating
9
wari da-li-ngidyi-li-ngari-giri
eat here -ing presently will
will be eating here presently
l0.
wari diyi-ngidyi-li-nGiri 
certainly eat here -ing will
will certainly be eating here
If this revision should be correct, then Günter’s passage was completely wrong. However, the reflexive marker might still be –dili, as indicated at the outset, as quoted above.
Tuesday 8 May 2012
==================

Five verbal suffixes

Suffixes attached to verbs
In Australian indigenous languages, or some at least, there seem to be five kinds of suffixes that may be attached to verb stems. Not all five are present every time, and in fact it seems to be rare to have more than one, two or three of them. They might be classed as follows:
transitiviser [trvsr] 
stem-forming suffix [SFX]
derivational suffix [DFX]
status suffix
tense marker
In some languages (such as Wiradhuri and the Sydney language [BB]), these suffixes might be followed by bound pronouns in the order nominative then accusative (these most commonly being ‘I’, or ‘I-thee’).
The best readily available examples of a more complex kind come from Wiradhuri, as shown in the table:
Australian
respelt
English
ENG JSM
source
“nu-l-ngidjilinja-ngari-awa-giri-li”
nu-l-ngi-dyili-ndya-ngari-yawa-giri-li =
“gave-each other-morning-tomorrow-shall-we-two: we-two will exchange it tomorrow morning”
give self a.m. will we-two:
Capell: NAAL, 1 [:52:4] [Wira]
“Dalġidyillingarrinni”
da-l-ngi-dyili-ngari-ni =
“2. [Imperfect-definite, I was or was doing—this morning. ]”
eat self a.m. did :
Günther WIRA (Fraser) [:67:3] [Wira]
“Dalġidyillinyi”
da-l-ngi-dyili-nyi =
“4. [Second-aorist, I was or did—at some former period. ]”
eat self did :
Günther WIRA (Fraser) [:67:5] [Wira]
“[Wari déinġidyillingirri]”
diyi-ngi-dyili-nGiri =
“[10. [Future-perfect, I will have done: JS]]”
eat xxx self will :
Günther WIRA (Fraser) [:67:6.51] [Wira]
“Giwalġarrin”
giwa-l-ngari-n =
“Def. past (b) [6.  Pluperfect, had been or done—before some event. ]”
cook a.m. did :
Günther WIRA (Fraser) [:67:15.1] [Wira]
“Dalliġidyilligirri”
da-li-ngi-dyili-giri =
“[7.  Inceptive-future, I am going to or shall, be or do—now.  ]”
eat xxx self will :
Günther WIRA (Fraser) [:67:6.2] [Wira]
“Yanġarriawagirri”
ya-ngari-yawa-giri =
“Def. fut. [8. Future-definite, I am going to or shall, be or do—tomorrow morning. ]”
go a.m. sequence will :
Günther WIRA (Fraser) [:67:16.2] [Wira]
These (except for the first) are taken from:
Threlkeld, Lancelot Edward. 1892. An Australian language as spoken by the Awabakal, the people of Awaba or Lake Macquarie (near Newcastle, New South Wales) being an account of their language, traditions and customs / by L.E. Threlkeld; re-arranged, condensed and edited with an appendix by John Fraser. Sydney: Charles Potter, Government Printer.
No direct translations were provided, the reader being left to deduce the actual meanings from the accompanying general grammatical description. 
In the second, ‘respelt’, column the structure of the verb form is revealed through the use of hyphens. In the various of the examples, after the stem, the following suffixes can be seen:
TRVSR:
-l
transitiviser
SFX:
-ngi
a stem-forming suffix, perhaps also a transitiviser
DFX:
-dyili-ngari / -ngari-yawa
derivational suffixes
TENSE MARKERS
-n / -ni / nyi [past] / -giri / nGiri [future]
tense markers
STATUS SUFFIX
In the two examples below, after the derivational suffix ‘-mambi’ (permit), there is in each case what has been termed above a ‘status suffix’. This is ‘-ra’.
“Bundimambirra”
bandi-mambi-ra =
“to let fall”
drop permit  :
Günther WIRA (Fraser) [:76:28] [Wira]
“Yannamambirra”
yana-mambi-ra =
“to let go”
go permit :
Günther WIRA (Fraser) [:108:16] [Wira]
In the Wiradhuri language ‘status suffixes’ may also take the form of:
-ra -na -nga -nya
It is tempting to class these as ‘conjugations’, but that view is not held here. Instead it is thought that each of these suffixes conveyed a specific shade of meaning. In the absence of direct guidance by the writers and recorders of the nineteenth century, one can only speculate, and this is here attempted:
-ra: an active or vigorous shade of meaning
-na ?
-nga more passive; simply being or happening
-nya perhaps a recording variant of -nya
Examples of these status suffixes follow (see especially the second column):
Australian
respelt
English
ENG JSM
source
“Babbirra”
babi-ra =
“to sing”
sing  [Conj. 5]:
Günther WIRA (Fraser) [:69:34] [Wira]
“Báddarra”
bada-ra =
“to bite”
bite  :
Günther WIRA (Fraser) [:69:49] [Wira]
“Nulgurrah”
nalga-ra =
“To shine”
shine  :
SofM 18991021 [154.1 Shropshire-Wooragurie] [:154.1:16] [Wira]
“ŋanna”
nga-na =
“see”
see  :
KAOL Ridley [WIRA] [:128:22.2] [Wira]
“wágana”
waga-na =
“to dance”
dance  :
HALE pace WATSON [:506:15] [Wira]
“Warranna”
wara-na =
“to stand”
stand  :
Günther WIRA (Fraser) [:105:8] [Wira]
“kabinga”
gabi-nga =
“to begin”
begin :
Günther WIRA (Fraser) [:65:2.1] [Wira]
“Gumbinga”
gambi-nga =
“to wash, to bathe.”
wash  :
Günther WIRA (Fraser) [:88:39] [Wira]
“Mugginga”
magi-nga =
“to close the eyes.”
blind be :
Günther WIRA (Fraser) [:99:22] [Wira]
“ngûngga”
ngu-nga =
“Give”
give  :
Mathews WIRA 1904 [:302:65] [Wira]
“Kabin-ya”
gabi-nya =
“to begin fighting; to begin.”
begin  fighting:
Günther WIRA (Fraser) [:95:28.1] [Wira]
“bundinya”
bundi-nya =
“Fall”
fall  :
Mathews WIRA 1904 [:302:58] [Wira]
“wīnya”
wi-nya =
“to sit”
sit  :
HALE pace WATSON [:509:7] [Wira]
OTHER SINGLE SUFFIXES ATTACHED TO STEMS
Are single suffixes found directly after the stem ‘status suffixes’ of ‘stem-forming suffixes’?
In the following table, -ba and -ma do not appear to be ‘status suffixes’ but rather stem-forming suffixes, indicating ‘do’ and ‘make’:
“Wa-rhaa’ba”
wara-ba =
“To make a noise.”
noise make :
SofM 19030123 [198 Richards] [:200.1:19] [Wira]
“Worr-raa’ ba”
warA-ba =
“Screaming. …”
scream  :
SofM 19020826 [114 Richards] [:118.2:30] [Wira]
“yabber”
ya-ba =
“To Speak”
speak  :
SofM 18991121 [192.1 Richardson-WIRA] [:193.1:33] [Wira]
“Burrumma”
bara-ma =
“To hold”
hold  :
SofM 18991021 [154.2: Kable/Coe-Cowra] [:154.2:93] [Wira]
““Gor’ ra-ma,’”
gara-ma =
“i.e., to cough or expectorate.”
cough  :
SofM 19030123 [198 Richards] [:198.2:15] [Wira]
Likewise, the same question arises with the suffixes -da, -dya and -la. In fact, in the following cases (and in other instances like them), these are possibly imperatives rather than either ‘status’ or ‘stem-forming suffixes’:
Australian
respelt
English
ENG JSM
source
“Boonbuther”
bunba-Da =
“To run”
run  :
SofM 18991021 [154.2: Kable/Coe-Cowra] [:154.2:102] [Wira]
“wilbuddha”
wilba-Da =
“Whistle”
whistle  :
Mathews WIRA 1904 [:302:120] [Wira]
“Waratha”
wara-Da =
“Wait for me”
wait  :
SofM 19010422 [44 Thomas–Wiraiari] [:45.3:6] [Wira]
“bangadya”
banga-dya =
“Cut”
cut  :
Mathews WIRA 1904 [:302:83] [Wira]
“yawidya”
yawi-dya =
“Swim”
swim  :
Mathews WIRA 1904 [:302:107] [Wira]
“[Mabidya! Mabidya! Nganha-dhu bubay yala-ngidyal.]”
mabi-dya =
“[Stay, stay, that I may have a little conversation.]”
sit  :
Hale WIRA (Grant, Rudder) [:92:10.1] [Wira]
“Bumalla”
buma-la =
“beat thou”
beat IMP! :
Günther WIRA (Fraser) [:60:32.1] [Wira]
“Weejelah”
widyi-la =
“To drink”
drink  :
SofM 18960810 [12.3: JM-Wooradgerry] [:12.3:2] [Wira]
“ngunnulla”
ngana-la =
“Think”
think  :
Mathews WIRA 1904 [:302:63] [Wira]
SUFFIXES: BOUND PRONOUNS
As mentioned above, in addition to verbal suffixes, in some languages there may also be ‘bound’ pronouns affixed to verbs. So it is that in the following two examples, after ‘-giri’ (future tense marker), bound pronouns can be seen for ‘I’, ‘him’ and ‘thee’:
“Boom-mol—gee’ ree—joo—na”
buma-l-giri-dyu-na =
“I will hit him. …”
beat will I him:
SofM 19020826 [114 Richards] [:115.1:13] [Wira]
“Bod’ dthal—gee’ ree—n(y)al”
baDa-l-giri-nyal =
“Will bite you. Done in you will do in bite.”
bite will thee:
SofM 19020826 [114 Richards] [:114.3:6] [Wira]
These are:
-dyu-na ‘I him’ [1sgNOM, 2sgACC]
-nyal ‘me’ [1sgACC]
OTHER LANGUAGES
To show that the same or similar structures occur in other languages, various examples from Sydney are presented in the following table:
Australian
respelt
English
ENG JSM
source
“Ta-boa mil-li-jow”
dabawa-mi-li-dya-wu =
“Painted white”
white make self did I:
Anon (c) [c:18:13] [BB]
“Münyemüngadyemínga”
manya-ma-nga-dyi-mi-nga =
“You made me start”
start  make someone did thou me:
Dawes (b) [b:18:9] [BB]
“˚ Píyibaouwinga ˚”
bayi-ba-wi-nga =
“˚ They will beat me. ˚”
beat will they-all me:
Dawes (b) [b:40:43] [BB]
“Tyarrsbabaouínia”
dyara-ba-ba-wi-nya =
“I will throw it (water) over you”
distress  will I thee:
Dawes (b) [b:20:16] [BB]
“Måpiadyími”
ma-baya-dyi-mi =
“You speak an unknown language”
bad-speak did thou:
Dawes (b) [b:18:10] [BB]
“P. Piabuniwínya”
baya-buni-wi-nya =
“I did not speak to you”
speak lacking I thee:
Dawes (b) [b:34:1.1] [BB]
These examples show:
—SFX: -mi, -ma, -ba
TENSE MARKERS: -dya/-dyi (past); -ba (future)
BOUND PRONOUNS -wu (I); -mi (thou); -nga (me; -wi (they-all); -nya (thee)
JEREMY STEELE
Monday 26 March 2012
===================

SYDNEY Words: ‘koala’

‘KOALA’: what does it mean
A koala is one of Australia’s favourite treasures of the animal kingdom. It looks almost unbearably attractive and cuddly. On closer scrutiny koalas seem to spend most of their time asleep, and they are scarcely cuddly, with claws, and perhaps with a temperament that has never made them household pets in the manner of cats and dogs.
‘Koala’ is an indigenous word that might have been retranscribed as ‘guwala’, but probably more properly as ‘gula’ as the following examples suggest. 
 
Original
respelt
English original
Eng JSM
source
“Cola”
gula =
“koala”
koala  :
Caley REFLECTIONS [:140:31] [DG]
“kula”
gula =
“bear”
koala  :
KAOL Rowley GeoR [:104:14] [DG]
“coola”
gula =
“A new and remarkable species of Didelphis has lately been brought in from the southward of Botany Bay.  It is called by the natives coloo or coola.”
koala  :
Brown, Robert: LTR to Banks 16 Sept 1803 [::] [DG]
“Koolah”
gula =
“Sergeant Packer of Pitt’s Row, has in his possession a native animal some time since described in our Paper, and called by the natives, a Koolah”
koala  :
Sydney Gazette [9 Oct 1803:3b:] [Syd]
“kula”
gula =
“native bear”
koala  :
AL&T Rowley GeoR [:259:11] [DG]
“coola”
gula =
“our coola (sloth or native bear) is about the size of an ordinary poodle dog, with shaggy, dirty-coloured fur, no tail, and claws and feet like a bear, of which it forms a tolerable miniature.”
koala  :
Cunningham, Peter [:156:37] [DG?]
Mt Colah in Sydney’s north is probably this same ‘gula’. So too, a little further north, Koolewong.
Hitherto, until the moment of preparing this text, the writer had thought that the animal’s temperament was the source of its name, from the following:
 
“kular”
gula =
“Angry”
anger  :
Mathews DG 1901 [:160:17] [DG]
“goo-lar-ra”
gulara =
“Angry”
anger  :
Collins 1 [:508.1:18] [BB]
“kulara”
gulara =
“angry”
anger  :
KAOL Rowley GeoR [:106:6] [DG]
“Ghoólara1
gulara =
“Cross, or ill natured1.”
anger  :
Dawes (b) [b:8:1.1] [BB]
“Ghoólara murry2
gulara mari =
“Very cross2.”
anger big  :
Dawes (b) [b:8:1.2] [BB]
In reviewing a wordlist, the following was encountered:
 
“Kaliya”
galiya =
Squirrels
glider  possum:
SofM 19010622 [82 Brown–NSW] [:82.2:46] []
‘Squirrel’ was often used for ‘possum glider’, and so that was the retranslation provided for this entry.  However, the database also automatically supplies matches to the respelt word in any entry—here, ‘galiya’, and the main retranslation (Eng JSM) entry—glider, in this case. Among those that appeared was:
 
“Kalianna”
galiya-na =
“To ascend; climb up”
climb  :
McCarthy [:26:4] []
Perhaps, this entry suggested, ‘galiya’ did not really mean ‘possum glider’ but ‘climb’ instead. Possums certainly climb. This led to a search for ‘climb’, with illuminating results. There was a multitude of examples for ‘climb’ beginning gali-, gala- and gula-. Here is a sample:
 
ALLSYD
 
 
 
 
“Cal-loo-a”
galu-wa =
“To climb”
climb  :
King in Hunter [:408.1:31] [BB]
“kalua”
galu-wa =
“Climb”
climb  :
Mathews DG 1901 [:160.2:17] [DG]
SOUTH
 
 
 
 
“Kul´-la-wal-ga”
gala-wa-l-ga =
“Climb”
climb  I:
Mathews DGA 1901 [:72:44] [DGA]
“gulligimbilli”
gali-gi-mbi-li =
“Climb”
climb  :
Mathews NRGU 1908 [:340:37] [Nrgu]
NORTH
 
 
 
 
“kullimulliko”
gali-ma-li-gu =
“to make use of the toe; hence, to climb; because the blacks cut notches in the bark, and, to ascend the trunk of a tree, place the toe therein”
climb make :
Tkld/Frsr AWA Lex [:220:23] [AWA]
“kulliwá”
gali-wa =
“climbed; did climb”
climb move :
Tkld/Frsr AWA Lex [:220:24] [AWA]
“Cull-e -wull-ar”
gali-wa-la =
“Climb up or ascend”
climb  IMP!:
Tkld KRE c.1835 [:131:29] [Kre]
“gulliwai”
gali-wa-yi =
“Climb”
climb  :
Mathews DARK 1903 [:281.3:55] [Dark]
“kulliwai”
gali-wa-yi =
“To go over”
climb  :
Mathews DARK 1903 [:274:26.3] [Dark]
“Kalliwai”
gali-wa-yi =
“Climb over”
climb did :
Mathews 8006/3/7- No 7 [7:80:19] [Dark]
“Cully-wo wil-go-bang”
gali-wu-wil-gu-bang =
“Climb up.”
climb might I:
Long Dick [:4.1:21] [LD]
CURR
 
 
 
 
“Calliwer”
galiwa =
“to climb”
climb  :
Curr v. III Bk 15  §186 [340: Branch–Pt Macquarie] [:344.1:2] [Bpi]
ANTSOC
 
 
 
 
“Gulliwaing”
galiwang =
“To climb”
climb  :
McCarthy [:25:9] []
WIRADHURI
 
 
 
 
“gullê”
gali =
“Climb”
climb  :
Mathews KML/Dwl [:279.3:48] [KML]
“Cullicatha”
galigaDa =
“Climb, to”
climb  :
SofM 19010422 [44 Thomas–Wiraiari] [:44.2:4] [Wira] KAMILAROI
“Cullicatha”
galigaDa =
“Climb, to”
climb  :
SofM 19010422 [44 Thomas–Wiraiari] [:44.2:4] []
“kullial”
galiyal =
“climb”
climb  :
KAOL Ridley [KML] [:33:23.2] [KML]
“kolië”
galiyi =
“climb”
climb  :
KAOL Ridley [KML] [:33:23.1] [KML]
“Kaliambirra”
galyambira =
“to let go up.”
climb, permit  let go up, to:
Günther WIRA (Fraser) [:95:36] [Wira]
“kulliana”
galyana =
“Climb”
climb  :
Mathews WIRA 1904 [:302:81] [Wira]
“Kalianna”
galyana =
“to ascend, climb up.”
climb  ascend, to:
Günther WIRA (Fraser) [:95:37] [Wira]
“Caleertha”
garlirDa =
“Climb, to”
climb  :
SofM 19010422 [44 Thomas–Wiraiari] [:44.2:1] [Wira]
MURUWARI
 
 
 
 
“kula”
gula =
“to climb”
climb  :
Oates [:168:27.1] [Mrwi]
kula-wi”
gula-wi =
“to climb back”
climb back :
Oates [:168:27.2] [Mrwi]
“kula-y-ku”
gula-yi-gu =
“will climb”
climb will :
Oates [:144:17.2] [Mrwi]
Koalas, as has been noted, have claws, and as a consequence koalas are excellent tree climbers, and can leap agilely from branch to branch and use their claws to hang on securely to the branch they arrive at.
If so many parts of NSW have gali/gula-type words for ‘climb’, what about words for ‘koala’ from regions beyond Sydney, which is where the examples cited at the outset derived from. Enquiry reveals that there are many different words for ‘koala, many not of the gali/gula-type:
 
“Pucawan”
bagawan =
“A native bear”
koala  :
AntSoc 456 [42 Critchett Walker–NSW] [:64:75] []
“Banjorah”
bandyura =
“The native bear (Woodenbong district)”
koala  :
AntSoc 456 [42 Critchett Walker–NSW] [:42:9] [Bjlg]
“Banjoral”
bandyural =
“A native bear”
koala  :
SofM 19000322 [28: Thomas–Clarence R] [:30.1:17] [Bjlg]
“bur´runda”
baranda =
“for the male, [[koala]]”
koala  male:
Mathews DGA 1901 [:52:19] [DGA]
“Barrandang”
barandang =
“a native monkey”
koala  [?]:
Günther WIRA (Fraser) [:72:66] [Wira]
“Boorabee”
burabi =
“A native bear (Byron Bay district)”
koala  :
AntSoc 456 [42 Critchett Walker–NSW] [:43:45] [Bjlg]
“Tugaree”
dagari =
“Native Bear”
koala  :
SofM 19010221 [8 McDougall] [:8.1:30.1] [Gmbgr]
“Dun-gear-ah”
dangira =
“Native bear”
koala  :
AnthSoc 456:36: MINES [:36:50] []
“Toon-ga ri”
dungarayi =
“Native Bear”
koala  :
SofM 18990921 [144 Rudder-Orara R] [:144:20] [Gmbgr]
“toon-gool”
dunGul =
“Bear”
koala  :
SofM 18990921 [146: Larmer-LchHlra] [:146:3] [Wira]
“Turgaree”
durgari =
“Native bear”
koala  :
AntSoc 456 [42 Critchett Walker–NSW] [:51:19] [Gmbgr]
“Gumbâwur”
gambawur =
“native bear”
koala  :
Mathews DGA 1901 [:52:18.2] [DGA]
“Kurraloo”
garalu =
“Monkey”
koala  :
Larmer (RSNSW) BBay [:226.1:39] [DGA]
“Gooda”
guda =
“Native bear”
koala  :
SofM 19000521 [62 Tibbetts-Ulamogo Pl] [:62.3:51] [Wira]
“guda”
guda =
“Native bear”
koala  :
Mathews KML/Dwl [:277.3:1] [KML]
“Koor´-a-ban”
guraban =
“Native Bear”
koala  :
Mathews DGA 1901 [:69.2:3] [DGA]
“yarre”
yari =
“a native bear”
koala  :
Mathews D-GDI 1904 [:233:12] [Dgdi]
“yarri”
yari =
“Native bear”
koala  :
Curr v. III Bk 15  §185 [334: Spencer–Lwr Macleay R] [:335.1:22] [Dgdi]
There were also many ‘koala’ words of the gali/gula-type, but they were predominantly in the Sydney and coastal region.
What conclusions can be drawn from this analysis? So far, nothing for certain. The gula-koala could derive from either ‘anger’ or ‘climb’, but the following stem-forming suffixes featuring -wa- indicating ‘move’ seem more applicable to ‘climbing’ (which is to do with activity) than ‘anger’ (an abstract noun).
 
“Cool-oo-wine”
gulu-wan =
“Native Bear or Monkey”
koala  :
Tkld KRE c.1835 [:130:17] [Kre]
“kuluwañ”
gulu-wany =
“Native bear”
koala  :
Mathews DARK 1903 [:280.3:11] [Dark]
“koolewong”
guli-wang =
“bear”
koala  :
Tuckerman W&R Gaz 1896 [::8] [Tkmn]
Each of the non-gali/gula-type ‘koala’ words could be investigated much as has been done above. The results can be no less tantalising. For example, ‘barandang’ (in the list a little above) might be connected to night/black, but also to ‘sleepy lizard’, ‘crane’, ‘gnaw’ and ‘cut’ among other things. Possibly a koala is a ‘night’ (even ‘sleepy’ perhaps) animal; possibly it is seen as gnawing/cutting the leaves it eats.
And with that, this topic will be left for the present. Others might care to take it up.
JS Thursday 22 December 2011

NSW WORDS: Yarrangobilly

Meaning of ‘Yarrangobilly’
Yarrangobilly is in the Snowy Mountains, about 40 km west from the southern portion of the ACT. This places it in Ngarigo country. Consequently ‘yarangu-bili’ might be a Ngarigu word. It probably comprises two or three parts:
—yarang (or one of yarang, yarung; yurang, yurung; yirang, yirung)
—gu
—bili
-bili
‘bili’ is a widespread suffix in NSW languages and appears to convey the idea of ‘act’ or ‘do’. ‘-bi’ and ‘-ba’ can do this too.
‘-li’ can indicate reflexive and reciprocal (i.e. to ‘self’ or to ‘each other’): ‘I hurt myself’ (rflx); ‘we spoke to each other’ (recip);
‘-li’ can also indicate continuation: in English, ‘-ing’, as ‘singing’ as opposed to ‘sing’.
Sometimes ‘bili’ might combine the separate functions of ‘bi’ and ‘li’. At other times it seems as if it might be best considered simply as ‘do’ in English. Sometimes, too, ‘bili’ might be preceded by an ‘-m-’, and this is because some of the languages seem to prefer it that way, just as in English we prefer to say ‘an orange’ rather than ‘a orange’. Here are some examples:
AUSTRALIAN
re-spelt
English (original)
JSM re-translation
source
SYDNEY
“Boam bill…”
buwa-mbili =
“Shark Island”
blow do :
Larmer (RSNSW) SydHbr [:229:2] [Syd]
“Car-re-nar-e-bille”
garin-ari-bili =
“To cough”
cough having do :
King in Hunter [:408.1:2] [BB]
“ton-ga-bil-lie”
dunga-bili =
“Did cry”
cry do :
Collins 1 [:511.1:2] [BB]
“tuabilli”
duwa-bili =
“hide”
hide do :
KAOL Rowley GeoR [:107:10] [DG]
“Da-me-la-bil-lie”
damila-bili =
“A name sake, or a person with whom the name has been exchanged”
name exchange do :
Anon (c) [c:23:7] [BB]
SOUTH
“dhambilli”
Da-mbili =
“Eat”
eat do :
Mathews NRGU 1908 [:340:17] [Nrgu]
“yangabilliñ”
yanga-bili-ny =
“Sing”
sing do I:
Mathews NRGU 1908 [:340:34] [Nrgu]
NORTH
“tungngun-billiko”
dungan-bili-gu =
“for to show as a mark”
mark do :
Tkld AWA Key 1850 [K:21:13.2] [AWA]
“turukónbilliko”
durugan-bili-gu =
“to punish.”
punish do :
Tkld/Frsr AWA Aust Voc  [:62:47] [AWA]
“yuaipilliko”
yuwa-bili-gu =
“to push away,  to thrust out.”
push do :
Tkld/Frsr AWA Aust Voc  [:64:18] [AWA]
KAMILAROI
“bubilli”
bu-bili =
“blow (as in smoking a pipe)”
blow do :
KAOL Ridley [KML] [:33:11] [KML]
“karabille”
gara-bili =
“return (trans.)”
give back do :
KAOL Ridley [KML] [:34:36] [KML]
“Woonabillee”
wuna-bili =
“To give up”
give do :
SofM 18980221 [13: Parker-YWLYI] [:13.22:2] [Ywlyi]
“yena billi”
yinab-[b]ili =
“To catch (as a fish with hook) (imper. yenabilla)”
hook do :
AL&T Greenway (Ridley) [KML] [:240:23] [KML]
“ghimabilli”
gima-bili =
“To make (in any way)”
make do :
AL&T Greenway (Ridley) [KML] [:240:13] [KML]
“Yunnimebillee goo”
yani-mi-bili-gu =
“To release”
release make do :
SofM 18980221 [13: Parker-YWLYI] [:13.22:1] [Ywlyi]
“[Naia bubillini]”
bu-bili-ni =
“[I am smoking]”
smoke do :
KAOL Ridley [KML] [:39:8.1] [KML]
WIRADHURI
“[Wiray-dyu gari-dyi winhanggabili-girri.]”
winanGa-bili =
“[I don’t credit what you say.]”
believe do :
Günther WIRA (Fraser) [:114:27.21] [Wira]
“[Gooyabudthinbilly]”
buDi-nbili =
“[Fishing]”
bite do :
SofM 19000521 [62 Tibbetts-Ulamogo Pl] [:64:58.1] [Wira]
“Ubelle”
yu-bili =
“Rain”
rain do :
SofM 18991021 [154.2: Kable/Coe-Cowra] [:154.2:5] [Wira]
“Gaddambilli”
gada-mbili =
“[NO TRANSLATION]”
rinse do :
Günther WIRA (Fraser) [:61:59] [Wira]
“[Ngadhu birrumbullayambool dhirraubilli]”
Dira-bili =
“[I was throwing a boomerang for play]”
rise do :
Mathews: 8006/3/4- Vol.1 [:89:6.2] [Wira]
“[Karidyidin maindyu winnangabilligi]”
winanga-bili =
“[you will not make me believe that.]”
think do :
Günther WIRA (Fraser) [:115:30.31] [Wira]
“Boonbilly”
bu-nbili =
“Tobacco”
tobacco  :
SofM 19000521 [62 Tibbetts-Ulamogo Pl] [:63:118] [Wira]
ANTSOC
“Kiarabilli”
giyara-bili =
“Milson’s Point”
  :
Larmer HARBOUR 1834 [:229:7] [Syd]
“Warr-Billy”
war-bili =
“Natives wrestling”
  :
Tyrrell [:42:2] []
“Yarra*ngobilli”
yarangu-bili =
“”
  :
UNKNOWN AnthSoc 456:21 [:21:9] [Nrgu]
“Adjungbilly”
ngadyan-bili =
“Permanent stream”
creek  :
McCarthy [:5:3] []
“Yarrangobilly”
yarangu-bili =
“Flowing stream”
water  flowing:
McCarthy [:18:26] []
In the JSM retranslation (fourth) column, nearly all entries end in ‘do’, reflecting the role of ‘bili’. In the very first example, the name of Shark Island in Sydney Harbour, it is suggested that the indigenous name bu-mbili (Boambilly) means ‘blow-do’, because of the winds blowing there.
The last group, headed ANTSOC, are mainly words from The Science of Man, the Australian Anthropological Journal published at the turn of the last century, and placenames. Mostly the recorders of placenames did not provide meanings. Nevertheless, from the preceding examples, it would seem that placenames in the list might have indicated something to do with ‘doing’.
Left out of the above group are certain examples that did not fit that reasoning. They include:
“bâhmbilly”
bambili =
“a level cleared space on the margin of the main camp, where all the chief men meet for private consultations”
earth  flat:
M&E: GGA 1900 [:277:1] [Gga]
“yeppungbilli”
yibang-bili =
“Large”
big  :
Mathews NRGU 1908 [:339:58] [Nrgu]
“Indooroopilly”
nginduru-bili =
“”
  :
Postcodes [::] []
“Boonbilly”
bu-nbili =
“Tobacco”
tobacco  :
SofM 19000521 [62 Tibbetts-Ulamogo Pl] [:63:118] [Wira]
It might be possible to attempt some explanation even of these, for the first two most probably are mistranslations (‘earth flat’ and ‘big’). The third might not fit the scheme being a language appreciably distant (Queensland). And the fourth, ‘tobacco’, is a repetition from the first list (Wiradhuri): for rather than ‘tobacco’ the meaning is really ‘blow do’, the same as for Shark Island: for that is what a smoker of tobacco appears to do: blow the smoke out.
If ‘-bili’ means ‘do’, what about the first part of the word, ‘yarang’ (or its variants)?
yarang
A y@r@ng computer search (i.e. for ‘yarang’ and its variants) yields a considerable number and variety of results. In the examples below several themes can be identified:
—mouth: tooth
—beard: chin
—pronoun: they-all
—tree: spotted gum
—duck: dive
—youth (young man): wicked, strong, jealous (?)
—hunger: edible grub
—depart: go
—dawn
—rain: cloud
—other: above, emu, long, splinter
Although the examples provided are numerous, many more were omitted. For, apart from the near duplicates, none of the results with ‘-i-‘ — ‘yirang’ and ‘yirung‘ — were included, as it seemed unlikely that ‘yarangu-bili’ with its ‘yara (as opposed to ‘yira’) stem might have derived from them. Similarly also omitted and for the same reason were examples in the form ‘yaring’, ‘yuring’ and ‘yiring’. Here are the examples:
AUSTRALIAN
re-spelt
English (original)
JSM re-translation
source
ALLSYD
“yoo-rong-i”
yurangayi =
“A wild duck”
duck :
Collins 1 [:512.1:6] [BB]
“Yourong”
yurang =
“Mrs. Macquarie’s Point”
Mrs Macquaries Point  :
Larmer (RSNSW) SydHbr [:228:32] [Syd]
“: Yerúng :”
yarung =
“A tree”
tree  :
Dawes (b) [b:23:7] [BB]
“yourong”
yurang =
“wicked applied to a man with two wives”
wicked  :
Mahroot [:80:27] [Syd]
NORTH
“U-rong”
yurang =
“Above”
above  :
Tkld KRE c.1835 [:132:32] [Kre]
“Yarrang”
yarang =
“whiskers and beard”
beard  :
SofM 18980521 [88: Brown-Hastings & Wilson R] [:88.24:7] [Wrmi]
“yarang”
yarang =
“Dawn”
dawn  :
SofM 18991121 [192.4 McDougall-Grftn] [:192.4:15] [Gmbgr]
“yarong”
yarung =
“To Go Away”
depart  :
SofM 18991121 [192.4 McDougall-Grftn] [:193.4:35] [Gmbgr]
“yuróġ”
yurang =
“dive”
dive  :
Tkld/Frsr AWA Aust Voc  [:64:22.1] [AWA]
“yurungai”
yurangayi =
“Black duck”
duck, black:
Mathews DARK 1903 [:280.3:32] [Dark]
“yarang”
yarang =
“To Walk”
go  :
SofM 18991121 [192.4 McDougall-Grftn] [:193.4:30] [Gmbgr]
“yarang”
yarang =
“They”
they-all  :
SofM 18991121 [192.4 McDougall-Grftn] [:193.4:1] [Gmbgr]
SOUTH
“yerrañ”
yirany =
“Beard”
beard  :
Mathews NRGU 1908 [:337:14] [Nrgu]
“yarrooñ”
yaruny =
“spotted gum”
gum  spotted:
Mathews 8006/3/7/ – CRITERION [:73:19] [DWL]
“yurung”
yurung =
“Jealous”
jealous  :
Mathews KML/Dwl [:279.1:1] [DWL]
“Yar´-ung-arn”
yarangan =
“Long”
long  :
Mathews DGA 1901 [:71.2:5] [DGA]
“yoorwang”
yur-wa-ng =
“strong”
strong  :
Mathews 8006/3/7- No 7 [:16:0.2] [Gga]
“eurong-a”
yuranga =
“Man (young) “
youth  :
SofM 18990921 [146: Larmer-BBay] [:147.1:11] [DGA]
CURR
“urung”
yurang =
“Cloud”
cloud  :
Curr v. III Bk 16 §190 [386: Cameron–Forbes] [:365.7:18] [Wira]
“urung”
yurang =
“Hungry”
hunger  :
Curr v. III Bk 16 §190 [384: BENCH–Carcoar (Bthst)] [:385.2:15] [Wira]
“yerong”
yarang =
“Mouth”
mouth  :
Curr v. III Bk 16 §190 [374: Keightly–Wellington] [:375.1:1] [Wira]
“yurong”
yurång =
“Rain”
rain  :
Curr v. III Bk 17 §196 [430: du Vé–Moneroo] [:431.1:38] [Nrgu]
“yerong”
yarang =
“Teeth”
tooth  :
Curr v. III Bk 16 §190 [396: Gordon–Deniliquin] [:397.1:2] [Wira]
“yoorung”
yurang =
“A young man”
youth  :
Curr v. III Bk 17 §193 [418: Ridley–Wollongong] [:418.2:14.21] [Dwl]
KAMILAROI
“uruŋaöa”
yurungawa =
“diver (duck)”
diver  duck:
KAOL Ridley [KML] [:20:34] [KML]
“yerrungun”
yarungan =
“Edible grub (gum tree)”
grub  edible:
Mathews KML/Dwl [:277.2:7] [KML]
WIRADHURI
“Yarrang”
yarang =
“Chin”
chin  :
SofM 19001121 [166: Thomas–Dubbo] [:167.1:36] [Wira]
“Yurong”
yurang =
“a cloud”
cloud  :
Günther WIRA (Fraser) [:109:62] [Wira]
“Eurong”
yurang =
“Emu”
emu  :
Larmer (RSNSW) YYeo [:227.1:15] [Wira]
“Yerong”
yarang =
“rain”
rain  :
SofM 18960912 [12.2 JJB-Narrandera] [:12.3:73] [Wira]
“Yourong-guinty”
yurangGu windayi =
“sheltering from rain”
rain wait  :
SofM 18960912 [12.2 JJB-Narrandera] [:12.3:22] [Wira]
“Yarrang”
yarang =
“splinters”
splinter  :
Günther WIRA (Fraser) [:108:49] [Wira]
“Urong”
yurang =
“Teeth”
tooth  :
SofM 18970227 [16.5: HP-Bland] [:17.5:25] [Wira]
ANTSOC
“Yarrangobilly”
yarangu-bili =
“Flowing stream”
water  flowing:
McCarthy [:18:26] []
“Yarra*ngobilli”
yarangu-bili =
“”
  :
UNKNOWN AnthSoc 456:21 [:21:9] [Nrgu]
What did Yarrangobilly mean?
From the above sets of examples, can any deductions be made as to the meaning of Yarrangobilly? Let us consider them under the themes identified earlier.
First, in the Sydney Language, ‘yira’ is ‘tooth’ and ‘yaring’ is beard (both ‘-i-’-words), and so words in the tooth/mouth and beard groups seem unlikely to be candidates for yaranga-bili. The pronoun group seems an inappropriate basis for a placename; and the ‘bili’ (‘do’) suffix seems equally improbable on a pronoun.
As to the other themes listed, in the Yarrangobilly area there is no shortage of trees, and there might be ducks on the Yarrangobilly River. A young man might have had some connection with the place, or indeed anywhere, and someone might have been hungry there. In addition, someone might have departed, gone or walked at Yarrangobilly. Day might have been noticed breaking (dawn), and likewise in the Yarrangobilly mountains, rain and clouds might be frequent occurrences.
This leaves just the remaining ‘other’ theme including ‘long’, for which no link to Yarrangobilly springs to mind; nor were other examples of ‘yarang-’ meaning ‘long’ uncovered. Much the same applies to ‘above’, ‘emu’ and ‘splinter’.
With none of the examples providing an obvious suggestion as to the meaning of Yarrangobilly, where to turn next? Given the southern highlands location of Yarrangobilly, it would seem best to concentrate attention on the ‘yarang’ examples geographically closest to it, Wiradhuri and SOUTH. CURR and ANTSOC comprising words from all around the state might also be more keenly examined. The least likely words are in the Kamilaroi, North and Allsyd collections.
With nothing leaping out, it is time to look seriously at the hitherto dismissed ‘Yarrangobilly’ examples in the ANTSOC group, as well as to one of the Wiradhuri examples. These three are reproduced below:
“Yourong-guinty”
yurangGu windayi =
“sheltering from rain”
rain wait  :
SofM 18960912 [12.2 JJB-Narrandera] [:12.3:22] [Wira]
“Yarrangobilly”
yarangu-bili =
“Flowing stream”
water  flowing:
McCarthy [:18:26] []
“Yarra*ngobilli”
yarangu-bili =
“”
  :
UNKNOWN AnthSoc 456:21 [:21:9] [Nrgu]
All have the form ‘yurangu’ (or similar).  And the first, ‘yurangGu windayi’ (rain wait), looks as if it might readily be modified to ‘yurangGu-bili’: ‘rain do’, which could lead to a translation ‘it rains’, or ‘rain place’. 
Where McCarthy got ‘flowing stream’ from has not yet emerged from the present ongoing investigation into indigenous words. However, such a meaning does seem plausible, even if not substantiated by any of the examples so far cited. For ‘yara’ may be associated with a ‘river’, or ‘stream’—as is plain to anyone standing on the Swanston Street Bridge in Melbourne. Here are some relevant examples of ‘yara’:
“Yarra”
yara =
“A beach in Botany Bay. See Yerrah”
beach  :
AnthSoc 456:42: Walker [:104:28] []
“yarro”
yaru =
“fresh water”
water  fresh:
Tkld/Frsr AWA Aust Voc  [:53:30] [AWA]
“* Yarra Yarra”
yara yara =
“Flowing Water”
water  :
SofM 18991221 [209.1 Gostelow-Bathurst] [:209.2:54] []
“Yarra”
yara =
“Water running through trees and shadows”
water  running:
Tyrrell [:47:17.1] []
“Yarroom”
yarum =
“River or beach shingle”
beach  :
Tyrrell [:47:26] []
Consequently Yarrangobilly might conceivably be:
yara -ngu -bili
stream SFX do
flowing stream
And McCarthy might have been right after all. But equally, Yarrangobilly could have other interpretations, including ‘rain/cloud place’, too.

ZOO TOUR NAME

The local zoo was looking for guidance for a name for a walking tour of the zoo, and offered its preliminary ideas:
1 Burraga Nura … Zoo’s Aboriginal Discovery Tour
Language words burraga: long nosed bandicoot;  nura: country; 
2 Yana Nura … Zoo’s Aboriginal Discovery Tour
Language words yana: walk; nura: country
What follows is the reply sent to the zoo.
================================================================
I would like to suggest a walking tour name such as :
manyinyi guwalang
I do not know for sure that Mr Bennelong would fully approve of the words, but I think he might just understand them if I could say them to him. I think he might understand something along the lines that . . . several of us are going to look for animals.
With regard to your two proposals
proposal
meaning
respelt
Burraga Nura
bandicoot camp
baraga ngura
Yana Nura
go camp
yana ngura
I would suspect Bennelong might not understand, or even recognise the language were intended to be his — because of the words chosen, possibly pronunciation, and the absence of appropriate suffix(es).
BANDICOOT
Of all the local animals in the zoo, why choose bandicoot?
The only Sydney language word I have for bandicoot is the one you provide, which is a 1901 Dharug word, by which time the language records were of doubtful reliability because the language itself was degraded.
“burraga” baraga = “Bandicoot” bandicoot  : Mathews DG 1901 [:158.2:31] [DG]
There are better attested words for kangaroo, for example.
There are also numerous words for ‘bandicoot’ in other languages in the region (but not ‘baraga’).
COUNTRY (‘place’, camp’)
‘Nura’ is an inaccurate spelling for the word for ‘camp’, if the examples below are a guide:
Original record
respelt
Original translation
new translation
source details
“Gno-rang”
ngurang =
“A place”
camp  place:
Collins 1 [:507.2:17] [BB]
“we-ree no-rar”
wiri nura =
“a bad country”
bad camp  :
Anon (c) [c:21:3] [BB]
“no-rar”
nura =
“a place or country”
camp  :
Anon (c) [c:21:2] [BB]
DHARUG
“Gnárah”
ngara =
“Camp”
camp  place:
Lang: NSW Vocab [:8:208] [DG]
“Gnarrah”
ngara =
“Place of abode or possession”
camp  place:
Lang: NSW Vocab [:8:228] [DG]
“Ngur´ra”
ngura =
“a camp”
camp  :
Mathews 8006/3/5 -5 [108–Dharug] [:110:16] [DG]
“ngurra”
ngura =
“Camp”
camp  place:
Mathews DG 1901 [:158.2:1] [DG]
“[Waree yannibee ngurreegoo]”
nguri-gu =
“[going away from the camp]”
camp to :
Mathews 8006/3/7- No 7 [23–DG] [:33:19.3] [DG]
SOUTH
“ngura”
ngura =
“camp”
camp  :
Mathews DWL 1901 [:129:14] [DWL]
“ngoora”
ngura =
“a camp; “
camp  :
Mathews DWL Grmr 1901 [:2:18.1] [DWL]
“ngura”
ngura =
“Hut “
camp  :
Mathews KML/Dwl [:277.1:8] [DWL]
“[ngura or …]”
ngura =
“Camp “
camp  :
Mathews KML/Dwl [:277.1:2.1] [DWL]
“ngoorra”
ngura =
“Camp”
camp  :
Everitt, Mary: Folder/Doc Afa [:[84]:9] [Gga]
“Nguru”
nguru =
“a camp”
camp  :
Mathews 8006/3/5- No 2 [Vol. 2:46:3] [Gga]
“nguru”
nguru =
“Camp”
camp  :
Mathews NGWL [:303:96] [Gga/Ngwl]
“[Ngurìnì-munnagai ]”
nguri-ni =
“[Dative | to the camp come]”
camp to :
Mathews 8006/3/5- No 2 [Vol. 2:46:4.1] [Gga]
NORTH
“ngurra”
ngara =
“Camp”
camp  :
Mathews DARK 1903 [:280.2:37] [Dark]
“Nur´-râ”
nara =
“a camp”
camp  :
Enright GDG 1900 [:113:71] [Gdg]
“Ngurra”
ngara =
“Camp”
camp  :
Mathews 8006/3/7- No 7 [7:2:28] [Dark]
“ngara”
ngara =
“A camp”
camp  :
Mathews 8006/3/7- No 7 [7:76:14] [Dark]
“[Ngaragoo yanna]”
ngara-gu =
“[Come to the camp]”
camp to :
Mathews 8006/3/7- No 7 [7:76:15.1] [Dark]
“[nguragu yung]”
ngura-gu =
“[to the camp go]”
camp to :
Mathews D-GDI 1904 [:233:28.1] [D-DGI]
There are 19 ng— examples in the above table but only 3 (really only 2) n— examples, and one of those is from the Port Macquarie region.
The table also shows examples of how to say ‘to the camp’, which the second proposal implies (yana nura: go camp; it probably should be ‘yana ngura-gu’.
YAN-A
This would seem to be a correct form of the imperative ‘Go!’. Here is one example of it:
“Yan´na” ya-na = “to send any one” go  : Mathews 8006/3/5 -5 [108–Dharug] [:115:9] [DG]
———————————————————————————————————-
ALTERNATIVE SUGGESTION FOR TOUR NAME
On the assumption that what is intended on the zoo tour is to find animals, I have suggested:
manyinyi guwalang
The following table presents the reasoning for the suggestion.
FIND
William Dawes presents a word for find, ‘man’ (take) or ‘man-wari’ (lit. take away).
Whether he was right or wrong no-one can now say, but he was by far the best student of the language among the First Fleeters.
In the third example below he provides the word on which I have based the first word in my suggestion. All I have done is change the pronoun at the end from ‘-mi’ (thou, or you singular) to ‘-nyi’ (we-all).
The justification for this change is in line 8, which is the line where Dawes discovers the correct form of the ‘we-all’ pronoun (instead of we-two, which is all he had known prior to this moment). That is, -nyi rather than -ngun (we-two).
Original record
respelt
Original translation
new translation
source details
1
“Manwå´ri”
man-wari =
“To find (literally to take abroad)”
take  away:
Dawes (b) [b:17:7] [BB]
2
“Manwåridyaoú”
man-wari-dya-wu =
“I found or did find”
find did I:
Dawes (b) [b:17:8] [BB]
3
“[Wårími manyémi buk?]”
man-yi-mi =
“[Where did you find the book?]”
find did thou:
Dawes (b) [b:26:13.2] [BB]
4
“goa-long”
guwalang =
“The Emu (Maroang), the Patagorang, & ye “Menagine” (a small animal), are named “Goa-long”. It is thought he [[Wolarewarrè]] means an animal, …”
animal  :
King MS [:408:5] [BB]
5
“Goa-long”
guwalang =
““ “Goa-long”, which term is supposed to mean an animal, as Wolarewarrè uses it in contradistinction to a bird or a fish: on being asked, if the Emu was a bird, (Binyan), he shook his head, and said, “Goa-long.” ””
animal  :
King in Hunter [:413:12] [BB]
6
“Koolang”
gulang =
“Anything hunted — game.”
animal  :
Lang: NSW Vocab [:9:236] [DG]
7
“jung-o”
dyangu =
“[Beasts) Common name”
animal  :
Collins 1 [:511.2:17] [BB]
8
“[“Bial nangadyíngun; Nangadyínye”]”
nanga-dyi-nyi =
“Hence nangadyíngun is dual We, & nangadyínye is Plural We
sleep did we-all:
Dawes (b) [b:29:9.2] [BB]
Lines 4-7 are examples of ‘animal’. The explanation in line 5 is specific, though I own up to  a misgiving about it, partly from the following two words:
“patta-go-rang”
badagurang =
“kangaroo”
kangaroo  :
Collins 1 [:455:19] [BB]
“Burru-ga-rang”
barugarang =
“THE WORD “BURRU,” —Kangaroo. Burru-ga-rang—Burragorang.”
kangaroo big [?]  :
Russell: Recollections [:14:2] [Gga]
Both these words end in -gurang / -garang, and this is similar to the word suggested by me for ‘animal’, and makes me wonder if it is ‘animal’ at all, but rather an idea of ‘purpose’, or ‘what something is for’.
The stem of bada-gurang is bada, and this means ‘eat’. Did the Indigenous people look at a kangaroo as ‘eat-for’—something to be eaten?
The stem of the second example, baru-garang, is baru, possibly buru, meaning ‘kangaroo’:
“burru”
buru =
“kangaroo”
kangaroo  :
AL&T Rowley GeoR [:259:1] [DG]
“Bou-rou”
buru =
“Kangaroo”
kangaroo  :
King PP Syd [:635:6.6] [Syd]
How -gurang fits in here I do not know, but ‘purpose’ does not seem right.
It would seem that it might be safe to use line 7 instead of ‘guwalang’, although I would have thought that its real meaning were not ‘animal’ but ‘dog’ (dingo). But animal / dingo ought to suit the zoo’s purpose equally well.
So my preferred suggestions would be:
manyinyi guwalang
and alternatively:
manyinyi dyangu
EIGHTEENTH AND NINETEENTH CENTURY SPELLINGS
The spellings used by the original recorders were mostly those of amateurs of goodwill, and show variety, evidenced in the first column of the examples above. I personally think it does not do justice to the language of the Indigenous inhabitants of the time to perpetuate such renderings. Accordingly my preferences are given in the second column of the above examples.
HOW IS THE INFORMATION PROVIDED ARRIVED AT?
Most of the examples are drawn from a database I have compiled over the past decade or more consisting of over 9000 entries. It has enabled me to find all these entries quickly.
This database for the Sydney language is supported by several others covering languages to the north and south of Sydney, for inland NSW, and another for interstate languages, as well as one for south-west WA. The total number of entries is probably around a quarter of a million.
FURTHER ASSISTANCE
Perhaps if you should be seeking further such assistance you might contact me at the outset rather than just use the Troy resource. The information within that resource is contained within the databases, constituting a minor portion of them.
Should you wish to see more on the grammar of the Sydney Language, I refer you to <http://hdl.handle.net/1959.14/738>
JEREMY STEELE
Friday 25 November 2011

What does ‘yela’ mean?

SYDNEY WORDS
William Dawes of the First Fleet wrote, on page 35 of his notebook ‘b’:
P. Mr Faddy yéla Mr Clark yenyában Norfolk Island
Mr Faddy with Mr Clark went to Norfolk Island
 
This sentence arose in relation to the following journey to Norfolk Island recorded at the time by others:
March, 1790. [The Sirius] was ordered, in concert with the Supply, to convey major Ross, with a large detachment of marines, and more than two hundred convicts, to Norfolk [39] Island: ……. She sailed on the 6th of March. [Tench, 163]
[Tench, Watkin. 1979 [1789, 1793]. Sydney’s First Four Years, being a reprint of ‘A narrative of the Expedition to Botany Bay; with an account of New South Wales, its Productions, Inhabitants, &c., to which is subjoined, A List of the Civil and Military Establishments at Port Jackson’ and ‘A Complete Account of the Settlement at Port Jackson in New South Wales, including an accurate description of the Situation of the Colony; of the Natives; and of its Natural Productions’. Sydney: Library of Australian History in association with the Royal Australian Historical Society.]
Wednesday, 17th February [1790]
John Cobley in his summary of events through journal extracts recorded that Ralph Clark wrote in his diary on 17 February 1790 that Ross had approached him about going to Norfolk Island, and mentioned the ‘Faddy’ of Dawes’s sentence, among others.
 
The following are further verbatim extracts from Cobley [Cobley, John. 1963. Sydney Cove 1789-1790. Sydney: Angus & Robertson.]:
Friday, 26th February [1790]
Clark: “By the orders of yesterday, I see the officers that goes with Major Ross to Norfolk Island are Viz Capt Lieut Johnstone, 1st Lieut Kellow, Johnstone and Clark, 2 Lieuts Faddy and Ross, see the Orderly Book, and Creswell, is to remain there; so that there will be seven of use, beside Major Ross.” [Cobley, 1789-1790: p.154]
Sunday, 28th February [1790]
Clark: “By the Battn orders of this day I see on board what ships we are to embark for Norfolk. On board the Sirius, with the Commanding Officer, 1st Lieut Kellow, Johnstone and Clark, and 2d Lieut Ross. On board the Supply Capt Lieut Johnstone and 2d Lieut Faddy. Major [155] Ross asked in what ship I should wish to goe. I told in that ship he went in. He said that is the ship I should wish you to goe in.” [Cobley, 1789-1790: p.154]
Wednesday, 3rd March [1790]
Easty wrote: “Major Ross with Captn Lieut G Jonstone first Lieuts Kellow, J Jonstone and Clarke and 2d Lieuts faddy and Ross with 3 Serjts 4 Corpls 3 drums and 46 privts Embarked on bord the Sirous and Supply to Join first Lieut Creswel and 1 serjt and 14 privt now Doing Duty att Norfolk.”
Bradley: “Received on board the Sirius Major Ross, 4 Lieuts, 2 Serj, 2 Corpls, 2 Drums and 20 private Marines: The Supply received 1 Captain, 1 Lieut, 2 serjeants, 2 corporals and 26 private.” [Cobley, 1789-1790: p.158]
—————————-
The ‘P.’ at the beginning of the sentence in question indicates that it was uttered by Dawes’s teenage informant Patyegorang.
‘yenyában’ can be analysed yan-ya-ban, in which ‘yan’ means ‘go’ and ‘-ya’ is a past tense indicator. The meaning of the suffix -ban is unclear, but the sentence suggests that it is a bound pronoun for ‘they-two’. However, the suffix -ban also occurs in several other examples which throw doubt on this interpretation. Nevertheless, for the present review of ‘yela’ -ban can be taken to signify ‘they-two’.
 
yila: a pronoun?
Could ‘yela’ be a pronoun?  Consider the following examples, especially the second column.  Given that early list compilers often either did not hear, or did not know how to record, an initial ng- sound, ‘yela’ written by Dawes might well have in reality been ‘ngyila’, ‘nyila’ or similar. Pronoun possibilities abound in the Sydney region, and elsewhere.
 
“Ngyéllu”
ngyílu =
“We three only”
we-all only  :
Dawes (b) [b:27:6] [BB]
 
“nyilla”
nyila =
“this (agent) (past & future]”
this fellow  :
Mathews DWL 1901 [:140:10.3] [Dwl]
[many examples];
“nyilli”
nyili =
“If the individual represented by the pronoun is doing some act, nyilli is used “
this fellow  :
Mathews DWL 1901 [:140:8.1] [Dwl]
 [many examples];
“[Ngullamanyilla]”
nyila =
“[we sit (excl.)]”
we-all  :
Mathews GGA 1901 [:154:16.1] [Gga]
[30 examples]
“Wabbaloonyillee”
waba-lu-nyili =
“We all [are beating each other]”
beat  RECIP we-all:
Mathews 8006/3/7- No 7 [:99:5] [Gga/Ngwl]
 [4 examples]
Nga-an”
ngiyin =
“the plural pronoun, we.”
we-all  :
Tkld/Frsr AWA Spec Dial (G.) [G:135:10] [Awa]
 
“[Gureyn-yang(a)”
-nyang =
“[We-all] [pl, incl.]”
we-all  :
Mathews 8006/3/7- No 7 [7:75:10.2] [Dark]
 
“[Ngullea bondillittanyang]”
ngaliya =
“[We are eating]”
we-two  :
Mathews 8006/3/7- No 7 [7:77:3.1] [Dark]
 
 
 But if ‘yela’ were a pronoun, the above examples suggest the translation of the sentence would need to be one of:
—Faddy we-two Clark went to Norfolk Island
—Faddy this/that (fellow) Clark went to Norfolk Island
It could hardly have been ‘we-two’, because Patyegorang was talking about others, and not ‘we’. So the demonstrative pronoun ‘this/that’ might be considered a possibility.
yila: meaning ‘with’?
Dawes gives the translation ‘with’, and indeed in Aboriginal languages a suffix occurs termed ‘comitative’, meaning ‘in company with’—which could apply in this case. (There are other uses of ‘with’, one being known as ‘instrumental’ as in ‘I hit him with a stick’.) Unfortunately there do not appear to be any examples in the Sydney language records of a comitative suffix—other than possibly this one of going to Norfolk Island ‘with’ Faddy/Clark.
Languages of the region do have examples of comitative ‘with’; but they are regrettably few (in Wiradhuri), and while plentiful to the north and south of Sydney, all instances look nothing at all like ‘yila’.
yila: as an adverb?
Several ‘yila’-type records were found in Kamilaroi, as an adverb. These looked promising. The following are a few examples:
 
“yela”
yila =
“Soon”
presently:
AL&T Greenway (Ridley) [KML] [:242:11] [KML]
“yila”
yila =
“then (at once)”
recently  soon:
KAOL Ridley [KML] [:35:27] [KML]
“Yila”
yila =
“soon: often used before this tense of the verb [future]”
soon  :
KAOL Ridley [KML] [:8:23.1] [KML]
“ila”
yila =
“Soon”
soon  :
Mathews KML/Dwl [:268:2.2] [KML]
“yilhaatho”
yilada =
“Immediately”
now  :
AL&T Greenway (Ridley) [KML] [:241:6.1] [KML]
“yilladhu”
yiladu =
“Now”
now  :
Mathews KML/Dwl [:268:2.1] [KML]
“yelambo”
yilamba =
“Before long, or not long ago”
presently  just now:
AL&T Greenway (Ridley) [KML] [:242:12] [KML]
Here is ‘yila’ as an adverb of time: just a little ahead or behind the present — so either ‘presently’ or ‘just now’. In pursuing this line of enquiry your researcher uncovered two adverb-of-time examples from Wiradhuri, featuring the closely related ‘yala-’:
 
“Yallul”
yalul =
“always”
always  :
Günther WIRA (Fraser) [:107:38] [WIRA]
“[Ngindu yallabul wibiagirri]”
yalabul =
“[you shall sit down always]”
always  :
Günther WIRA (Fraser) [:110:36.1] [WIRA]
 
And to the south of Sydney, ‘yila’ appeared to crop up once again as an adverb, but of place rather than time:
 
“Yellungadyen”
yilanga-dyin =
“Behind me”
behind  me:
Mathews 8006/3/5 -5 [:128:31] [Dwl]
“yellungali”
yilanga-li =
“last”
last  :
Mathews DWL 1901 [:149:25.2] [Dwl]
Finally, a trace of a ‘yila’ lookalike was encountered to the north, in the Gadang language north of Newcastle:
 
“U-lit´-tin”
yalidin =
“after”
after  :
Enright GDG 1900 [:114:29] [G:dg]
 
So, in conclusion, what does ‘yela’ mean in the sentence:
Mr Faddy yéla Mr Clark yenyában Norfolk Island
Given that Dawes translated it in the past tense:
Mr Faddy with Mr Clark went to Norfolk Island
 
it would seem that rather than as ‘presently’, ‘yila’ might in fact be translated as ‘just now’, or ‘recently’. And certainly not as ‘with’.
 
[JS: Tuesday 11 October 2011]

SYDNEY: Warrang or Warrane — OR ngurang?

SYDNEY WORDS
One of the earliest recorded names for Sydney, or Sydney Cove, was provided by Philip Gidley King:
Warrane” waran = “The tribe of Wallumede inhabit the north shore opposite Warrane, or Sydney-Cove, and are called Walumetta. [Sydney Cove]”   : King in Hunter 1968 [:275:11] [BB]
This was derived from King’s 1790 manuscript:
Warrane” waran = ” The tribe of Wallumede inhabit the North shore opposite Warrane or Sydney Cove & called Walumetta.” Sydney Cove—: King MS [:406:5] [BB]
[King, Philip Gidley. 1786-90. Journal of P.G. King, 1786-1790. Sydney (Mitchell Library).]
There are various other references to Sydney spelt ‘Warrane’, by H. Haywood Richardson, George Thornton, McCarthy, Tyrrell, and Attenborough, but all appear to be copies of this original King entry.
Dawes provided “Worrong-woóree” warang-wuri = “: On this side (the water) :” side  near: Dawes (b) [b:22:3] [BB]

The spelling ‘warang’ also occurred, first used by Dawes.
Wåráng” warang = “I then told her that a whiteman had been wounded some days ago in coming from Kadi to Wåráng & asked her why the black men did it.—” Sydney Cove  : Dawes (b) [b:33:4.3] [BB]
Warrang” warang = “Sydney Cove”   : Meehan 1807 [::] [BB]
Warang” warang = “Rose Bay”   : Wentworth, D’Arcy, papers [::5] [BB]
The surveyor James Meehan used it in 1807, and Darcy Wentworth sometime before he died in 1827, though he ascribed the meaning to Rose Bay.
SIDE
In the Anon notebook of around 1790-91 there is:
Warrangi” warangi = “Right hand” right  : Anon (c) [c:12:8] [BB]
which, if Dawes were to be correct about the meaning of ‘side’, might suggest the settlement were perceived as being on the right-hand side of Sydney Cove, and hence the reference provided by the unknown informant.
HERE
Also in the Anon notebook is:
“War-ran-jam-ora” waran dyamara = “I am in Sydney Cove” Sydney Cove, I am in  : Anon (c) [c:18:4] [BB]
The ‘jam’ (dyam) or possibly  ‘dyamu’ part of this might have meant ‘here’, from: 
“D’iamŏ” dya-mu = “Here I am; Here I come” here  I: Southwell [:149.1:25.1] [BB]
MUCH LATER
In about 1832, a generation or so later, by which time the Sydney language was largely lost, Larmer recorded:
Warung áréá” Warangariya = “Billy Blues Point” side  xxx [?]: Larmer (RSNSW) SydHbr [:229:5] [Syd]
This contribution, apparently linked in some way, does not add any clarification.
SPELLING
It is probably the case that ‘warrang’ and ‘warrane’ are two ways people in about 1790 recorded the same word they heard. If one said the word to a group today, similar discrepancies in the spelling of it would probably occur.
MEANING
“Warang’ might have genuinely been a genuine placename for the location on Sydney Cove where the settlement was established. Or it might have been a casual reference to the side of the cove on which the settlement was springing up; or the side from which a boat at the time was about to leave for some harbour journey.
Or it might have meant something else entirely, as will be considered shortly. But first a comment about the early recorders transcribing what they heard.
OMITTED INITIAL CONSONANTS
Early recorders apparently commonly experienced difficulty in making out the precise sound of a word they heard, that they were trying to write down. No indigenous words in the Sydney region began with a vowel, and yet there are written records from all over with words starting with a vowel. It was probable that in some regions of Australia a consonant once there might have begun to be dropped, but even so it seems reasonable to be suspicious of words lacking an initial consonant. Often in such cases a particular consonant can be tried to see if it might result in a word more like others recorded for the same meaning. The best consonants to try are ‘w’ and ‘y’, referred to by linguists as ‘semi-vowels’. There is also one other sound that appears to have been omitted because of its difficulty for English speakers: ‘ng’ at the start of a word. In English the ‘ng’ sound is very common at the end of a word or in the middle (as in ‘singing’, ‘banging’), but never at the start of a word. But is is very common there in Australian indigenous languages. Sometimes such Indigenous Australian words were spelt beginning ‘Kn-’ or ‘Gn-’ — or the problematic sound was just omitted altogether, leaving a word apparently beginning with a vowel.
The following pairs of examples show a consonant present in the first and omitted in the second.


W
“Woongarra” wungara = “Little boy” boy  little: Lang: NSW Vocab [:5:144] [DG?]
“Oongra” wungara = “Boy” boy  : Paine, Daniel [:41.1:9] [BB]
“wuttha” wuDa = “Ear” ear  : Mathews NYMBA 1904 [:225.3:48] [NYMBA]
“utha” wuDa = “ear” ear  : KAOL Ridley [WIRA] [:122:24.2] [WIRA]
Y
“Yan-ne-dah” yanada = “moon” moon  : Phillip, Arthur: Ltr 3 Dec. 1791 to Banks [:9:6.1] [Syd]
“anarda” yanada = “moon” moon  moon: Monkhouse [:34.1:14] [Syd]
Ng
“Ngalawáu” ngalawa = “To sit down Or Sit thou” sit  stay, to: Dawes (b) [b:14:5] [BB]
“al-lo-wah” ngaluwa = “Stay here, or sit down” sit  stay, to: Collins 1 [:511.1:15] [BB]
CAMP?
Sometimes a record from some other place sets off a new train of thought. A case in point is the following from a Wiradhuri list:
Oorabooga” ngura buga = “A stinking camp (Oarong–a camp. Booka–stinking.)” camp stinking  : SofM 18991221 [211: Richardson-Bathurst] [:212.1:20] [WIRA]
This example can be further analysed:
“[Oarong]” ngurang = “[(Oarong–a camp. . .)]” camp  : SofM 18991221 [211: Richardson-Bathurst] [:212.1:20.1] [WIRA]
“[Booka]” buga = “[(. . . Booka–stinking.)]” stinking  : SofM 18991221 [211: Richardson-Bathurst] [:212.1:20.2] [WIRA]
From the first of the two examples immediately above it seems just possible that the ‘Warrane / Warrang’ in Sydney might have been a case where a ‘w’ was substituted for an initial ‘ng’ not properly heard, and that instead of ‘warang’ what had been said might actually have been ‘ngurang’
In Wiradhuri ngurang is the word for ‘camp’:
“Ngurang” ngurang = “camp, nest” camp  : Günther WIRA (Fraser) [:93:59.1] [WIRA]
In Sydney Collins recorded the same word as meaning ‘place’:
“Gno-rang” ngurang = “A place” camp  place: Collins 1 [:507.2:17] [BB]
‘Place’ could well have been ‘camp’, and indeed ‘camp’ was often recorded — as ngura / ngara, as in:
“Ngur´ra” ngura = “a camp” camp  : Mathews 8006/3/5 -5 [:110:16] [DG]
SETTLEMENT and CAMP
Could the real meaning of Warang for ‘Sydney’ actually be ‘camp’? 
On the one hand this seems improbable as Dawes meticulously captured and recorded words beginning with ‘ng’ even introducing a special symbol akin to /ŋ/ to spell them. Accordingly he appears unlikely to have made an error in in recording “Worrong-woóree” as quoted above. It is interesting to note that he placed colons around his translation of this expression: “: On this side (the water) :”; this was a device he employed to indicate that he was unsure of the actual meaning. Consequently, any suggestion that ‘warang’ recorded as the name for Sydney might really have been ‘ngarang’ (camp) is doubtful. Nevertheless it remains an interesting possibility, particularly as the settlement at Sydney Cove might easily have been referred to by the indigenous population as a ‘camp’, and hence as ‘ngarang’, or ngura / ngara, rather than as ‘warang’.

South-coast words: Merimbula

A personal diary entry from January 1984 has the record: “Later we all set off by car headed for Twofold Bay150 km away approx. Did this via Bermagui and Merimbula.” Two placenames of interest are mentioned. What might they mean? As usual, McCarthy and Tyrell have something to say:
Bermagui:
Bermagui” barmaguwi = “Resembling a canoe with paddles” canoe— : McCarthy [:6:3] []
Merimbula:
Merimbula” mirimbula = “Big snake; place of two waters or lakes” waterhole two— : McCarthy [:13:31] []
Merimbula” mirimbula = “Two waters, or divided lake” waterhole two— : Tyrrell [:29:14] []
But are McCarthy and Tyrell right?
Bermagui
This could be respelt:
—birma-guwi
—ba(r)ma-guwi
—bu(r)ma-guwi
birma
The ‘SOUTH’ database in the BYALA database series gave no responses for ‘birma’
ba(r)ma / bu(r)ma
There were some responses to the bama (and variants) search, as follows:
“Barmagagang”
bamaga-gang =
“log”
log  :
Mathews 8006/3/5 -5 [:177:13.1] [Dwl]
“[yugundu barmaiadha barmagangga-ba dhurragangga]”
bama-ya-da =
“[he stepped [slippt?] on / a log / [stream-in] ]”
step did he:
Mathews 8006/3/6- Nbk 4 [DWL] [:25:11.1] [Dwl]
“[yugundu barmaiadha barmagangga-ba dhurragangga]”
bamagang-Ga =
“[he stepped [slippt?] on / a log / [stream-in]]”
log on :
Mathews 8006/3/6- Nbk 4 [DWL] [:25:11.2] [Dwl]
“Barmagamburnang”
bamagamburnang =
“a big log”
log big  :
Mathews 8006/3/5 -5 [:177:13.1] [Dwl]
“bummat”
bamad =
“Knee”
knee  :
Mathews NRGU 1908 [:337:30] [Nrgu]
“[Boomaningga gunna]”
buma-ni-ngGa =
“[I’m going up the hill — I going up / hill]”
ascend will I:
Mathews 8006/3/7- No 7 [:26:19.21] [Gga]
“Boomurra”
bumara =
“wind, very strong, from any quarter”
wind  wind, high:
Mathews 8006/3/7/ – CRITERION [:73:4] [Dwl]
“[Boomaningga gunna]”
buma-ni-ngGa =
“[I’m going up the hill — I going up / hill]”
ascend will I:
Mathews 8006/3/7- No 7 [:26:19.21] [Gga]
“Boomaningga”
buma-ni-ngGa =
“up I will go; “
ascend will I:
Mathews GGA PAPS [:147:14.11] [Gga]
This database, which consists of around 12 500 records, gives little real assistance. bama or its variants, and excluding verbs (which seem unlikely for the name of a place) might mean ‘log’, ‘knee’ or ‘wind’. And there were almost no instances of the suffix ‘-guwi’. So bamaguwi remains a mystery.
Merimbula
This could be respelt: 
—mirim-bula
—miri-mbula
—marim-bula
—mari-mbula
It is common in indigenous languages of the region for prenasalisation of /n/ and /b/ to occur, to produce /nd/ and /mb/. This might or might not be happening in mirimbula.
The only responses for mirim were:
“mírrimbi-dyá”
mirimbidya =
“conduct contrary to tribal law”
  :
Mathews GGA Myth [:35:19] [Gga]
“Mirrimbidya”
mirimbidya =
“is when a woman holds a rug [?] over a man. The pirrimbir cannot spear him”
  :
Mathews 8006/3/7/ – CRITERION [:49:1.2] [[Dwl/Gga ?]]
“mirrimbâlang”
mirimbalang =
“[NO ENTRY] or”
himself  :
Mathews 8006/3/5 -5 [:133:1.1] [Gga]
“mittimbâlang”
midimbalang =
“[NO ENTRY]”
SELF  him:
Mathews 8006/3/5 -5 [:133:1.2] [Gga]
This was of very little use. 
There was nothing for either mari or marim.
Hoswever, for miri, there was a rich trove. The following are just a few examples:
“Mirri”
miri =
“a dog”
dog  :
Mathews NGWL [:295:6.1] [Gga/Ngwl]
“Mirridya”
miri-dya =
“My dog (dog my)”
dog  me-of:
Mathews NGWL [:295:27.1] [Gga/Ngwl]
“Mirridyi”
miri-dyi =
“Thy dog”
dog  thee-of:
Mathews NGWL [:295:28.1] [Gga/Ngwl]
“Mirribuladya”
miri-bula-dya =
“dogs both mine”
dog two  me-of:
Mathews NGWL [:295:32.1] [Gga/Ngwl]
“mirridyimmadya”
miri-dyima-dya =
“dogs several mine”
dog plenty  me-of:
Mathews NGWL [:295:32.2] [Gga/Ngwl]
“mirrigang”
miri-gang =
“Dog”
dog  :
Mathews NRGU 1908 [:338:24] [Nrgu]
This is a very ‘doggish’ response. But what of bula?
This was an even richer lode, or which the following are three instances:
“Bulla”
bula =
“Gundungurra: 2”
two  :
Mathews 8006/3/7- No 7 [:36:14] [Gga]
“Pulla”
bula =
“two “
two  :
SofM 1897 04 30 [p.106.5: Wollondilly R.] [:107:9] [Gga]
“bular”
bula =
“two”
two  :
KAOL Ridley [WODI] [:113:27] [Wodi]
In fact bula is found practically across the Australian mainland as meaning ‘two’.
Conclusion
The Geographcal Names Board website gives the following information about meanings:
 
Bermagui: Aboriginal: canoe or better, canoe with paddles. On an early plan appears as Permageua. (Reed 1967)
 
Merimbula: Aboriginal. Also: from ‘Merimboola’ for ‘big snake’ or ‘place of two waters or lakes’. (McCarthy; 1963). Endacott (1955) says Merrimbula means Two waterholes.
The SOUTH database did not come up with any likely matches for either ‘canoe’ or ‘paddle’ for Bermagui.
But it would seem from information on the SOUTH database quite likely that Merimbula might mean ‘two dogs’.

MURUWARI WORDS wan: Negative imperative: don’t

The word “waan”, spelt with a long double-a, appears fairly frequently in the work of Lynette Oates:
Oates, Lynette Frances. 1988. The Muruwari language. Canberra: Dept. of Linguistics, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University
and is shown as meaning ‘tree’, or ‘stick’.
So when wan arose in the following:
wan
puumpi-ta
wii
hey!
blow-IMP
fire-ABS
Hey you, blow the fire up!
it looked as possibly wrong. This was a sentence abvout ‘fire’, and it seemed as though there might be a mistake: wan might not be an interjection (‘hey!’) but more probably something to do with a tree (perhaps on fire) or stick (to put on the fire).
In the second wan occurrence, however, there seemed to no possible connection with ‘tree’ or ‘stick’. Instead, the imperative as claimed by Oates seemed plausible:
wan
witji
tha-n-muka
hey!
meat-ABS
eat-R-CONT+IMP
Eat your meat!
Nevertheless wan still seemed an unlikely interjection — ‘wan’ as a sound just seemed too feeble, perhaps owing to the English ‘wan’ meaning pallid, weary, sickly and generally weak.
 
So an enquiry was made to see if other inland NSW languages could shed any light on wan. The following instances were uncovered:
“wunna !”
wana =
“far be it!” :
not so
KAOL Ridley [KML] [:37:36] [KML]
“Wai!”
wayi =
“look out”
look out!  :
Mathews WIRA 1904 [:291:9.2] [WIRA]
“wah”
wa =
“beware, or exclamation of surprise”
beware!  :
Mitchell, J.F.H 9CY reel 681 [:109:] [WIRA]
This confirmed that a word beginning wa- could indeed be an exclamation. And this discovery in turn prompted a wider enquiry encompassing the coastal languages of NSW, to see if wa- or wan- words turned up in any of those, with similar connotations. There were a number of occurrences.
For Minyung in the far north-east of the state, wana had the sense of negative imperative, ‘don’t’:
“wana”
wana =
“… negative of the imperative. It means ‘leave it alone…”
not do  :
Livingstone [:18:29] [Mnyg]
wana-nga was encountered in other languages to the north but much nearer to Sydney than Minyung: The negative feature persisted but the imperative less strongly:
“[Whannunga neemoor ?]”:
wananga =
“[Leave it alone]”:
Tkld GDG Aust Voc  [126.2:7.1] [Gdg?]
“wonanga”
wananga =
“To give up”
give up, to  :
SofM 1899 07 21 [p.106.1 Armidale] [:107:39] [[BPI]]
“Wurnangah”
wananga =
“To give up”
give up, to  :
SofM 1897 02 27 [p.16.3: B-DGDI] [:17:25] [DGDI]
However, in Sydney, this same word wana-nga, was recorded by First Fleeter William Dawes, with the full negative imperative sense of ‘don’t’:
“Waunánga”
wananga =
“Don’t ye”
not do:
Dawes (b) [b:22:11] [BB]
The form wana-wara was recorded by R.H. Mathews, in the Sydney region, in the Dharug language: wana-wara was a negative imperative with the sense of ‘stop’, ‘desist’:
“Wan´nawarra”
wana-wara =
“leave off, let me go”:
Mathews: 8006/3/5- Nbk 5 [115:2] [DG]
Dawes provided another example featuring wana, but did not give a translation:
“[Wauná wauná Bogîbóonî]”
wana =
“[Answer: [NOT TRANSLATED]]”
want not  :
Dawes (a) [a:7:5.11] [BB]
However, the words can be translated based on other examples in the body of Dawes’s work. ‘Wauná wauná bogibuni’ means: ‘[negative –negative] swim/bathe-lacking’. From this it appears that wana retains the negative imperative (or emphatic) connotation, suggesting an idiomatic translation of ‘No, I don’t want to bathe/swim’.
In three final Dawes examples, negativity (‘not’) is present, but the imperative sense (do!’) is missing. The meaning for wana appears to be, as in the last example, ‘not want’:
“Waúnadîémî”
wana-dyi-mi =
Will Would you not?”
want not did thou:
Dawes (b) [b:22:20] [BB]
“Wånadyu-ínia”
wana-dyu-wi-nya =
“I don’t desire your company”
want not did I thee:
Dawes (b) [b:24:12] [BB]
“[Mínyin mìwå´na?]”
mi wana =
“[Why won’t you have it?]”
want not  :
Dawes (b) [b:17:9.1] [BB]
A final wana example comes from Wiradhuri in a complex verb provided by Gunther:
“Wannamindyarra”
wanamindyara =
“to neglect, to be careless; to care for no longer; to forgive.”
neglect  forgive, to:
Günther WIRA (Fraser) [:104:29] [WIRA]
In the sense of ‘neglect’, the negative thread is maintained, but the imperative is missing.
The conclusion is that wa / wan can function as an imperative, or interjection, and that it might have negative overtones.
Friday 22 July 2011

The ‘buga’ puzzle

MURUWARI WORDS

Lynette Oates has produced a comprehensive introduction to Muruwari, a language group straddling the NSW-Qld border south of Cunnamulla and north of Bourke, Brewarrina and Lightning Ridge. The reference is:
Oates, Lynette Frances. 1988. The Muruwari language. Canberra: Dept. of Linguistics, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University.
It includes over 1100 sentences and verbs for which Oates has provided a grammatical analysis. Unsurprisingly, for such a large body of work, there are some puzzles and mysteries for the general enquirer looking into the language as presented by Oates. Here is one of them, with Oates’s analysis below:
kuntarl wuluwi-pu pinathini puka-ma-yu-na
dog-ABS   bark+PR-3sg   hear+PR   3sg-DAT-VBS-1sg-LCL
I hear a dog barking.
gundarl
wuluwibu
binaDini
bugamayuna
dog-ABS
bark+PR-3sg
hear+PR
3sg-DAT-VBS-1sg-LCL
This can be further broken down:
gundarl
wulu
wi
bu
bina
Dini
buga
ma
yu
na
dog-ABS
bark
+PR
-3sg
hear
+PR
3sg-DAT
-VBS
-1sg
-LCL
In the ‘Bayala databases’ bayaladatabases.blogspot.com this has been respelt as shown above, together with a revised translation:
gundarl
wulu
wi
bu
bina
Dini
buga
ma
yu
na
dog
woof
repeat
he
hear
BARK
make
did
there
The following explanation of the components is offered for the non-specialist.
gundarl          dog-ABS
This shows that ‘gundarl’ means ‘dog’. ‘ABS’ means ‘absolutive’, which in turn shows that the word is a noun and that it has no ending, or suffix. In this respect Australian indigenous languages are gratifyingly simple. If no suffix is needed, then it is omitted. Word order is not particularly important, but at the same time words do not occur in a capricious jumble. An ending would be needed on dog in the case of such a sentence as ‘dog man bite’, which might be equally presented as ‘bite man dog’ or  ‘man dog bite’, in order to show who is doing the biting. Such a suffix ends in ‘-u’ in Muruwari, 
usually –ngGu, or just –u, as in:
gundarlu        yidaA  ngaNa
dog      bite did me
The dog bit me.
But in the case of the sentence being lookied at here, ‘I hear a dog barking’, as no-one or thing other than the  dog could be doing the barking, the sentence is said to be ‘intransitive’, and no suffix is needed. This no-suffix condition is called ‘absolutive’. When there is a question as to who or what is doing whatever, a suffix is needed to show the ‘do-er’. Such a suffix is referred to as ‘ergative’. In fact the ergative suffix is nothing more than a ‘flag’ to mark who is doing the action when there is a doubt.
wulu-wi-bu    bark+PR-3sg
wulu’ means ‘to bark as a dog’, but in the Bayala databases the word ‘woof’ is used to distinguish it from ‘bark on a tree’—for which ‘bark’ is retained.
 
‘-wi’: Oates has marked this as ‘PR’, for ‘present tense’, and so it is. But it is more. In Australian indigenous languages, suffixes after verb stems give additional information, and –wi, in Muruwari, indicates generally an idea about ‘reversal’ or ‘going back’ and the like; and also about ‘recurring’ or ‘repeating’. In this case of  the dog, you can think of -wi as signifying ‘woofing’ going on, as dogs are inclined to do.
 
‘-bu’ is a common pronoun ending, third-person singular, signifying ‘he’, ‘she’ or ‘it’. In Australian indigenous languages generally only the one pronoun form is used, unlike the case of the three found in English.
So ‘wulu-wi-bu’ means ‘woof-repeat-he’ when reduced to the basic ideas.
binaDini         hear+PR
In reality, in Muruwari, ‘bina’ means ‘ear’ and ‘Dini’ means ‘stand’. ‘ear-stand’. Imagine a dog with its ears pricked up. It is ‘hearing’ or ‘listening’. So that is what ‘binaDini’ means: ‘hear’ or ‘listen’; and it is in the present tense, as Oates has indicated.
Now comes the puzzle:
bugamayuna            3sg-DAT-VBS-1sg-LCL
Oates has given a complex explanation, and she might well be right. But if she is, the sentence does not make much sense. Her analysis:
3sg-DAT-VBS-1sg-LCL
 
might be translated as:
3sg-DAT
-VBS
-1sg
-LCL
him-for
verbed
I
place
This would mean the whole sentence would read:
dog      barking he       hear     him-for / verbed / I / place
which is supposed to mean: ‘I hear a dog barking.’ It just does not seem to fit. 
So what could this last component, ‘bugamayuna, really be? Well, here is a suggestion.
Oates provided over 100 examples of the use of pidgin, or basically English words, incorporated into Muruwari everyday speech, such as the following three:
“pulaayinkin”
BULAYINGIN =
“blanket (Eng.)”
BLANKET 
Oates [:372:23] [MRWI]
“wanti-ma”
WANDI-ma =
“to want”
WANT  :
Oates [:132:24] [MRWI]
“parta”
BARDA =
“butter (Eng.)”
BUTTER  :
Oates [:374:5] [MRWI]
Given the sentence in which ‘buga‘ occurs, perhaps the ‘buga’ in ‘buga-ma-yu-na’ might be ‘bark’: ‘buga’, ‘bark’—why not? No more far fetched than the other pidgin examples.
And if so, what of the three suffixes attached to this stem: ‘-ma-yu-na’?
• ‘-ma’ is a suffix fairly widespread in NSW languages meaning ‘make’ or ‘do’, sometimes attached to nouns to make them into verbs, as suggested by Oates’s ‘VBS’, for ‘verbaliser’.
• ‘-yu’ is indeed the first-person bound pronoun ‘I’ as indicated by Oates’s ‘-1sg’ — but perhaps not in this instance. What if a simple transcription error had been made, and the suffix were in fact ‘-ya’ instead? This suffix occurs innumerable times in the Murawari record compiled by Oates, and is referred to as ‘declarative’ when attached to a verb stem. It cannot be readily translated, but it might be considered as meaning ‘in fact’ or ‘as a matter of fact’: hence the term ‘declarative’.
• ‘-na’, the final suffix, when attached to a verb, commonly has an idea of ‘place’. It can be translated as ‘here’ or ‘there’. This suffix is commonly written ‘-ni’ or ‘-na’; and when it is ‘-ni’ it might more possibly suggest ‘here in the present’, while ‘-na’ might correspondingly more likely denote ‘there in the past’.
Australian indigenous languages can be succinct and subtle in this use of verbal suffixes.
So, instead of Oates’s:
3sg-DAT
-VBS
-1sg
-LCL
him-for
verbed
I
place
for ‘buga-ma-yu-na’, the real interpretation might instead be:
buga
ma
ya
na
BARK
make
(in fact) did
there
which sounds more plausible. And the whole sentence would be as shown earlier:
gundarl
wulu
wi
bu
bina
Dini
buga
ma
yu
na
dog
woof
repeat
he
hear
BARK
make
did
there
or ‘The dog barked; (I did) hear; bark did (it) there’, which more or less corresponds to the original translation of ‘I hear a dog barking’.

Morooberra, the person, and Maroubra, the place

 

One of the indigenous people encountered by the First Fleeters was Morooberra. The Judge-Advocate, David Collins, who wrote one of the principal accounts:
Collins, David. 1975 [1798]. An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales, With Remarks on the Dispositions, Customs, Manners. etc., of the Native Inhabitants of that Country: Volume I. Sydney: A.H. & A.W. Reed in association with the Royal Australian Historical Society.
mentioned him as follows, from October 1796:
. . . early in the morning, Mo-roo-ber-ra, the brother, and Cole-be, another relation of Bone-da, seized upon a lad named Tar-ra-bil-long, and with a club each gave him a wound in his head, which laid the skull bare. Dar-ring-ha, the sister of Bone-da, had her share in the bloody rite, and pushed at the unoffending boy with a doo-ull or short spear. He was brought into the town and placed at the hospital, and, though the surgeon pronounced from the nature of his wounds that his recovery was rather doubtful, he was seen walking about the day following. [Collins I:489]
Collins reported on him in his second volume:
• 10 Dec 1797: Collins II, 47
Cole-be knew that this would ensure him the appellation of jeerun, or coward, and that the friends of Ye-ra-ni-be would as certainly take up his cause. As the consequences might be very serious if he should die of the blow, he thought it prudent to abscond for a while, and Ye-ra-ni-be was taken care of by some of his white friends. This happened on the 10th, and on the 16th he died. In this interval he was constantly attended by some of his male and female associates, particularly by his two friends, Collins (for Gnung-a Gnung-a still went by the late judge-advocate’s name) and Mo-roo-bra. On one of the nights when a most dismal song of lamentation had been sung over him, in which the women were the principal performers, his male friends, after listening for some time with great apparent attention, suddenly started up, and, seizing their weapons, went off in a most savage rage, determined on revenge. Knowing pretty well where to meet with Cole-be, they beat him very severely, but would not kill him, reserving that gratification of their revenge until the fate of their companion should be decided. On the following night, Collins and Mo-roo-bra attacked a relation of Cole-be’s, Boo-ra-wan-ye, whom they beat about the head with such cruelty that his recovery was [47] doubtful. As their vengeance extends to all the family and relations of a culprit, what a misfortune it must be to be connected with a man of a choleric disposition!
Ye-ra-ni-be was buried the day after his decease by the side of the public road, below the military barracks.
• Jan 1798: Collins II, 58:
Notwithstanding the severe trial which Cole-be had been put to for the death of Ye-ra-ni-be, the friends of that young man had not thought it sufficient to atone for his loss. One of them, Mo-roo-bra, in company with some other natives, meeting with Cole-be, made an attack upon him, with a determination to put an end to the business and his life together. Cole-be, not yet recovered of the wounds that he had received in the last affair, was unable to make much resistance; and, after receiving several blows on the head, was supposed to have been dispatched; but Mo-roo-bra, as they were quitting him, seeing him revive, and attempting to rise, returned to finish this savage business; which so exasperated another native, that he snatched up a spear, and in a rage threw it with all his force at Mo-roo-bra. The spear entered his right side, just over the hip bone, and went inclining downwards quite through the body, penetrating the bladder in its passage. Of this wound he died in about an hour.
It is tempting to assume that there is a connection between Mo-roo-bra’s name, and the Sydney beachside suburb of Maroubra, and to suppose that the suburb might have been named after the colourful figure Mo-roo-bra. It is tempting too to speculate on a meaning for the name, and ‘path to the ceremonial ground’ has suggested itself from the following:
“Moo-roo”
muru =
“a Road, or Path”
path  :
Southwell [:147.3:11] [BB]
“Bora”
bura =
“Bora, or initiation ceremonies of the Kamilaroi tribes,”
initiation ground  :
Mathews KML/Dwl [:260:] [KML]
The Geographical Names Board provides the following information about a point just south of Maroubra, on the north side of Long Bay:
“Boora Point (Point forming northern entrance to Long Bay – Boora was the Aboriginal Name for Long Bay.)
Keith Vincent Smith states the view:
“The name Moorooboora means ‘pathway to Long Bay’, being derived from muru (‘pathway’) and Boora (‘Long Bay’). This is how the present seaside suburb of Maroubra gets its name.” (National Library of Australia News, June 2006: Vol. XVI:ix)
Two other sources give another view as to the meaning of the name:
“Maroubra (Maroobara)”
marubura =
“anything true, good or beautiful”
—:
Richardson, H. Haywood [::] [BB]
“Maroubra”
marubara =
“Name of the beach and the horde which lived there; good”
path to boora—:
McCarthy [:13:22] [BB]
The principal idea here is ‘good’. However, this is unlikely as it is based on a word of the Kamilaroi language, the language of the distant Walgett district:
“murraba”
maraba =
“Good”
good  :
Curr, E.M.: 3 [:321.2:9] [KML]
“murruba”
maruba =
“Well in health”
good  :
Mathews KML/Dwl [:278.8:22] [KML]
“murraba”
maraba =
“Sweet, nice, beautiful”
good  :
AL&T Greenway (Ridley) [KML] [:238:15] [KML]
“murruba”
maraba =
“good or beautiful”
good  :
KAOL Ridley [KML] [:31:2] [KML]
“murraba”
maraba =
“Good”
good  :
Mathews KML/Dwl [:278.7:7] [KML]
None of the other coastal or inland languages offer anything comparable.
—————
Until today I might have jumped to the wrong conclusion over the meaning of the name Marubara.
Just like Keith Vincent Smith, I had thought ‘Maroubra’ meant ‘path (muru) to ceremonial ground (bura)’.
I was looking at a word list for the Muruwari language on the Queensland border, and it contained the word ‘bark’, meaning both ‘to bark, as a dog’, and ‘bark of a tree’. The only alternative word I could come up with to distinguish the two ideas was to substitute ‘woof’ for ‘bark as a dog’. I made the alteration, feeling foolish, in all the databases in which the ‘bark as a dog’ idea occurred. I also noticed:
“Moroube”
marubi =
“Bark as a Dog”
woof— dog:
Paine, Daniel [:41.1:6] [BB]
“Nur-be”
nurbi =
“to bark”
woof—dog:
Anon (c) [c:18:5] [BB]
“mooroobey”
murubi =
“Thunder”:
thunder
Curr, E.M.: 3 [427.1:5] [NGWL]
The ‘n’ in ‘nurbi’ looks as if it might have been a transcription error for ‘m’; the ‘thunder’ interpretation suggested a common thread of ‘loud noise’; and the general appearance of the words called ‘Maroubra’ to mind.
Further investigation provided the following results:
“mooroobari”
murubarai =
“Thunder”
thunder  :
Curr, E.M.: 3 [:381.1:5] [WIRA]
“mooroobey”
murubi =
“Thunder”
thunder  :
Curr, E.M.: 3 [:427.1:5] [NGWL]
“mirrabee”
mirabi =
“Thunder”
thunder  :
Curr, E.M.: 3 [:425.1:5] [NGWL]
“murraburri”
marabari =
“Thunder”
thunder  :
Curr, E.M.: 3 [:371.1:5] [WIRA]
“muruburrai”
murubarai =
“Thunder”
thunder  :
Mathews WIRA 1904 [:300:57] [WIRA]
“murungai”
muranGayi =
“Thunder”
thunder  :
Mathews D-GDI 1904 [:237.1:5] [D-GDI]
“Marrùp”
marab =
“lightning”
lightning  :
Mitchell, T.L.: SQ [:425.1:44] [Gga]
“Mer´-ree-bee”
maribi =
“Thunder”
thunder  :
Mathews DGA 1901 [:68.2:20] [DGA]
These are from other languages: Wiradhuri of inland NSW, and Nganawal of the Canberra district, Gundungurra of the Burragorang valley and the southern mountainous district, Dhurga from the coast around Jervis Bay, and even Dangatti from the north coast. Hovever, as has been noted, ‘marubi’ was recorded in Sydney, and the clearly related word ‘murangal’ for ‘thunder’ was noted by several recorders, as shown below.
“Moroube”
marubi =
“Bark as a Dog”
woof— dog:
Paine, Daniel [:41.1:6] [BB]
“Moo-rung-ul”
murangal =
“Thunder”
thunder  :
Anon (c) [c:26:18.2] [BB]
“Mo-run-gle”
maranGal =
“Thunder”
thunder  :
King MS [:401:12] [BB]
“Morun-gle”
maranGal =
“Thunder”
thunder  :
King in Hunter [:409.2:4] [BB]
“Mă-roong-al”
marungal =
“Thunder”
thunder  :
Southwell [:147.2:15.2] [BB]
“murongal”
murangal =
“thunder”
thunder  :
KAOL Rowley [DgR table] [:126:5.6] [DgR]
“Moorongal”
murungal =
“Thunder”
thunder  :
Bowman: Camden [:17:38] [DG]
“murungal”
murungal =
“Thunder”
thunder  :
Mathews DG 1901 [:158:30] [DG]
“murongal”
murangal =
“thunder”
thunder  :
KAOL Rowley GeoR [:105:10] [DgR]
“{Morungle-birrong}”
maranGalbirang =
“{Struck with thunder & lightning}”
thunder  deriving from:
King MS [:402:7.1] [BB]
“Mu-rungle be-rong”
marangGalbirang =
“Struck by ditto [thunder]”
thunder  deriving from:
Anon (c) [c:26:20] [BB]
This evidence suggests that ‘Maroubra’ might not mean ‘the path to the ceremonial ground’ (muru-bura ) but instead ‘thunder-having’, or ‘sound of breakers present’, or similar, anyway, to do with sound.
Although there are no records other than Mitchell’s word for ‘lightning’, to confirm the idea, It is possible that the base word for ‘loud noise’ might be ‘marab’, or perhaps ‘maraba’ or similar.
To this would be attached a ‘proprietive’ suffix something like ‘arai’, meaning ‘having’. This suffix occurs in the language names ‘Wira-dhuri’ and ‘Kamil-aroi’, and in abundant exmples from those languages. Although there are equally abundant examples for the complementary ‘abessive’ or ‘lacking’ suffix in the Sydney Language (‘Biyal Biyal’), there are no clearly identified records for the ‘having’ suffix in Sydney. But there are many words that are candidates, such as the following:
“cong-ar-ray”
gang-arai =
“Scars on the breast”
scar-having:
Collins 1 [:507.2:7] [BB]
“Cong-ar-rey”
gang-arai =
“To make the scars on the breast”
scar—-having:
Anon (c) [c:27:18.2] [BB]
“Gong-ara”
gang-ara =
“Scarifications”
scar—-having:
SofM 1897 04 30 [p.106.1: Suttor-BB] [:106:22] [Syd]
“Gong-ara”
gang-ara =
“Ornamental scars on the body”:
King in Hunter 1793 [409.1:15] [BB]
“congare”
gung-ari =
“short scars”
scar-having :
Mahroot [:80:30] [Syd]
“moo-ton-ore”
mudan-ari =
“Lame”
lame-having:
Collins 1 [:508.1:29] [BB]
“[Ngalgear mutingoré]”
muding-ari =
“[… mutingoré …]”
lame-having:
Dawes (b) [b:28:7.1] [BB]
“can-nar-ray”
gan-arai =
“Centipede”
centipede  [snake having]:
Collins 1 [:512.2:15] [BB]
So ‘Maroubra’ might be ‘murab-ara(i)’: ‘loud-noise-having’. The suburb of Maroubra is by the sea. The sea is noisy, as it crashes on the nearby rocks.
JS Monday 30 May 2011

AWABAKAL Words

THOSE WERE THE DAYS
A generation after the upheaval of 1788 and the arrival of the First Fleet, and around 150 km north of Sydney, Lancelot Edward Threlkeld was superintending the outpost he had set up at what is now Belmont on Lake Macquarie on behalf of the London Missionary Society. The purpose was to make contact with the local indigenous people and to undertake all that missionaries normally hope to do. Threlkeld believed that he would better achieve this objective if he could communicate, if he himself learnt the language of the area. And he assiduously applied himself to doing this, and recorded his language acquisition in publications spanning over thirty years from 1825 until his death in 1859. These included a grammar, sample sentences, and translations of two of the Gospels as well as various prayers. His was a major achievement, and opened up the study of Australian indigenous languages.
Threlkeld was helped in particular by one man, Biraban, also known as McGill, who was fluent in English having been a servant at the Military Barracks in Sydney in his boyhood. His name meant ‘eaglehawk’, or ‘wedge-tailed eagle’. Or perhaps this word really signified any big bird, as the same word meant ‘emu’ in languages south of Sydney:
“birribain” biriban = “emu” emu  : KAOL Ridley [WODI] [:111:31] [Wodi]
“Birre.bine” biriban = “Emu” emu  : Larmer (RSNSW) BBay [:225.4:34] [DYRGN]
“Birriban” biriban = “Emu “ emu  : Russell: Recollections [:25:2] [Gga]
Biraban had a wife, Patty. Her name might have been purely an English name, or perhaps an English spelling of an indigenous word. Some translation possibilities include ‘bite’, ‘more’ and ‘snake’, as the following references suggest:
“puttilliko” badi-li-gu = “to bite.” bite  : Tkld AWA Aust Voc  [:61:51] [Awa]
“buttikaġ” badi-gang = “any animal; ass, ox” bite-thing  animal: Tkld AWA Lex [:206:9] [Awa]
“butti” badi = “more; to do more ; to continue the action” keep on  -badi = more: Tkld AWA Lex [:206:7] [Awa]
“buttêr” badir = “Carpet snake” snake  carpet: Mathews DARK 1903 [:281.1:10.2] [Dark]
“Poteer” badiya = “Snake” snake  : King, C.M. [:3:2] [BPI]
Amongst the mass of Threlkeld material there are revealing insights. One is provided in the following series of sample sentences. There was no commentary on the circumstances under which they were collected, but they follow one after the other, as if descriptive of a particular event or moment. 
Minnahring tin be kah-kah-lah buk-kah? 
minaring-din bi gagala baga
What is from thou wast furious.?
On what account was’t thou so furious?
Ngukung tin bahng kahkahlah bukkah.
ngugang-din bang gagala baga
Wife from I was furious.
On account of Wife I was furious.
Minnahring tin ngahtohng. (an Idiom.) 
minaring-din ngadang
What is from no one. 
From no cause.
Minnabring ko be noun torah? 
minaring-gu bi-nun durá
What is for thou her pierced?
What didst thou pierce her with?
Kotah ro, Wahre ko, Bibi to.
gadaru warayi-gu bibi-du
Waddy with, Spear for, Axe has. 
With a Waddy; Spear The Axe has.
Minnahring tin be noun torah?
minaring-din bi-nun durá
What is from thou her pierced?
From what cause didst thou spear her?
New-wahrah kahn to bahng turah bounnoun.
nyuwara-gan-du bang durá bunun
Anger being have I pierced her.
Through anger, I speared her.
These are unchanged from the original, apart from the re-spelt second line in each group.
 
—————
 
The following book on Egyptian hieroglyphs:
 
Budge, Ernest Alfred, Sir. 1958. Egyptian language: easy lessons in Egyptian hieroglyphics with sign list. London: Routhledge & Kegan Paul., page 114,
provides a glimpse at much the same subject.:
åu-f h·er Xat.bu taif h·emt

 

He slew his wife, 
 
 
 

 

åu-f h·er Xaa – set na en åu

 

he threw her [to] the dogs’.

 

 
 
What can one say, other than what the French have done:
Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.
 
Jeremy Steele
Monday 24 January 2011
==================

NSW Words

Tracing the Bokhara and other NSW rivers
In a press report in the Sydney Morning Herald for the last day of 2010, there was the following entry:
“Moderate to major flooding is expected along the Culgoa, Bokhara, Birrie and Narran rivers over the coming weeks.’
And a little further on in the article:
“… floodwater from west-flowing NSW rivers is still causing minor to moderate flowing along the Barwon River.”
Perhaps this was a clue to a puzzle of ‘bagara’ in the Minyung language, on the far north NSW coastal region, found in the following two examples:
[1] “bukkora goa” bagara-ga-wa = “’go past’” past  -go: Livingstone [:19:31.1] [Mnyg]
[2] “kunde bukkora” gandi bagara = “’over there.’” there xxx  : Livingstone [:26:8] [Mnyg]
There was also the further question as to the meaning in this language of ‘goa’ (gawa).
In the second example, ‘kunde’ probably did mean ‘there’, it having been spelt out in:
[3] “kundy” gandi = “it there; it. (n.)” there  : Livingstone [:7:36.1] [Mnyg]
Investigation of ‘bagara’ through searches conducted in the NORTH Bayala Database bayaladatabases.blogspot.com proceeded along the following lines:
BAGA
Could ‘baga’ mean ‘river’? Or some aspect of water?:
[4] ” bokatoġ” baga-dang = “the surf of the sea; a wave” foam  : Tkld AWA Lex [:203:31] [Awa]
GAWA (’goa’)
[5] “goagwoin” gawagwan = “water” water  : G. Bass (Cowagary) [:111.5:29] [NrN]
[6] “Ko-guin” gugwin = “Water” water  : Tkld KRE c.1835 [:131:37.1] [Kre]
BAGA red herrings
[7] “bukka” baga = “anger; ferociousness” anger  : Tkld AWA Lex [:204:19] [Awa]
[8] “Buk´-a Buk-â” baga baga = “savage” anger  very: Enright GDG 1900 [:110:9] [Gdg]
[9] “bukka-kei” baga-ga-yi = “ferocious, savage” angry person/actor : Tkld AWA (Fraser) 1892 [:14:6.2] [Awa]
[10] “Bukker” baga = “knee” knee  : SofM 1898 05 21 [p.88: Brown] [:88.24:52] [Bpi]
[11] “Buk-â” baga = “the knee” knee  : Enright GDG 1900 [:109:11] [Gdg]
[12] “Bukkar” baga = “Knee” knee  : Tkld GDG Aust Voc  [:125.1:36] [Gdg?]
[Explanation of some of the source abbreviations for languages:
AWA (Awabakal); KRE (Karree, near the Hawkesbury R; GDG (Gadang, central coast); BPI (Biripi)]
———-
BUT, perhaps ‘knee’ might not be a red herring, if ‘bagara ga-wa‘  were a stream. It might be a STREAM (ga-wa?) with a knee-bend (bagara) in it.
Likewise, ‘baga-dang’ cited above might be a ‘knee-bend’ effect in the SEA: i.e. ‘a wave’.
And the ‘go past’ gloss in the first example [1] might be a reference to the water FLOWING past.
And in the second example [2], the gloss ‘over there’ might have reflected an informant’s pointing to the river ‘over there’ (this tenuous conjecture could apply to practically any unknown example).
The INLAND database
Although Minyung was a coastal language, the rivers ran inland, so it seemed appropriate to see what the INLAND database might suggest. Thus:
[13] “bogarru” bagaru = “Grass, collectively” grass  : Mathews WIRA 1904 [:300:85] [WIRA]
‘Grass’ is a possibility for ‘bagara’, given that there might have been grass near the river Bokhara.
The INLAND database suggested many other directions in which the trail might be pursued but nothing definitive. So at this point investigation into the meaning of the Bokhara River petered out.
THE OTHER RIVERS
But what about the Culgoa River? ‘Culgoa’ features the same ‘goa’ element found in the first example [1] given. Two main cataloguers of Australian placenames provide the following:
[14] “Culgoa” gulgawa = “Running through or returning” returning  : McCarthy [:10:2] [Kamilaroi]
[15] “Culgoa” gulgawa = “River running through” returning  : Tyrrell [:17:14] [Kamilaroi]
The second of these examples [15] specifically mentions a ‘river’. Could ‘Culgoa’ be a gul (or gal) river? The COASTAL database offered no clues, with nothing akin to ‘running through or returning’ for gul/gal. But the INLAND database—and these are inland rivers—offered a useful possibility:
[16] “kulli” gali = “Rain “ rain  : Mathews KML/Dwl [:276.4:1] [Kamilaroi]
[17] “kolli” gali = “Water” water  : AL&T Greenway (Ridley) [KML] [:236:24] [Kamilaroi]
A further thought is that the suffix ‘-wa’ (forming part of ‘goa’ (ga-wa) suffix) often denotes MOVEMENT, as noted by Threlkeld:
[18] “wa” wa = “Actuality of motion, has changed place, moved, &c.” move  : Tkld AWA Key 1850 [Key:28:13] [Awa]
So Culgoa (galgawa) might be about ‘water-moving’.
Finally, consider the other rivers mentioned: Birrie, Narran and Barwon.
Birrie
The Birrie River is in the Brewarrina local government area. And Brewarrina itself means ‘tree standing’:
[19] “burree” bari = “tree” tree  : AL&T Greenway (Ridley) [KML] [:239:13.1] [Kamilaroi]
[20] “boree” bari = “hard heavy timber tree” tree  hard: Mitchell, J.F.H 9CY reel 681 [:85:] [Wiradhuri]
[21] “Warranna” warana = “to stand” stand  : Günther WIRA (Fraser) [:105:8] [WIRA]
[22]  “warrana” warana = “Stand” stand  : Mathews NYMBA 1904 [:230.3:53] [NYMBA]
 
and this ‘tree’ meaning is confirmed by records for the spelling ‘biri’:
[23] “Birri” biri = “the box-tree” box  : Günther WIRA (Fraser) [:74:70] [WIRA]
[24] “birri” biri = “box (tree)” box  : KAOL Ridley [KML] [:23:10.2] [Kamilaroi]
There are often trees along river banks, so the recorded name might have arisen from an informant’s pointing to the riverside trees.
Narran
There are several possibilities for the ‘narran’ name. McCarthy gives:
[25] “Narran” naran = “Hungry place” hungry  : McCarthy [:14:51] [Ngwl / Wira]
Others meaning possibilities are:
[26] “nhurrin” narin = “Flank” flank  : Mathews KML/Dwl [:276.1:31] [Kamilaroi]
[27] “nhurran” naran = “Jew- lizard “ lizard  jew: Mathews WIRA 1904 [:301:31] [WIRA]
[28] “[Narang, Narra]” narang = “slowly” slow  : SofM 1897 02 27 [HP WIRA] [:16.5:36.1] [WIRA]
[29] “ŋurruŋ” narang = “night” night  : KAOL Ridley [WIRA] [:126:4.2] [WIRA]
[30] “Nurroong” narung = “Dark” night  : SofM 1900 05 21 [Tibbetts] [:63:66] [WIRA]
Of these, ‘flank’ might refer to the ‘bank’ of the river; ‘lizard’, and ‘slow’ might be the same concept if the lizard were moving ‘slowly’; and ‘night’ and ‘dark’ are the same idea’, and such words can be used for ‘black’.
These examples confuse rather than clarify what the name of the Narran River might have meant in reality.
Barwon
An apparently convincing meaning for ‘Barwon’ is given by the following:
[31] “Barwon” bawan = “Barwon (river), great, wide, awful.” big  : AL&T Greenway (Ridley) [KML] [:239:11] [KML]
As is often the case, further enquiry muddies the picture:
[32] “Báwan!” bawan = “no, no! by no means!” no  : Günther WIRA (Fraser) [:73:22] [WIRA]
which might have been said in light of the next entry:
[33] “Boin Boin” bawin bawin = “Mosquitoes” mosquito  : Tyrrell [:9:6] []
[34] “Ba-wen” bawin = “Wallaroo” wallaroo  : Mathews 8006/3/7/ – CRITERION [:28.1:18.1] [Wira-secret]
[35] “bouan” buwan = “Thigh” thigh  : Curr, E.M.: 3 [:381.1:10] [WIRA]
[36] “Báwán” bawan = “a white stone….” stone  white: Günther WIRA (Fraser) [:73:21] [WIRA]
Collectively, these leave the meaning of ‘Barwon’ in doubt.
And after all that, we are very little the wiser about what these several river names might have meant.
Jeremy Steele
Friday 31 December 2010
=======================

SYDNEY Words: Sirius Cove (or Mosman Bay)

The Rev. Lancelot Threlkeld ran a mission in the Newcastle, NSW, area in the period 1831-41, and while there studied the language that came to be known as Awabakal. He wrote copiously about it, in a manner that now appears opaque. Here is an example:
kurraġtoanbuġgulliko: to cause by personal agency to foam
This can be re-presented with simplified spelling and hyphens to separate component parts, together with source references, in the following manner:
1
“kurraġtoanbuġgulliko”
garang-du-wa-nba-ngGa-li-gu =
“to cause by personal agency to foam”
foam xxx act something :
Tkld/Frsr AWA Lex [:221:4] [Awa]
A search for ‘garang’ as re-spelt (third column above) in the COASTAL database (covering coastal languages to the north and south of Sydney, as well as the Sydney district itself) yielded the following:
2
“Karung”
garang =
“White”
white  :
Tkld GDG Aust Voc  [:127.1:6] [Gdg?]
This raised the question: did ‘garang’ really mean ‘white’ as suggested by this entry? 
In Australian indigenous languages there may not have been names for colours as such; something that happened to be of that colour might serve as a colour-name instead. With this idea in mind, your researcher then looked in the COASTAL database for words for ‘white’ beginning with ‘g’. This search yielded the following among others:
3
“Goram bullagong”
Gurambalagang =
“Sirius Cove”
  (place, a):
Larmer (RSNSW) SydHbr [:229:13.2] [NSW COAST]
4
“Kurrumbela”
garam-BILA =
“White man”
whiteman  white fellow:
Long Dick [:3.2:20] [LD]
5
“Korambala”
garambala =
“Man (white)”
whiteman  :
Oldfield, Rev. Roger [::[10]] [North]
6
“Kurrumbela”
garam-BILA =
“White man”
whiteman  white fellow:
Long Dick [:3.2:20] [LD]
7
“Kooralala”
guralala =
“Whitefellow”
whiteman  :
Larmer (RSNSW) Brdwd [:226.3:14] [Nrgu]
together with a further entry of interest, from the Ngarigu language in the far south of the state:
8
“kurbit”
gurbid =
“White”
white  :
Mathews NRGU 1908 [:340:6] [Nrgu]
All these references confirmed the idea that ‘white’ has been widely represented by words beginning with ‘gar…’. Well, so what?
Sirius Cove
The ‘so what’ is that this raises the question as to what the indigenous name of Sirius Cove (Mosman Bay) in item (3) (Goram-bullagong) might mean? Assuming this term were originally recorded more or less accurately, it may be re-presented, with hyphens, as:
gara-mba-la-gang
Hitherto your researcher had assumed—from samples (4), (5) and (6)—that ‘-bila’, ‘-bala’ were renderings of the English word ‘fellow’, so that ‘whiteman’ were actually ‘white-fellow’.  However, the new results thrown up by the COASTAL enquiry suggest another interpretation.
First, the word stem ‘ba’ and associated stem-forming suffix ‘-ba’ [or ‘-mba’] have a connotation of ‘do’, as in the Sydney word ‘banga’ recorded by Dawes and others:
9
“Bünga”
banga =
“: To make or do (faire in French)”
make  (do, paddle):
Dawes (b) [b:3:29] [BB]
Second, a further piece of information is that in the Sydney language (indicated ‘BB’ for ‘Biyal Biyal)), and in other languages in the region, the termination of nouns is commonly ‘-ng’. This makes the following analysis possible for the name of Sirius Cove:
gara
-mba
-la
-gang
white
DO
xxx
xx (noun)
And at this point the trail stops, for the present at least. The meaning suggested is:
‘(something that) does white’.
This takes us back to Threlkeld’s entry at the start, about ‘foam’. ‘Foam’ might be considered as ‘something that does white’.
What might have been taking place when the word was collected? 
—Was the name an ancient one (as say, ‘London’ is)?
—Or might it have been merely a descriptive statement of the moment? Perhaps the informant (when asked for the name of the bay he happened to be in) and, seeing some white frothy water on the beach, simply chanced to describe the circumstance as ‘the water’s breaking on the beach just now’, or ‘(water) does white’ garambalagang’.
We will never know.
 

SYDNEY Words: ringing

Sometime in 1791, William Dawes recorded the verb ‘to tear’, as in ‘tearing a piece of paper’:
“Tilbánga” dilbanga = “To tear (as paper)” tear: Dawes (b) [b:19:15] [BB]
This was to prove one of many instances of misunderstanding between an indigenous informant and the immigrant interlocutor. For the word did not mean ‘tear’ but rather the sound that tearing a piece of paper makes.
Dawes himself provided an essential clue to the true meaning in a further entry:
“Tilbanye-buni” dilbanyabuni = “The bell did not ring, or has not rung” ring-lacking: Dawes (b) [b:20:13] [BB]
Here, ‘-buni’ is the privitave sufffix (or ‘ending’) meaning ‘lacking’: so ‘ring-lacking’.
David Collins, in his 1789 work, mentions a bird often ‘heard’, now known as the bellbird:
“dilboong” dilbung = “In about a month or six weeks the child receives its name. This is generally taken from some of the objects constantly before their eyes, such as a bird, a beast, or a fish, and is given without any ceremony. Thus Bennillong’s child Dilboong was so named after a small bird, which we often heard in low wet grounds and in copses.” bellbird: Collins 1 [:465:33] [BB]
Collins, in his later 1802 work, affirmed that the word was to do with sound (rather than ‘tearing’):
“dil boong” dilbung = “The melancholy cry of the bell-bird (dil boong, after which Bennillong named his infant child) seems to be unknown here.” bellbird: Collins 2 [2:120:] [BB]
This word’s meaning as ‘bellbird’ was confirmed in the ‘Anon’ notebook, again making specific reference to sound:
“Dil-bung” dilbung = “A bird with a shrill note” ringing—bellbird: Anon (c) [c:24:11] [BB]
The bellbird is indeed most noted for its sound, like a ‘bell’.
Another notorious maker of sound in nature is the cricket, or grasshopper. The indigenous people certainly noticed this:
“Dil-be-nong” dilbanang = “”Native name Dil-be-nong” ….” grasshopper: Painters [::] [BB] <12412>
“Dilban-ang” dilbanang = “Native name Dilban-ang…. “ grasshopper: Painters [::] [BB] <12413>
R.H. Mathews made a Dharug record in 1901:
“jirrabirrin” dyirabirin = “Small locust” grasshopper: Mathews DG 1901 [:159:35] [DG]”
There are similar ‘grasshopper’ records in other nearby languages, first to the northwards of Sydney:
DARKINYUNG
“jilpir” dyilbir = “Grasshopper” grasshopper: Mathews DARK 1903 [:281.1:22] [Dark]
BIRIPI
“Dilwirrar” dilwira = “grasshopper” grasshopper: Curr, E.M.: 3 [:345.2:29] [BPI]
Second, southwards:
DHARAWAL
“dyilwir” dyilwir = “Grasshopper” grasshopper: Mathews KML/Dwl [:278.6:2] [Dwl]
NGANAWAL
“dyirribrit “ dyiribarid = “Locust, small” grasshopper: Mathews NGWL [:304:42] [Gga/Ngwl]
And also across the Blue Mountains, picking up the theme of ‘sound’:
WIRADHURI
“dyilburi” dyilburi = “Plain lark” lark: Mathews WIRA 1904 [:300:131] [WIRA]
“Dinbuorin” dinbuwarin = “a native lark” lark: Günther WIRA (Fraser) [:80:47] [WIRA]
“Dinbana” dinbana = “to buzz (like flies)” buzz: Günther WIRA (Fraser) [:80:46] [WIRA]
 

NSW COAST Words: Calling cooee

Everyone knows the bush call ‘cooee’. Not so many know that it is an Indigenous word, and that it means ‘come’. It was recorded by William Dawes in about April 1791:
“Kaouwi´ Kaouwi´ …” gawi gawi … = “Calling to come” come come: Dawes (b) [b:15:1] [BB]
Dawes recorded a Sydney language (‘Biyal Biyal: BB) remark made by the youngster Gunanguli:
“Gon. Mama kaowi ngália bogía” mama GAWI ngaliya bugiya = “My friend, come let us (two) go and bathe” xxx, COME we-two, swim: Dawes (b) [b:28:12] [BB]
In this sentence it is evident the word ‘gawi’ means ‘come’.
Other First Fleeters also recorded the word:
“co-e” gawi = “Come here” come: Collins 1 [:511.2:10.1] [BB]
“Cowe” gawi = “Come here” come: Anon (c) [c:28:16.2] [BB]
“Kouee” gawi = “Come here” come: Paine, Daniel [:41.1:13] [BB]
“Cow-ee” gawi = “To come” come: King in Hunter [:408.1:24] [BB]
Paine and Southwell recorded it in its more recognised spelling, resembling ‘cooee’:
“Kouee” guwi = “Come here” come: Paine, Daniel [:41.1:13] [BB]
“Coo-eé” guwi = “To come” come: Southwell [:148.2:2.1] [BB]
The word might have been ‘guwi’ (cooee), as ‘-gu’ is a widespread suffix (ending) indicating ‘motion towards’ (hence ‘come’), ‘purpose’ and the like.
Dawes recorded a family scene featuring a young infant, and his record demonstrates the ‘purposive’ function of the suffix ‘-gu’:
“Mínyin túnga” minyin dunGa = “Why does she cry?” why cry: Dawes (b) [b:26:3] [BB]
“Ngabángo” ngabanGU = “Answer: For the breast” breast-FOR: Dawes (b) [b:26:4] [BB]
However, the word ‘guwi’ could equally have been ‘gawi’—deriving from ‘gama’, ‘to call’:
“Ka-ma” gama = “Call” call: Anon (c) [c:30:2.2] [BB]
“Cà-ma” gama = “To call” call: King in Hunter [:408.1:5] [BB]
“Ka-mow” gamawu = “Shall I, or must I call” call I: Anon (c) [c:14:2] [BB]
“…Kamabaou …” gamabawu … = “…I will call …” call will I …: Dawes (b) [b:32:9] [BB]
‘gama’ might be composed of ‘gu’ together with the stem-forming suffix ‘ma’: ‘to do or to make’.
The ‘inland’ and southerly form of the BB ‘gama’ is ‘gamba’ (call):
“kumba” gamba = “shout” call: KAOL Rowley GeoR [DgR] [:107:12] [DgR]
“kumba” gamba = “to shout (coowhee)” call: AL&T Rowley GeoR [DgR] [:261:7.1] [DgR]
The first part of a word can be termed its ‘root’, and ‘ga-’ turns up in words for ‘mouth’ in the Sydney district:
“Keraka” garaga = “Mouth” mouth: Paine, Daniel [:42.2:6] [BB]
“Karraka” garaga = “Mouth” mouth: Bowman: Camden [:16:27] [DG]
“Kar-ga” garaga = “The mouth” mouth: Anon (c) [c:16:3] [BB]
“kar-ga” garaga = “Mouth” mouth: Collins 1 [:508.2:3] [BB]
South of Botany Bay, a word similar to this is used for ‘call’ (or ‘shout’, or ‘croak’, or any sound made by voice):
“kurrugaia” garugaya = “Shout “ call did: Mathews KML/Dwl [:279.3:13] [Dwl]
“Karuganbilla” garuganbila = “Shouted again.” call—again: KAOL Ridley [DWL story] [:146:6] [Twl]
“gar´-ruk” garug = “a cry” call: Mathews 8006/3/7/ – CRITERION [:45:17.2] [[Dwl?]]
A feature of wildlife is often the sound animals and birds make. It seems hardly a coincidence, then, that a large number of words for birds begin with ‘gara’. A few are:
“gurrigang” garigang = “Hornbill “: Mathews 1903 [280.3:24] [DARK]
“kroomeye” garu-mai = “Duck”: Long Dick [3.1:9.2] [LD]
“karibi gari-bi = “cockatoo”: KAOL Rowley [DgR table] [124:10.6] [BB]
“kurâpul” gurabul = “Common magpie”: Mathews 1903 [280.3:30] [DARK]
“Ca-ratt” garad = “cockatoo, black”: Hunter Sketch Book [117:xx] [BB]
“Goo-reet” gurid = “Red-breasted Parrot”: Painters [12127] [BB]
“Karreet” gari-d = “Scarlet-breasted Flycatcher”: Painters [12266] [BB]
So, did Mathews in collecting the word for ‘frog’ correctly interpret his informant’s information, or was he really being told about the noise it was making:
“Koor´-gaty” guragady = “Big Frog” frog: Mathews DGA 1901 [:70.2:8] [DGA]
It is easier to conclude that a cow, unknown to the indigenous people prior to the European upheaval, was being described by its characteristic mooing, or ‘calling’:
“kumbakuluk” gambagalag = “horned cattle” cow: KAOL Rowley GeoR [:104:19] [DgR]

DHARAWAL Words: Tackling the “unijerunbi minku ?” puzzle

On page 101 of Kamilaroi and Other Languages (KAOL) the following occurs in a list of 21 words or expressions:

 

The sixth from the bottom is:

 

What do you want ? unijerunbi minku ?
 
In attempting to analyse this, especially as the sentence is a question, it is tempting to consider that “minku” is related to common interrogatives beginning ‘mi-’
“Min´gang” minGang = “What” what: Mathews 8006/3/5 -5 [:162:1.2] [Dwl]
“Minyanniba” minyani ba = “what for?” why: Mathews GGA 1901 [:153:13.2] [Gga]
“Min” min = “Why, what for” why: Dawes (b) [b:13:19.1] [BB]
“Minyin” minyin = “Why, what for” why: Dawes (b) [b:13:19.2] [BB]
 
The next step is to determine what “unijerunbi” might be.
 
The suffix ‘-bi’ is a common second-person singular Dharawal subject ‘bound’ pronoun (2sgNOM), meaning ‘you’, but which in the databases is rendered ‘thou’ to distinguish it from you-two (2du) and ‘you-all’ (2pl). A bound pronoun is one taking the form of a suffix. There are also freestanding pronouns.
 
This leaves “unijerun”—which might possibly be trimmed to “unijeru”, in view of the deleted ‘-n-’ being assumed to have attached to ‘-bi’ to form ‘-nbi’ in a process in some languages affecting the consonants ‘b’ and ‘d’, known as prenasalisation. William Dawes had first noted a form of this as it was a phenomenon not present in the harbourside language of Sydney but did occur in the dialect around Parramatta and beyond. Here is his record made on 14 April 1791:
 
The above extract from Dawes’s Notebook (b) comes from the SOAS internet address cited. The Burubirangal were an ‘inland’ or ‘woods’ clan of the Sydney language group, while the ‘Coasters’ were the people around the harbour. What Dawes was mainly recording in his brief comparative list was not so much the insertion of ‘n’ but the dropping of ‘d’ by the ‘coasters’, in the in all but the fourth and fifth entries.
 
But to return to the translation conundrum. The next thought is to consider that, in this area of the Australian east coast at least, words do not generally (and possibly never), start with a vowel. So the “unijerunbi” record almost certainly omitted the preceding consonant. This would be because the European recorder either:
—did not detect it;
—or did not know of a suitable means of rendering it with the alphabet of English, and so simply omitted it.
The missing consonant in such not uncommon examples is one of ‘y-’, ‘w-’ or ‘ng-’.
 
On respelling the record following the conventions adopted throughout the Bayala databases bayaladatabases.blogspot.com mentioned in these blog entries, the possibilities for the word emerge as:
wani-driya-nbi
yani-driya-nbi
ngani-driya-nbi
 
Various searches in the databases were then carried out based on these respelt forms with a view to coming upon something to match the given translation of ‘What do you want ?’ However, the results were disappointing.
 
But one line of enquiry did emerge. It so happens that much of the relevant parts of Ridley’s KAOL were also published in a journal article ‘Australian Languages and Traditions’ (AL&T). And in that article, for the record concerned, there are two differences:
What do you want ? unijerunbi minku ?
has become:
What do you want, mistress ? unijerunbi munku ?
 
1. “minku” has become “munku
2. “ mistress” has been added to the translation.
 
Whether or not these variations are correct new features is almost impossible to assert with confidence, but through the SOUTH database they do open up interpretation possibilities that are consistent with the given AL&T translation. These are now outlined, together with the database supporting information.
 
First, assume now there are now THREE components to the translation, not two:
—what (i.e. some interrogative)
—you want
—mistress
 
This gives rise to the idea that the first word might be ‘ngani’. (See the third respelling option above.) And ngani’ or similar is a form commonly associated with ‘who’, or with interrogatives generally:
“nunnagawu” nganagawu = “who are you (two)?” who—you-two: Mathews GGA 1901 amend [:153:11.204] [Gga]
“[Ngun´-nin-gâ thin-bâ´-lee-min?]” nganinGa = “[who is eating?]” who: M&E: GGA 1900 [:271:3.2] [GGA]
“[Ngun´-nin-gâ ngoo´-rij-jee-bâ mung´-â-rin´-jee-bâ nin gan-bee ?]” nganinGa = “[whom-from gottest-thou that wood ?]” who: M&E: GGA 1900 [:271:7.2] [GGA]
 
And from the Sydney Language (BB):
“[Ngan widá-lyi teara wü´ra würá]” ngan = “[Who was that drinking tea with you?]” who: Dawes (b) [b:15:2.1] [BB]
“Mi ngâ´ni” mi ngani = “Why, what for” why what for: Dawes (b) [b:13:17] [BB]
“[Mingáni1 bottle2]” mi ngani = “[What is in the1 bottle2]” what: Dawes (b) [b:13:22.1] [BB]
 
Assume ‘ngani’ is the interrogative part of the sentence. Could ‘dyira’ be ‘want’? And could ‘minGu/munGu’ be ‘mistress’? Well, apparently, quite possibly—yes. ‘dyira’ can be (among other things) ‘speak’, and ‘minGu/munGu’ can be ‘mother’ (similar to mistress).
 
dyira: speak
“dyirra” dyira = “to tell” speak: Mathews 8006/3/7/ – CRITERION [:20:1.3] [Dwl]
“[Jerra Thurawaldhery. ]” dyira = “[A Thurawal Story.]” speak: KAOL Ridley [DWL story] [:145:12.1] [Twl]
“jerra” dyira = “messenger” speak—messenger: M&E: GGA 1900 [:276:29] [GGA]
 
minGa / manGa: mother
“Meeng´-a” minga = “Mother” mother: Mathews DGA 1901 [:67.1:13] [DGA]
“miŋa” minga = “mother “ mother: KAOL Ridley [TWOFOLD] [:115:13] [Dhurga]
“[unijerunbi munku ?]” manGu = “[what do you want, mistress ? [[sic]]]” mother: AL&T (Ridley) Mrs Malone [DWL] [:263:26.3] [Twl]
“[unijerunbi minku ?]” minGu = “[What do you want ? [[sic]]]” mother: KAOL (Ridley) Mrs Malone [TWL] [:101:16.4] [Twl]
 
For the translation “ what do you want, mistress ?” to be regarded as correct, it is necessary to accept that ‘want’ could be rendered as ‘speak’, and ‘mistress’ as mother. A reformatting of the translation could therefore be ‘what speak-thou mother?’, and thus rendered the provided translation seems plausible.
unijerunbi munku ?
ngani-driya-nbi manGu
what speak-thou mother?
what do you want, mistress ?

DHARAWAL Words: mosquito

The Rev. William Ridley (1819-1878) wrote an article, ‘Australian languages and traditions’ [AL&T], publishhed in the February 1878 issue of the Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland.

 

On p. 263 he reproduced some words and phrases provided by “ Lizzie, a half-caste, whose mother was a Shoalhaven aboriginal, and who is now the wife of John Malone’. He had already provided a listing of “specimens of the language of the extinct Sydney Tribe (from John Malone, a half-caste, whose mother was of that tribe)”.

 

One interesting entry was the following:

clawa, ye, ye chobuŋ run, come here, quick

 

The first challenge is to work out which word of the language entry relates to which of the English translation. What, in fact, is the word for ‘run’, what for ‘come here’ and what for ‘quick’.

 

The first part of the puzzle was partly clarified by comparing the entry with another published version of the same article. It appeared in RIDLEY, William, Kamilaroi and other Australian Languages. [KAOL] (Sydney, Thomas Richards, Government Printer, 1875), on page 101. There the entry was presented as:

chawa ! ye ye chobuŋ ! Run! Come here quick !

 

The first word was misprinted in one or the other publication—but which?

 

The SOUTH database, featuring languages on the NSW coast to the south of Sydney, provided the solution:

“jowa” dyawa = “run” run: KAOL Ridley [WODI] [:114:8] [Wodi]

“jauara” dyawara = “Run” run: Mathews KML/Dwl [:279.3:17] [Dwl]

“Jaulai yuin ngaiagandi” dyawalayi yuwin ngayagandiyi = “the man is running towards me” running man me towards: Mathews 8006/3/6- Nbk 3 [DWL] [:45:18] [Dwl]

 

From these several records it appears that the stem ‘dyawa’ is ‘run’, and that consequently the AL&T record had the misprint . . . so : “chawa”, not “clawa”.

 

‘yi, yi’ can be taken to be an exlamation.

 

So what is “chobuŋ” (dyabang)? Could it be ‘quick’?

 

The databases provide a surprising, though logical, answer.:

 

“Doó-ping” dubing = “a mosqnito” mosquito: Enright GDG 1900 [:111:10] [Gdg]

“dyuping” dyubing = “Mosquito “ mosquito: Mathews DARK 1903 [:281.1:20] [Dark]

“dyura” dyura = “Mosquito” mosquito: Mathews DG 1901 [:159.2:1] [DG]

“Teura” dyura = “A mosquito” mosquito: King in Hunter [:410.1:25] [BB]

“Tewra” dyura = “A musquito” mosquito: Anon (c) [c:24:20] [BB]

“Dyoo-ping” dyubing = “Mosquito” mosquito: Mathews 8006/3/7- No 7 [:6:16] [Dark]

 

The language references are:

—GDG: Gadang (Kutthung)

—DARK: Darkinyung

—DG: Dharug

—BB: Biyal Biyal (the Sydney Language)

The first two are northwards of Sydney.

 

Thus the sentence is not about ‘quick’ but rather means:

Run! Hey! Mosquito!

(Run! there are mosquitos around here!)

The implication is that it would have been advisable to take quick action.

 

There are further examples to show that mosquitos are so named because they ‘spear’ and ‘prick’, and pierce’:

“Door-a-lang” duralang = “To prick” pierce: King in Hunter [:408.2:12] [BB]

“Dtoóra” dura = “to pinch” pierce, to: Dawes (b) [b:5:2] [BB]

“Dtoóradiou” duradyawu = “I struck or did strike (as a fish with a fishgig)” pierce did I: Dawes (b) [b:5:13] [BB]

“D’turra-d’oway” duradyawu = “I have struck” pierce did I: Southwell [:149.1:29.1] [BB]

 

“dyurugun” dyurugun = “Sharp “ sharp: Mathews KML/Dwl [:278.8:6] [Dwl]

“thurara” durara = “Sting or stab” pierce: Mathews KML/Dwl [:279.4:46] [Dwl]

 

 

There is even a distant link with NYUNGAR Words of Western Australia. Three examples make the point:

“dtan” dan = “pierce, to; penetrate; make an opening” pierce: [4] Grey 1840 [:349:24] [NYUNGAR]

“Dtan” dan = “pierce” pierce: Symmons, Charles [:16:36] [NYUNGAR]

“Dtan” dan = “Penetrate, to” pierce: Moore 1842 [:150:32] [NYUNGAR]

NYUNGAR Words: ‘Tooth’ for a world view

Reflecting on the wordlists from the Australian southwest, or no doubt from any area of the country, gives an occasional glimpse of the way the indigenous people perceived the world around them. This is sometimes termed ‘a world view’. For us English speakers. a ‘tooth’ is a ‘tooth’ more or less. We might say ‘toothless’ for someone without teeth; or figuratively for someone who is therefore harmless, because his bite without teeth is unthreatening. Someone might be ‘toothy’—having unusually prominent teeth. While ‘teething troubles’ might be applied to small children growing their teeth, or to new inventions that do not work as well as expected or hoped for in the beginning. There may be more ‘tooth’ associations in English, but they are not like those of the Indigenous Australians, as the following examples reveal. And there are others besides, somewhat more tenuous than those supplied here.

 

First, a ‘tooth’ pure and simple. This is basically ngalga or ngalag, with the ‘curious inversion’ process or metathesis operating (-lga or -lag).

 

TOOTH

“nalgo” nalga = “teeth” tooth: [3] Lyon 1833 [:405:40] [NYUNGAR]

“orl-ga” ngurlga = “tooth, a” tooth: [4 (e)] Grey V [: 419:31] [Wardandi]

“nalgo” nalga = “teeth” tooth: [8] Salvado 1851 [:405:46] [NYUNGAR]

“ghnalgo” ngalga = “teeth” tooth: [17] Markey 1942 [:57:31] [NYUNGAR]

 

“orlock” ngurla[a]g = “teeth” tooth: [1] King 1827 [:406:4] [Minang]

“nor-luk” nurla[a]g = “tooth, a” tooth: [4 (b)] Grey [: 419:33] [Minang]

“quorlock” ngurla[a]g = “teeth” tooth: [11] Hassell AA 1894 [?] [:406:11] [NYUNGAR]

“gnorluck” ngurla[a]g = “teeth” tooth: [22] Gray 1987 [:406:16] [NYUNGAR]

“knollak” ngula[a]g = “teeth” tooth: [10 (l)] Curr [:405:39] [Wardandi]

 

The first variation is the word for ‘tooth’ being applied to a facial feature near the tooth: the ‘cheek’:

“nga-luk” ngalu[u]g = “cheek, the” cheek: [4 (b)] Grey [:234:24] [Minang]

“Ngaluk” ngalu[u]g = “(K.G.S.) The cheek?” cheek: Moore 1842 [:89:11] [Minang]

 

In the evolution of animals surprising changes have occurred to the basic bodily components of head, torso, arms/legs, feet and so on. The backbone can have more or fewer components, and likewise the neck, as in a giraffe. Elephants have a long nose. A horse’s hoof is basically the nail on a single residual finger or toe, the other digits almost disappearing. We know where a nostril is supposed to be: except that on a whale it has become the blowhole on the top of its head. And for birds, the beak is a single remaining tooth of the upper and lower jaw.

 

While there are no examples showing that the Nyungar called a bird’s beak a ‘tooth’, there are many examples of birds as a hole being perceived by one of their predominant characteristics, their beak (or ‘tooth’).

 

BIRD

“ngala” ngala = “sea gull, large” gull: [3] Lyon 1833 [:369:6] [NYUNGAR]

“Ngulor” ngulur = “Eagle, sea; Haliaeëtus leucogaster” sea-eagle: Moore 1842 [:130:34] [NYUNGAR]

“Ngalganning” ngalganing = “Ibis; Nycticorax” ibis: Moore 1842 [:140:24] [NYUNGAR]

“gnular” ngula = “cockatoo, white-tailed black” cockatoo: [18 (v)] Serventy [:239:52] [Goreng]

“gnoolah” ngula = “cockatoo, black” cockatoo: [22] Gray 1987 [:238:41] [NYUNGAR]

“Nulargo” nulaga = “Graucalus; blue pigeon.” pigeon: Moore 1842 [:86:9] [NYUNGAR]

“nu-lar-go” nulaga = “cuckoo-shrike, black-faced” cuckoo-shrike: [18 (w)] Serventy [:248:19] [Wajuk]

 

“ngo-lak” ngala[a]g = “cockatoo, white tailed sp. of” cockatoo: [4] Grey 1840 [:239:46] [NYUNGAR]

“gnawlak” ngalag = “cockatoo, white-tailed” cockatoo: [13] Rae [:239:48] [NYUNGAR]

“ngoolark” ngula[a]g = “cockatoo, white-tailed black” cockatoo: [24] Hassell, Edney [:239:49] [NYUNGAR]

 

“Nolyang” nalya[a]ng = “Nol-yang; Gallinula” moorhen: Moore 1842 [:148:14] [NYUNGAR]

 

“ngalganning” ngalganing = “ibis, Nycticorax caledonicus (night heron)” night-heron: [9] Moore 1884 [:296:22] [NYUNGAR]

 

“knulumberry” ngalambiri = “pelican” pelican: [10 (b)] Curr [:347:34] [Amangu]

 

Other ‘toothy’ animals appear to have been so viewed also—at least native cats, and the ‘flathead’ fish.

 

ANIMAL

“ngoolarngeat” ngula[a]ngid = “cat, spotted marsupial” cat: [24] Hassell, Edney [:233:16] [NYUNGAR]

“ngoolgarngeat” ngulga[a]ngid = “wild cat (native, marsupial spotted)” cat: [23] Buller-Murphy [: 442:13] [Dordenup [Wardandi]]

 

“no’lkah” nalga = “flathead” flathead: [15] Hammond [:268:6] [NYUNGAR]

“nol-ah” nala = “flathead” flathead: [16] Hammond [:268:5] [NYUNGAR]

 

What are ‘teeth’ primarily used for? Biting, chewing, eating. Perhaps not surprisingly, there are examples for words related to these functions, although Grey in the first example below took moral exception to this phenomenon.

 

EAT/DRINK

“nal-go” nalga = “teeth, the; improperly used for ‘to eat'” tooth: [4] Grey 1840 [:406:18] [NYUNGAR]

“nal-goo” nalgu = “eat, to” eat: [15] Hammond [:263:14] [NYUNGAR]

“Nalgo” nalga = “drink” drink: Symmons, Charles [:16:16] [NYUNGAR]

“{yowerinyy, narlong}” nala[a]ng = “{alcohol}” grog: [22] Gray 1987 [:200:15.2] [NYUNGAR]

 

“nalung” nala[a]ng = “grog” grog: [13] Rae 1913 [::] [NYUNGAR]

 

Finally, the ‘tooth’ concept led onto ‘belch’ (a result of work done by teeth perhaps), ‘sharp’ (as a knife, or, in the absence of knives, a ‘tooth’), and piercing, done by something ‘sharp’ such as a . . . ‘tooth’.

 

OTHER

“nor-luk-kool” nurlu[a]gul = “belch, to; to come through the teeth” tooth: [4 (b)] Grey [:214:1] [Minang]

“Nalgo” nalga = “Edge, sharp, as of a knife” sharp: Moore 1842 [:131:7] [NYUNGAR]

“Ngalladara” ngaladara = “A hole pierced completely through.” perforation: Moore 1842 [:89:6] [NYUNGAR]

NYUNGAR Words: bila—east and west, NSW and WA

There are some transcontinental words, and bila is one of them. It means ‘stream’.

 
The following are from the Wiradhuri language, across the Blue Mountains from Sydney, stretching from Bathurst effectively to the Victorian border. It is the largest language area in New South Wales, and possibly the country.

“Billa” bila = “a river” stream: Günther WIRA (Fraser) [73:49] [WIRA]

“Beelah” bila = “a creek” stream: SofM 1896 09 12 [p.12.1: DDB-WIRA] [12.1:7] [WIRA]

“Billugh” bila = “River” stream: SofM 1899 10 21 [Kable/Coe] [154.2:2] [WIRA?]

“Billa” bila = “River” stream: SofM 1900 05 21 [Tibbetts] [63:179] [WIRA]

 

Gunther was one of the principal recorders of the Wiradhuri language. ‘SofM’ refers to the anthropological journal, Science of Man.

 

Variations of the Wiradhuri word for ‘stream’ follow.

 

“[Billaga ngunningura]” bilaga = “[the other side of the creek]” stream: Mathews WIRA 1904 [290:21.1] [WIRA]

“[Nilla ware maganne billaga]” bilaga = “[he was drowned in the river.]” stream in: Günther WIRA (Fraser) [114:2.3] [WIRA]

“[wimbu guyabu billaga warranna.]” bilaga = “[the fire, and the fish which are in the river;.]” stream in: Günther WIRA (Fraser) [117:24.3] [WIRA]

 

“Billabong” bilabang = “a side creek” ox-bow lake: SofM 1896 09 12 [JJB WIRA] [12.2:41] [WIRA]

“Billabong” bilabang = “Creek” stream: SofM 1896 08 10 [JM WIRA] [12.32:6] [WIRA]

“Billabang” bilabang = “the Milky Way” Milky Way: Günther WIRA (Fraser) [73:50] [WIRA]

 

It is interesting to note that the Milky Way was perceived as a ‘river’ in the sky.

It is even more interesting to note that the very same word for ‘stream’ was used in the south-west corner of the continent, about four thousand kilometres distant.

 

NYUNGAR

The following are Nyungar records for ‘stream’, first bil and then bila:

“beel” bil = “river, a” stream: [4 (b)] Grey [:362:2] [Minang]

“beil” bil = “river” stream: [11] Hassell AA 1894 [?] [:361:46] [NYUNGAR]

 

“be-lo” bila = “river, a; a stream” stream: [4] Grey 1840 [:362:5] [NYUNGAR]

“bi-lo” bila = “river, a” stream: [5] Symmons 1841 [:362:3] [Wajuk]

“Bilo” bila = “A stream; a river. No names are given to rivers as proper names, but the localities and resting-places on their banks are designated with great minuteness. ….” stream: Moore 1842 [:11:15] [NYUNGAR]

“bilo” bila = “river, a” stream: [6] Brady 1845 [:362:4] [NYUNGAR]

“billo” bila = “river; stream” stream: [8 (E)] Salvado [:362:8] [Balardung]

“Bila” bila = “river” stream: Bates Grammar [:82:10] [NYUNGAR]

“bee-la” bila = “river” stream: [19] Isaacs 1949 [:361:48] [NYUNGAR]

“beeler” bilir = “river” stream: [24] Hassell, Edney [:361:39] [NYUNGAR]

“pillyi” bilyi = “river” stream: [13] Rae 1913 [:361:40] [NYUNGAR]

 

There is also a record for bilabang, However, in the west the meaning is a little different:

“Bilorbang” bilabang = “A person living on the banks of a river.” stream dweller: Moore 1842 [:12:2] [NYUNGAR]

 

Two other meanings associated with water and derived from the stem bila are the following:

“beelagur” bilagur = “river people” stream people: [12] Bates 1913 [:362:12] [NYUNGAR]

“beladger” biladyir = “drown” drown: [23] Buller-Murphy [:258:52] [Dordenup [Wardandi]]

NYUNGAR Words: Puzzle: gubal: belly, sleep, afternoon or river?

Daisy Bates provided the following sentence, with general and literal translations:

 

dajä wâ gäbälä?

Any fish in the river (or water)?

(fish where water?)

 

The sentence was the starting point in an investigative trail.

 

1. daja

This is respelt as dadya, and from a search of the NYUNGAR database its meaning is confirmed:

“dad-ja” dadya = “animal fit to eat, any; the flesh of any animal fit to eat” meat: [4] Grey 1840 [:201:52] [NYUNGAR]

“Dadja” dadya = “Any animal fit to eat; or the flesh of any such animal; animal food, as contradistinguished from Maryn, vegetable food.” meat: Moore 1842 [:24:7] [NYUNGAR]

“dad-ja” dadya = “flesh of all sorts” meat: [5] Symmons 1841 [:268:12] [Wajuk]

 

Grey in 1840 set out the basic meaning. This was taken up and amplified by Moore. And Symmons confirmed the sense of the word as ‘meat food’. Fish are considered food, and are not vegetables, so dadya can mean ‘fish’.

 

2. wa

wa is either a word in its own right, or a locative (place) suffix. Bates stated its meaning as ‘where’.

“Yuŋ’ar wâ” yunga wa = “men where” man where: Bates Grammar [:67:31] [Wajuk]

“wânä wa” wana wa = “woman’s stick where” yamstick where: Bates Grammar [:67:33] [Wajuk]

 

Bates alone of the dozen or so wordlist compilers identified this usage.

 

3. gabala

Bates stated that the word gabala, in her example, meant ‘river (or water)’. The database supplied words for ‘stream’ beginning with ‘g-’:

“carlock” galag = “creek” stream: [11] Hassell AA 1894 [?] [:246:13] [NYUNGAR]

“gurr-jyte” gurdyad = “stream, a” stream: [4] Grey 1840 [:397:43] [NYUNGAR]

 

but not really close to gabala.

There are, however, plenty of example of gab, gaba and gabi meaning ‘water’:

“kyp” gab = “water” water: [3 (a)] Lyon [: 431:35] [Minang]

“kype” gab = “water” water: [4] Grey 1840 [: 431:43] [NYUNGAR]

“[gabbie, gabba, gabby]” gaba = “water” water: [24] Hassell, Edney [: 431:23.1] [NYUNGAR]

“gabbi” gabi = “water” water: [9] Moore 1884 [: 431:18] [NYUNGAR]

 

There was no gabala for water, although Moore provided gabilang:

“Gabbilang” gabilang = “Of or belonging to water. Spoken of fish and amphibious animals. From Gabbi, water; and ang, of, l being interposed for sound’s sake.” water: Moore 1842 [:38:1] [NYUNGAR]

 

FURTHER THOUGHTS

If gabala should not mean ‘stream’ or ‘water’, what might it mean instead, and expecially in the context of Bates’s sentence? A search for g@b@l* (where ‘@’ means any single letter, and ‘*’ any group or letters) resulted in two main lines of thought, ‘belly’ and ‘sleep’:

 

BELLY

“Cob-bull” gabul = “Belly” belly: King, P.P. (Nyungar) [:2:10.1] [Minang]

“corpul” gurbul = “belly” belly: [2] Nind 1831 [:214:11] [NYUNGAR]

“kabarla” gabala = “belly” belly: [3] Lyon 1833 [:214:20] [NYUNGAR]

“kob-ba-lo” gabala = “stomach” belly: [5] Symmons 1841 [:395:41] [Wajuk]

“kobbel” gabil = “belly” belly: [16] Hammond [:214:14] [NYUNGAR]

 

SLEEP

“copil” gabil = “sleep” sleep: [2] Nind 1831 [:381:32] [NYUNGAR]

“ko-bel-ya” gubilya = “sleep” sleep: [4 (e)] Grey V [:381:45] [Wardandi]

“ko-pil” gabil = “sleep” sleep: [4] Grey 1840 [:381:46] [NYUNGAR]

“kopil” gabil = “sleep, to” sleep: [9] Moore 1884 [:382:11] [NYUNGAR]

 

Could either ‘belly’ or ‘sleep’ be candidates for Bates’s sentence?

fish where belly

fish where sleep

 

If the sentence were read as: ‘Fish where? Belly’, then perhaps the Nyungar person was enquiring about ‘fish’ as a possibility in relation to his ‘belly’. No comparable plausible link comes to mind for ‘fish where’ and ‘sleep’. So perhaps the words for ‘belly’ and ‘sleep’ are somewhat alike by chance, although the second group of examples above does indicate a contrast in the second syllable of the Nyungar word, featuring ‘-il’ as opposed to predominantly ‘-al’ and ‘-ul’ in the first group.

 

If the ‘belly’ line of thought is pursued, this leads to the idea of ‘hunger’, or ‘hungry’—but first consider any other possibilities.

 

OTHER POSSIBILITIES

The database search also yielded another g@b@l possibility—‘afternoon’:

“gar-ba-la” gabala = “between 3 & 4 pm” afternoon: [4] Grey 1840 [:215:14] [NYUNGAR]

“Garbala” gabala = “The afternoon; the evening; towards sunset.” afternoon: Moore 1842 [:39:5] [NYUNGAR]

 

Maybe people got ‘hungry’ in the ‘afternoon’; maybe the morphologically similar (alike in ‘shape) word is just another coincidence.

So what about ‘hungry’? Should there be a similarity, it would suggest Bates’s sentence was about hunger (fill the ‘belly’) rather than about sleep.

 

HUNGRY

“cobolbut” gabal bad = “hunger; to be hungry” hunger (belly lacking): [8 (E)] Salvado [:292:37] [Balardung]

“koobar” guba = “hungry” hungry: [10 (j)] Curr [:292:51] [Pinjarup]

“goober” gubir = “hungry” hungry: [10 (n)] Curr [:292:49] [Kaniyang]

 

There is not much support, although there is some. And not through the more reliable worldlist compilers. Recourse has been necessary to Salvado, and to Curr. Even so, the above specimens tend to confirm a link between ‘belly’ and ‘hungry’, such that guba might be a root meaning ‘hunger’, and that with the suffix ‘-[a]l’ added it changed its significance to ‘belly’.

 

CONCLUSION

The above reasoning is speculation. Nevertheless it leads to a possible more realistic translation of the initial sentence than the interpretation Bates provided:

dadya wa gabala

fish where — hungry

Where (are the) fish? (I am) hungry

NYUNGAR Words: gurd: Have a heart

The word for ‘heart’ is ‘gurd’.

“gurt” gurd = “heart” heart: [9] Moore 1884 [:285:52] [NYUNGAR]

“koort” gurd = “heart, the” heart: [4 (b)] Grey [:286:7] [Minang]

“Gurdu” gurdu = “The heart” heart: Moore 1842 [:45:12] []

“goor-doo” gurdu = “heart, the; desire” heart: [4] Grey 1840 [:286:9] [NYUNGAR]

By extension, ‘gurd’ is also used for someone loved:

“kord” gurd = “wife or husband” spouse: [14 (b) (cc)] Bates [: 442:2] [Barlardung]

“körd” gurd = “wife or husband” spouse: Bates Grammar [:77:72] [Balardung]

 

“Gurdar” gurda = “A pair; a couple.” pair: Moore 1842 [:45:10] [NYUNGAR]

“korda” gurda = “wife or husband” spouse: Bates Grammar [:77:45] [Wajuk]

“koor-da” gurda = “married person” spouse: [19] Isaacs 1949 [:320:48] [NYUNGAR]

 

“cordung” gurdang = “husband” husband: [24] Hassell, Edney [:293:44] [NYUNGAR]

“koordunger” gurdangir = “husband; lover” husband: [23] Buller-Murphy [:293:49] [Dordenup [Wardandi]]

With the possessive suffix ‘-ag’ to yield ‘heart-of’, the meaning is ‘anxious for’, desirous of’, ‘wanting’:

“Gurdak” gurdag = “Anxious, for any thing” want: Moore 1842 [:121:2] [NYUNGAR]

 

The words for ‘good’, ‘bad’, ‘having’ and ‘lacking’ are often combined with ‘gurd’. These words are:

GOOD

“quaup” gwab = “good” good: [2] Nind 1831 [:274:10] [NYUNGAR]

“guaba” gwaba = “good thing” good: [8 (E)] Salvado [:274:32] [Balardung]

“Gwab-ba” gwaba = “good” good: Symmons, Charles [:11:17] [NYUNGAR]

“Gwâba” gwaba = “good” good: Bates Grammar [:67:36] [Kaniyang / Wajuk / Wardandi]

Some of the several words for ‘bad’ follow. The subtleties of these have not so far been clarified:

BAD:

“wau-kyn” wagan = “bad; useless; no good” bad: [4 (b)] Grey [:208:32] [Minang]

“wockun” wagan = “bad, (unfit to eat)” bad: [2] Nind 1831 [:208:34] [NYUNGAR]

 

“war-ra” wara = “horrible (?)” bad: [24] Hassell, Edney [:173:40] [NYUNGAR]

“worra” wara = “bad” bad: [13] Rae [:208:2] [NYUNGAR]

“war-ra” wara = “bad” bad: [4] Grey 1840 [:208:26] [NYUNGAR]

 

“Djul” dyul = “Bad” bad: Symmons, Charles [:10:7] [NYUNGAR]

“Djul” dyul = “Bad.” bad: Moore 1842 [:31:15] [NYUNGAR]

 

HAVING

“cuttuck” gadag = “have” having: [24] Hassell, Edney [:283:11] [NYUNGAR]

“Ga-dak” gadag = “Having (possessing)” having: Moore 1842 [:138:27] [NYUNGAR]

 

LACKING

“bart” bad = “nothing, no” lacking: Bates Grammar [:79:27] [NYUNGAR]

“Bârt” bad = “Not” lacking: Symmons, Charles [:23:30] [NYUNGAR]

“but” bad = “no; none” lacking: [8 (E)] Salvado [:335:41] [Balardung]

EXPRESSIONS

Combining these words with ‘gurd’ yields a variety of often abstract concepts:

“cood cuttuck quab” gud gadag gwab = “fond” heart-having good: [24] Hassell, Edney [:35:1] [NYUNGAR]

 

‘heart good’

“Gurdugwabba” gurdu gwaba = “Compound of Gurdu, the heart, and Gwabba, good; pleased.” pleased: Moore 1842 [:46:1] [NYUNGAR]

“gürt gwâb öbin” gurd gwababin = “merry, heart “having good”” heart good becoming: Bates Grammar [:67:26] [Pinjarup]

 

‘heart bad’:

“koord wackine” gurd wagan = “sad …” sad: [23] Buller-Murphy [:366:1] [Dordenup [Wardandi]]

 

 

“coord wackign” gurd wagan = “sad” sad: [24] Hassell, Edney [:365:47] [NYUNGAR]

“koord-warra” gurd wara = “sorrow; sorry …” sorry: [23] Buller-Murphy [:387:4] [Dordenup [Wardandi]]

 

‘angry’, ‘disappointed’

“Gurdu djul” gurdu dyul = “Disappointed” heart bad: Moore 1842 [:129:22] [NYUNGAR]

 

‘heart-having’: ‘lover’, ‘marriage’:

“gurtgadàk” gurd gadag = “lover” heart-having: [9] Moore 1884 [:316:20] [NYUNGAR]

 

‘heart-lacking’: distress

“cotoropatpatan” guduru badbadan = “distress, to; to worry; agitate” heart-lacking: [8 (N)] Salvado [:255:23] [Balardung]

Australian indigenous languages are often thought to be deficient in abstract concepts. The rich variety of ideas deriving from ‘gurd’ suggests that perhaps there is no dearth of such abstracts but rather the difficulty in seeking and accurately obtaining them. How much easier it is to use sign language to seek the word for ‘ear’ than for ‘earnest’, for ‘leg’ than for ‘legendary’, for ‘toe’ than for ‘tone’.

 

Here are some examples:

heart one come’

“Gurdugyn-yul” gurdu gan yul = “Compound of Gurdu, the heart; Gyn, one; and Yul, to come; agreeing with; of one heart or mind; unanimous.” agreeing with: Moore 1842 [:46:2] [NYUNGAR]

 

‘heart liver good’

“kootamiara quab” guda miyara qwab = “health; healthy; well” heart liver good: [23] Buller-Murphy [:285:36] [Dordenup [Wardandi]]

“goort-an-gur” gurdanGur = “howl with fear, to” shriek: [4 (b)] Grey [:292:30] [Minang]

 

heart press’ [?]

“goort-boom-gur” gurd bumgur = “embrace, to; to press to the heart” embrace: [4 (b)] Grey [:263:35] [Minang]

 

‘heart twisted’

“goort-daluk” gurd dalag = “sorry, to be; not to have friendly feeling” heart twisted: [4] Grey 1840 [:387:6] [NYUNGAR]

 

‘heart one come’

“Gurdo-gyn-yul” gurdu gan yul = “Agreeing with” agreeing with: Moore 1842 [:120:8.1] [NYUNGAR]

“Gurdugyn-yul” gurdu gan yul = “Compound of Gurdu, the heart; Gyn, one; and Yul, to come; agreeing with; of one heart or mind; unanimous.” agreeing with: Moore 1842 [:46:2] [NYUNGAR]

 

‘heart agent’

“Gurdumit” gurdu mid = “Compound of Gurdu; the heart, and middi, the agent; the soul.” spirit: Moore 1842 [:46:3] [NYUNGAR]

 

And a complete sentence:

‘I / vegetarian-of / heart hurt stand-ing’

“Ngadjo marynak gurdu bakkanyugowin” ngadyu maranag gurdu bagan yugawuin = “To want … I want flour or food.” I want food: Moore 1842 [:45:13.1] [NYUNGAR]

 

Finally, to rejoice at this richness in the language:

‘every heart good’

“yennar koota quab” yina guda gwab = “rejoice” rejoice: [23] Buller-Murphy [:360:22] [Dordenup [Wardandi]]

NYUNGAR Words: dyida or ‘Jetta’

In 2010 a young indigenous AFL footballer from Western Australia began playing for the Sydney Swans. His name is Louis Jetta. Could his uncommon surname be a Nyungar word, and if so, what might it mean? A search of the database, after respelling it as ‘dyida’, revealed that ‘jetta’ is a Nyungar term, with several meanings.

 
The first of these is ‘bird’, or species of ‘bird’:

BIRD

“dyeeda” dyida = “bird (generic term)” bird: [3] Lyon 1833 [:216:4] [NYUNGAR]

“ji-da” dyida = “bird” bird: [5] Symmons 1841 [:216:1] [Wajuk]

“jee-da” dyida = “thornbill, yellow rumped” thornbill: [18 (w)] Serventy [: 411:39] [Wajuk]

“Jida” dyida = “Wren, yellow-tailed; Acanthiza Chrysorrhoea” wren: Moore 1842 [:170:17] [NYUNGAR]

 

dyida‘ combined with ‘maya‘, the word for ‘hut’ or ‘house’, yields the expression for ‘bird’s nest’ as found in the records:

“jee-da-mya” dyida maya = “bird’s nest, a” bird nest: [4] Grey 1840 [:216:23] [NYUNGAR]

“ji-da-my-a” dyida maya = “birds nest” bird nest: [5] Symmons 1841 [:216:21] [Wajuk]

“Jid-amy-a” dyida maya = “Bird’s nest.” bird nest: Moore 1842 [:49:14] [NYUNGAR]

 

A second meaning for ‘jetta’, and one seemingly unrelated to the first, is ‘(edible) root’:

ROOT

“jee-ta” dyida = “root of a sp. of rush – similar to Indian corn” root: [4] Grey 1840 [:363:18] [NYUNGAR]

“jitta” dyida = “root, edible” root: [5] Symmons 1841 [:363:37] [Wajuk]

“Jetta” dyida = “The root of a species of rush, eaten by the natives….” root: Moore 1842 [:49:11] [NYUNGAR]

“Jitta” dyida = “6. Haemadorum-a species of rush” root: Moore 1842 [:154:27] [NYUNGAR]

 

Two more meanings, possibly related to each other but not to the foregoing, are the following. They are to do with ‘light’, specifically the ‘light of day’ for the first, and ‘white’, or ‘light-coloured’, for the second:

DAYLIGHT

“je-dar” dyida = “morning; dawn” dawn: [4] Grey 1840 [:325:48] [NYUNGAR]

“je-dar” dyida = “morning; dawn” dawn: [4] Grey 1840 [:325:48] [NYUNGAR]

“jee-da” dyida = “daylight” daylight: [4] Grey 1840 [:251:47] [NYUNGAR]

“Djidar” dyida = “Dawn of morning; daylight.” dawn: Moore 1842 [:29:10] [NYUNGAR]

“djidar” dyida = “dawn” dawn: [9] Moore 1884 [:251:2] [NYUNGAR]

“Djidar” dyida = “Dawn of morning; daylight.” dawn: Moore 1842 [:29:10] []

 

WHITE

“Djitto” dyida = “Fair; light-coloured.” white: Moore 1842 [:31:4] [NYUNGAR]

“djit-to” dyida = “see djit-ting” white: [4] Grey 1840 [:370:22] [NYUNGAR]

“djee-dal” dyidal = “white or gray” white: [4] Grey 1840 [: 440:3] [NYUNGAR]

“djidal” dyidal = “white” white: [9] Moore 1884 [: 438:38] [NYUNGAR]

“jidaluk” dyidalag = “dark” dark: [10 (n)] Curr [:250:14] [Kaniyang]

 

The last example above, from Curr, combines ‘dyida‘ with two suffixes, ‘-al‘ (possibly ‘dative’ or ‘ablative’), and ‘-ag‘ (possessive). Perhaps these suffixes alter the meaning to the opposite of ‘light’, or perhaps the word can have both meanings, ‘light’ and ‘dark’, just as one word might be used for ‘tomorrow’ and ‘yesterday’.

 

This ‘white’ usage for ‘dyida‘ is featured in the expression for an elderly person:

“katta-dyeedal” gada dyidal = “grey-haired” head white: [3] Lyon 1833 [:276:48] [NYUNGAR]

“katta djee-dal” gada dyidal = “grey-headed” head white: [4] Grey 1840 [:276:49] [NYUNGAR]

“cattagigi” gada dyidyi = “hair” head white: [8 (E)] Salvado [:279:37] [Balardung]

 

Salvado, in the final example, identified the expression as meaning ‘hair’, but from the preceding collection there seems little doubt that his ‘cattagigi‘, rendered using Italian conventions, in reality meant ‘head white’, ‘gada being the Nyungar word for ‘head’.

 

NYUNGAR Words: The ‘thunder’ trail

The sky darkens. There is a heaviness in the air. It feels damp. The clouds are massing. Then the rumbling of thunder starts and it begins to rain, and lightning flashes. Then a deafening clash of thunder overhead. It is in the Australian south-west, and the people there had a word for it:

“koon-dur-nan-gur” gundur nanGur = “thunder or rend the clouds, to” thunder: [4 (b)] Grey [: 415:33] [Minang]

 

In fact they had two words, ‘gundur‘ and ‘nanGur‘, as recorded by Grey. Scott Nind, ten years earlier, made a fairly similar record:

“condernore” gundir nur = “thunder” thunder: [2] Nind 1831 [: 415:4] [NYUNGAR]

 

What exactly did the words mean? Consider:

“koondurt” gundur[a]d = “cloud” cloud: [3 (a)] Lyon [:237:36] [Minang]

“koon-durt” gundur[a]d = “cloud, a” cloud: [4 (b)] Grey [:237:44] [Minang]

“Kundart” gunda[a]d = “(K.G.S.) A cloud.” cloud: Moore 1842 [:62:14] [Minang]

 

From these records it may be taken that ‘gunda‘, perhaps with the suffix ‘-ad‘, meant ‘cloud’. So what about ‘nanGur‘?

“nan-gur” nanGur = “bite, to; to tear; to eat” tear: [4 (b)] Grey [:217:10] [Minang]

“nungoor” nangur = “ant, small” ant: [3] Lyon 1833 [:203:5] [NYUNGAR]

 

Grey claimed nanGur‘ meant ‘bite’, ‘tear’ …, while when Lyon encountered the term he recorded ‘ant’. Lyon might have been right; on the other hand, one thing ants are noted for is ‘biting’, and given the use made of the word in relation to ‘thunder’, ‘bite’ seems a fair probability. There is a wide range of other words for ‘ant’, probably identifying different species of them.

 

 

The meaning of ‘gundur nanGur‘ seems therefore to be the graphically descriptive ‘cloud tear’.
Curr recorded that ‘gundir‘ meant ‘thunder’, but ‘cloud’ seems more probable:

“{konder, mulgar}” gundir = “{thunder}” thunder: [10 (k)] Curr [: 415:7.1] [Kaniyang]

“kondor” gundur = “thunder” thunder: [10 (s)] Curr [: 415:8] [Minang]

 

Another Curr record, apparently totally unrelated, is puzzling:

“goonda” gunda = “milk” milk: [10 (n)] Curr [:322:38] [Kaniyang]

 

Edney Hassell, howver, provided support for it (‘bibi‘ is ‘breast’):

“beeber coonder [[sic]]” bibir gundir = “milk” milk: [24] Hassell, Edney [:322:36] [NYUNGAR]

 

One thing often common to ‘clouds’ and ‘milk’ is the colour ‘white’. A search for ‘white’ provided many different word groupings, but the following collection seemed relevant here:

 

“tdon-dail” dunda[a]l = “fair; white; light-coloured” white: [4] Grey 1840 [:160:22] [NYUNGAR]

“Djundal” dyundal = “White.” white: Moore 1842 [:31:20] [NYUNGAR]

“dyoondal” dyundal = “white, fair hair” white: [3] Lyon 1833 [: 438:47] [NYUNGAR]

 

The consonant sounds ‘g’ and ‘j’ seem often to be mixed, or interchanged, and this might have been occurring here. There is also the suffix ‘-al‘ attached.

 

The next two examples appear to be quite similar, both beginning with a simple ‘d’, and the first also omitting the ‘n’—perhaps a recording or transcription error.

“tdo-dail” duda[a]l = “fair” white: [6] Brady 1845 [:265:23] [NYUNGAR]

“Tdun-dal” dunda[a]l = “(Northern dialect.) Fair; white; lightcoloured.” white: Moore 1842 [:96:7] [NYUNGAR]

 

 

Another pair of words closely similar to one another may have shaded the meaning of ‘whiteness’ somehow:

“tdoon-dil-yer” dundilyir = “fair; white; light-coloured” white: [4 (b)] Grey [:160:25] [NYUNGAR]

“torndiller” durndilir = “whites” white: [2] Nind 1831 [: 440:10] [NYUNGAR]

 

The final pair have a consonantal sequence of d-n-g:

“dongar” dunga = “thunder” thunder: [10 (j)] Curr [: 415:6] [Pinjarup]

“dornda” durnda = “light coloured” white: [12 (v) (aa) (bb)] Bates [:311:14] [NYUNGAR]

 

Some scholars have commented on a feature of the Nyungar group of languages, namely consonantal inversion, or ‘metathesis’. Given that the sequence in the opening example above (for ‘gundur‘) is g-n-d, perhaps this is at play here, strengthening the linking of the first and final forms of ‘white’ cited.

 

 

 

NYUNGAR Words: barang: effective auxiliary

barang‘ crops up a lot. It seems to mean ‘carry’, ‘bring’ and the like.

“Bâr-rang” barang = “bring” carry: Symmons, Charles [:16:2] [NYUNGAR]

“burrung” barang = “get; take: and note jinbu, ranga” carry: [23] Buller-Murphy [:26:14] [NYUNGAR]

“baroŋ” barang = “to fetch, to bring, to pick up” carry: Bates Grammar [:66:13] [NYUNGAR]

“Barrang” barang = “Take in the hand” carry: Moore 1842 [:163:11] [NYUNGAR]

“barrang” barang = “bring, to” carry: [9] Moore 1884 [:226:2] [NYUNGAR]

“bi-rong” birang = “carry” carry: [16] Hammond [:232:29] [NYUNGAR]

“purrong” burang = “touch” touch: [11] Hassell AA 1894 [?] [: 420:6] [NYUNGAR]

But is is also used in combinations, where it seems to have the significance of ‘carry out’, ‘achieve’, or ‘effect’:

“Barrangdedin” barang didin = “To shut up; to cover up.” shut: Moore 1842 [:8:14] [NYUNGAR]

“bur-rang-den-gur” burang dinGur = “cover, to; to close up” effect cover: [4 (b)] Grey [:244:33] [Minang]

“Barrang djinnang” barang dyinang = “Lift up, to” examine: Moore 1842 [:143:33] [NYUNGAR]

“kar-da-bur-rang” garda burang = “pierce, to; to pass clean through” part effect: [4] Grey 1840 [:349:23] [NYUNGAR]

“quadga-burrung” gwadaga burang = “took” PAST take: [23] Buller-Murphy [: 419:27] [Dordenup [Wardandi]]

“jinburranga” dyin baranga = “find; found: and see burning” find: [23] Buller-Murphy [:74:36] [NYUNGAR]

The additional items in the above verbal pairs may be assessed in the following examples:

“Di-din” didin = “close” shut: Symmons, Charles [:16:8] [NYUNGAR]

“dee-deen” didin = “close, to; to stop up” shut: [4] Grey 1840 [:237:24] [NYUNGAR]

—————-

“den-gur” dinGur = “cover up, to; to close” cover: [4 (b)] Grey [:244:34] [Minang]

—————

“Djin-nâng” dyinang = “see” see: Symmons, Charles [:16:42] [NYUNGAR]

“chinung” dyinang = “look” see: [22] Gray 1987 [:315:28] [NYUNGAR]

“gin-ung” dyinang = “see, to; to perceive” see: [4] Grey 1840 [:371:13] [NYUNGAR]

—————-

“kar-da” garda = “part or portion, a (generally half)” part: [4] Grey 1840 [:346:32] [NYUNGAR]

“Karda” garda = “Portion, or part of a thing” part: Moore 1842 [:151:32] [NYUNGAR]

 

 

 

 

——————–

“quadga” gwadaga = “past; in the past; back” PAST: [23] Buller-Murphy [:346:43] [Dordenup [Wardandi]]

“quagget” gwadyid = “yesterday” PAST: [10 (r)] Curr [: 450:49] [Balardung]

—————-

“{chenn, jinn}” dyin = “{foot}” foot: [13] Rae 1913 [:268:44] [NYUNGAR]

“Jin” dyin = “As; like.” like: Moore 1842 [:50:8] [NYUNGAR]

“jin” dyin = “stay; staying; stop; stopping: see yuckie” stay: [23] Buller-Murphy [:393:25] [Dordenup [Wardandi]]

————–

Of the above, the ‘shut’ and cover’ examples are relatively straightforward.

‘examine’ is obtained from ‘lifting’ an object, and ‘see’.

‘part effect’, or ‘divide in two’ tenuously give the original translation of ‘pierce’ or ‘pass clean through’ some credibility, although ‘dan‘ is the more common word for ‘pierce’:

“taan” dan = “pierce, to; to penetrate; to make an openng” pierce: [4] Grey 1840 [:349:25] [NYUNGAR]

gwadaga, or words like it, seem to denote past time.

But the last, ‘dyin‘ is the most problematic, and none of the three examples (‘foot’, ‘like’, ‘stay’) seems appropriate. Most often ‘dyin‘ appears to be used as an intensifier, translatable as ‘very’, ‘much’. This, however, is no more likely either. For the time being it defies explanation.

 

There are numerous other examples of the use of the versatile ‘barang‘:

“kardo barrang” gadu barang = “abduct, to” spouse carry: [9] Moore 1884 [:198:5] [NYUNGAR]

“kardo burrang” gadu barang = “carry off a wife by violence, to [to marry]” spouse carry: [4] Grey 1840 [:232:52] [NYUNGAR]

“marh-rabarrang” mara barang = “handle, to” : [9] Moore 1884 [:282:13] [NYUNGAR]

“Ngagynbarrang” ngagan barang = “Purloin, to” theft effect: Moore 1842 [:152:22] [NYUNGAR]

 

gadu‘ is ‘spouse’; ‘mara‘ is ‘hand’ (and is so in languages in all mainland states); while ‘ngangan‘ is to do with ‘theft’.

 

There is something of a parallel to ‘barang‘ in the Sydney language (BB), in ‘banga‘:

“Búnga banga = ”To make”: Dawes [a:27:0.1] [BB]

“Bünga” banga = “: To make or do (faire in French)”: Dawes [b:3:29] [BB]

“Bungí” banga-yi = “Made”: Dawes [a:28:20] [BB]

 

“Ban´g-a” banga = “To paddle or row”: Dawes [b:3:1] [BB]

“Bongha” banga = “Oar or Paddle” (paddle, to): Paine, Daniel [42.2:9][BB]

 

“—bungngulliko” -ba-ngGa-li-gu = ‘… to force, to compel”: Tkld AWA Key 1850 [21:18] [AWA]

 

In BB, its sense is ‘to do’, or ‘to make’, thus also ‘to achieve’. It was the word Dawes noted the people used for ‘to row’ (their canoes).

The final example above suggests ‘banga‘ might have also played a similar part in Awabakal just north of the Hawkesbury River.

 

 

 

 

NYUNGAR Words: WIALKI: meaning ‘not known’

WIALKI

Latitude 30° 29′ S Longitude 118° 07′ E

The townsite of Wialki is … 341 km north east of Perth and 25 km east of Beacon. … Wialki was gazetted a townsite in 1933. The meaning of the name is not known.”

[http://www.landgate.wa.gov.au/corporate.nsf/web/History+of+country+town+names]

 

The above is taken from the ‘Landgate’ website—as is the following:

“Landgate is the Agency responsible for Western Australia’s land and property information. Landgate’s transition from the Department of Land Information came into effect on 1 January 2007. As an Authority Landgate maintains the State’s official register of land ownership and survey information and is responsible for valuing the State’s land and property for government interest.”

 

The Landgate site includes a large number of WA placenames, of which ‘Wialki’ is one.

 

Although Landgate states the meaning of ‘Wialki’ is not known, there are some possibilities. An investigation begins with respelling the name, and continues with acceptance that the vowels in a word may be differently interpreted, and with the agreement to treat the suffix separately.

 

RESPELLING

‘Wialki’ may be respelt wiyal-gi, wayal-gi, wuyal-gi, and any mixture of the vowels ‘a’, ‘u’ and ‘i’ in the word stem.

 

MATCHES IN THE DATABASE

The following are some of the results when a search is undertaken for ‘w@y@l’, where ‘@’ stands for ‘any vowel’ (in fact for ‘any letter’):

 

THIN

Grey, and Moore, state ‘wiyul/wayul’ means ‘thin’ or similar.

“we-yool” wiyul = “thin; slight; wasted” thin: [4] Grey 1840 [410:24] [NYUNGAR]

 

“wy-yul” wayul = “slight” thin: [9] Moore 1884 [382:23] [NYUNGAR]

 

‘[10 (b)]’ is Curr. This source offered ‘fly’.

“weale” wiyal = “fly” fly: [10 (b)] [176:3] [NYUNGAR]

 

KANGAROO RAT

Hassell and Rae offer ‘Kangaroo rat’ for ‘wayal’. It is conceivable that such an animal, at the time the word was collected, was being described as ‘slight’ (compared with a full-sized kangaroo’), and the word was mistaken for ‘kangaroo rat’. However, given a considerable range of examples of somewhat similar words for ‘kangaroo rat’ this seems unlikely.

“woyle” wayal = “kangaroo rat” kangaroo rat: [11] Hassell AA 1894 [?] [302:41] [NYUNGAR]

“woil” wayal = “kangaroo, rat” kangaroo rat: [13] Rae 1913 [302:19] [NYUNGAR]

“Woi-le?” wuyil = “(K.G.S.) A small species of kangaroo.” kangaroo: Moore 1842 [107:8] [Minang]

—————————

 

INVERSION or ‘METATHESIS’

The first three of the following display the inversion phenomenon, or ‘metathesis’, that has been noted in the Nyungar languages or dialects. The first group has ‘–l-y’ and the second ‘–y-l’

“Wal-yo” walyu = “Kangaroo rat” kangaroo rat: Symmons, Charles [6:30] [NYUNGAR]

“Wal-yo” walyu = “Rat, kangaroo rat” kangaroo rat: Moore 1842 [153:13] [NYUNGAR]

“uaglio” walyu = “kangaroo-rat” kangaroo rat: [8 (E)] Salvado [302:40] [Balardung]

 

“woil” wayal = “kangaroo, rat” kangaroo rat: [13] Rae 1913 [302:19] [NYUNGAR]

“woyle” wayal = “kangaroo rat” kangaroo rat: [11] Hassell AA 1894 [?] [302:41] [NYUNGAR]

“woil” wayal = “kangaroo, rat” kangaroo rat: [13] Rae 1913 [302:19] [NYUNGAR]

————————

 

THREE

Words for numbers greater than two often give rise to speculation as to whether the concept was correctly interpreted at the time the record was made. There are many examples of words having the format m-d-n for ‘three’ (e.g. ‘madan‘, ‘mirding‘), but no back-up for ‘wayal‘ in the following example:

“wyal” wayal = “three” three: [3] Lyon 1833 [ 412:28] [NYUNGAR]

CONCLUSION

No conclusion can be drawn as to the meaning of ‘wayal‘, but it does seem that it might more probably have signified ‘kangaroo rat’ than ‘thin, slight, wasted’, or ‘fly’ or ‘three’.

 

SUFFIX -ki

As for the suffix -ki, even less can be proposed at present. A common word incorporated into English in the Australian southwest for a small crayfish today is ‘gilgie’, as indicated by the [www.fish.wa.gov.au] wedsite:

“Gilgies can be commonly found in most streams, rivers and irrigation …”

The same word was noted in 1842 by Moore, featuring the ‘-ki’ suffix:

“Tjil-ki dyilgi = “(K.G.S) A species of cray-fish.” crayfish: Moore 1842 [96:16] [NYUNGAR]

Grey, however, recorded the word without the suffix:

“dtjil” dyil = “crayfish, a sp. of” crayfish: [4 (b)] Grey [246:8] [Minang]

Perhaps a clearer picture may emerge when suffixes are looked at more specifically in a later post.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NYUNGAR Words: durda: dog / healthy (frisky)

The most common Nyungar word for ‘dog’ is ‘durda’:

“door-da” durda = “dog, a” dog: [4] Grey 1840 [:256:10] [NYUNGAR]

“tdoor-da” durda = “dog, a” dog: [4] Grey 1840 [:256:12] [NYUNGAR]

“durda” durda = “dog” dog: [8 (E)] Salvado [:255:49] [Balardung]

“dur-da” durda = “dog” dog: [5] Symmons 1841 [:256:7] [Wajuk]

“door-da” durda = “dog, a” dog: [4] Grey 1840 [:256:10] [NYUNGAR]

 

There were various spellings:

“dorder” durdir = “dog” dog: [24] Hassell, Edney [:255:50] [NYUNGAR]

“toorrit” durdir = “dingo” dog: [22] Gray 1987 [:162:27] [NYUNGAR]

“doora [[sic]]” dura = “dog” dog: [3] Lyon 1833 [:256:8] [NYUNGAR]

“Toort” durd = “Dog” dog: Nind, Scott [:3:39] [NYUNGAR]

 
Some recorders did not hear, or note, the ‘r’ sound:

 

“dudah” duda = “dog, native” dog: [7] Stokes 1846 [:256:18] [NYUNGAR]

“tutto” dudu = “dog” dog: [8 (N)] Salvado [:255:52] [Balardung]

 

What emerges from the following is that perhaps the indigenous people did not have in mind ‘dog’ so much as ‘a frisky, alive, vital thing’:

“Dor-dâk” durda[a]g = “Alive” healthy: Symmons, Charles [:10:5] [NYUNGAR]

“toortock” durda[a]g = “well” healthy: [2] Nind 1831 [: 435:32] [NYUNGAR]

 

The ‘-ag‘ suffix denotes the possessive, hence a ‘dog’ was seen as ‘frisky-of’, ‘a frisky thing’.

 

The same idea of being ‘alive’ extended into plants, anything ‘alive’ or ‘healthy’ being seen as ‘green’ — here ‘durda‘ combined with the suffix ‘-ang‘:

“Durdong” durda[a]ng = “(K.G.S.) Green.” green: Moore 1842 [:36:2] [Minang]

“dur-dong” durda[a]ng = “green, colour” green: [9] Moore 1884 [:276:42] [NYUNGAR]

 

Moore, Brady and Symmons recorded the same concept with another word, ‘wangin‘, probably based on ‘wangi‘, ‘speak’:

“won-gin” wanGin = “living – applied to trees” healthy: [9] Moore 1884 [:313:30] [NYUNGAR]

“wang-en” wangin = “well” healthy: [6] Brady 1845 [: 435:34] [NYUNGAR]

“Won-gin” wangin = “Alive” healthy: Symmons, Charles [:10:4] [NYUNGAR]

 

Linking ‘healthiness’ (or ‘friskiness’, or ‘green-ness’) to plants was specifically indicated by Moore above. It can be assumed that the ‘green’ of ‘durdang‘, meant ‘healthy; as much as ‘green’.

 

A final example provided by Moore has ‘durda‘ + ‘-agpossessive + ‘-abin‘ ‘inchoative’ (beginning) for ‘beginning to become frisky’, or ‘getting better’ (healthier):

“Durdakabbin” durda[a]gabin = “[Getting; becoming. … Durdakabbin, getting well, recovering from sickness.]” healthy: Moore 1842 [:1:4.2] [NYUNGAR]

 

 

NYUNGAR Words: manga connections

What can ‘nest’, ‘barb’, ‘spear’, ‘leaf’, ‘hair’ and ‘shoulder’ have to do with one another? They all appear to be linked through ‘manga / munga’.

 

The basic idea appears to be ‘strand’, ‘thread’.

 

NEST

A nest is composed of many strands:

“munga” manga = “a nest” nest: [4] Grey 1840 [:120:45] [NYUNGAR]

“Mân-ga” manGa = “Bird, (nest of)” nest: Symmons, Charles [:7:55] [NYUNGAR]

 

BARB

Grey, below, links ‘barb’ and ‘hair’. A barb is a single point, and a hair a single strand.

“mun-gar” munGa = “barb, a; hair” barb: [4] Grey 1840 [:210:11] [NYUNGAR]

“Man-gar” manGa = “Barb of a spear …” barb: Moore 1842 [:68:21] [NYUNGAR]

 

SPEAR

Whether Hassell below was correct or not in stating ‘munga’ meant a type of ‘spear’ is not known. The reference could have been to ‘barb’, a feature of the spear concerned:

“mungar” munga = “hunting spears” spear: [11] Hassell AA 1894 [?] [:293:36] [NYUNGAR]

“mungay” manga = “fishing spears” spear: [11] Hassell AA 1894 [?] [::] [NYUNGAR]

 

Salvado defines ‘reed spear’: ‘gidyi’ is a common word for ‘spear’; and ‘reed’ is yet another ‘strand’.

“mangarghichi” manga gidyi = “spear, reed” barb spear: [8] Salvado 1851 [:388:45] [NYUNGAR]

 

LEAF

Symmons in describing fig leaves uses ‘leaf’ (‘manga”) with a plural marker: ‘-ra’:

“Mân-ga-ra” manGara = “Hottentot fig (leaves of)” leaf: Symmons, Charles [:7:29] [NYUNGAR]

 

HAIR

The following examples indicate that ‘manga’ also stood for hair. ‘gada’ means ‘head:

“munga” munga = “hair” hair: [23] Buller-Murphy [:279:43] [Dordenup [Wardandi]]

“mungar” munga = “hair of the head” hair: [10 (n)] Curr [:280:23] [Kaniyang]

“karta munga” gada manga = “hair (on head)” hair: [23] Buller-Murphy [:280:5] [Dordenup [Wardandi]]

“katta mangara” gada mangara = “hair of the head” hair: [6] Brady 1845 [:280:11] [NYUNGAR]

 

SHOULDER

This last example would suggest that the wordlist compilers might have erred. ‘Hair’ might have reached the ‘shoulder’, giving rise to misunderstanding. But who is to say now whether they were right or wrong?

“monga” manga = “shoulder” shoulder: [3] Lyon 1833 [:375:28] [NYUNGAR]

“mongo” manga = “shoulder” shoulder: [8 (E)] Salvado [:375:29] [Balardung]

 

 

NYUNGAR Words: windu: old

It often happens that a word appears in a list, with alongside it a simple translation, such as ‘windu’: ‘old’

“Win-do” windu = “Old” decrepit: Symmons, Charles [:10:31] [NYUNGAR]

“windo” windu = “man, an old” decrepit: [5] Symmons 1841 [:319:48] [Wajuk]

There being several additional examples in the wordlists of ‘windu’, an idea emerges that ‘windu’ is not so much ‘old’ as a characteristic of ageing — ‘bad’, ‘thin’, ‘useless’ or ‘worn out’:

“win-do” windu = “old; useless; worn out” decrepit: [4] Grey 1840 [:339:46] [NYUNGAR]

“windo” windu = “bad” bad: [9] Moore 1884 [:208:7] [NYUNGAR]

“uindo” windu = “thin” thin: [8 (N)] Salvado [:410:16] [Balardung]

“windo” windu = “useless” decrepit: [6] Brady 1845 [: 427:46] [NYUNGAR]

“windo” windu = “worn out” decrepit: [9] Moore 1884 [: 447:21] [NYUNGAR]

Investigation of the root ‘win’ yields additional insights:

“bal wenat” bal winad = “He is dead (he dead)” he dead: Bates Grammar [:71:23] [Wajuk]

“bal wenin” bal winin = “he is dead” he dead: [14 (n)] Bates [:284:12] [Kaniyang]

In the above examples, ’win’ is about ‘death’‘

bal is the pronoun ‘he’, ‘him’, while ‘-ad’ is a suffix attached to nouns, and ‘-in’ is another often attached to verbs.

 

Another example confirms the ‘death’ connotation:

“Winatding” winading = “(N. E. dialect.) Dead; derived from or connected in some way with Wynaga, dead.” dead: Moore 1842 [:106:8] [NYUNGAR]

Moore indicated in numerous other instances that the suffix –aga is the past tense marker. Two of these follow:

“Bimban” bimban = “Pres. part., Bimbanwin, or Bimbanan; past tense, Bimban-agga. To kiss.” kiss: Moore 1842 [:12:9] [NYUNGAR]

“Yilbin” yilbin = “Pres. part., Yilbinin; past tense, Yilbinagga, To glance off; to graze.” graze: Moore 1842 [:113:18] [NYUNGAR]

Consequently ‘ wanaga’ may be taken to mean ‘die did’ (did die, died):

“Wynaga” wanaga = “…dead.]” die did: Moore 1842 [:106:8.1] [NYUNGAR]

The root ‘win’ now appears to be ‘wan’. The following suggest it might be the same with an altered sound or spelling:

“wain” wan = “die” die: [11] Hassell AA 1894 [?] [:254:15] [NYUNGAR]

“wanign” wanan = “fear; fright; terror” fear: [23] Buller-Murphy [:171:46] [NYUNGAR]

“waininger” waningir = “coward” coward: [23] Buller-Murphy [:245:1] [Dordenup [Wardandi]]

“wanni” wani = “die, to” die: [6] Brady 1845 [:254:21] [NYUNGAR]

“waining” waning = “dead” dead: [10 (r)] Curr [:252:15] [Balardung]

“waining” waning = “thirsty” thirsty: [10 (p)] Curr [: 411:9] [Kaniyang]

So far all the associations with ‘win’, ‘wan’ have been negative. In the above examples, ‘die’, ‘fear’, ‘coward’ and ‘thirsty’,are all negative, the last perhaps representing ‘dying of thirst’.

 

In the next example the expression ‘wan yurdu’ continues the negative outlook. Its literal translation might be ‘bad forehead’ rather than the ‘indisposed’ Moore has offered:

“Wan-yur-du” wan yurdu = “Indisposed.” ill: Moore 1842 [:100:14] [NYUNGAR]

“yoordo” yurdu = “forehead” forehead: [3] Lyon 1833 [:268:52] [NYUNGAR]

“yurdo” yurdu = “forehead, the” forehead: [6] Brady 1845 [:269:2] [NYUNGAR]

However, ‘wan’ does not always have negative connotations:

“won-gin” wangin = “living; green – when applied to wood, leaves” green: [4] Grey 1840 [:313:31] [NYUNGAR]

“wang-en” wangin = “well” healthy: [6] Brady 1845 [: 435:34] [NYUNGAR]

“wanjin” wandyin = “sound” sound: [23] Buller-Murphy [:387:20] [Dordenup [Wardandi]]

‘sound’ in the last example, would appear to have the meaning opposite to ‘rotten’. The last example, spelt ‘wanjin’ raises the recurring problem of how to transcribe ‘g’ of the wordlist compilers, notably in the two preceding examples, as in ‘gift’ and ‘gibbon’ —or sounding as ‘j’ as in ‘gist’? and ‘giblet’?

 

In summary, the root ‘win/wan’ seems to have the connotation of ‘languish’, different suffixes elaborating on the meanings. In the case of the suffix ‘gin/dyin’, it appears to have the opposite connotation: ‘flourish’.

NYUNGAR Words: gur / garu: ‘again’, ‘more’

A large number of Nyungar words end in -gur but no common thread jumps out to suggest a meaning.
‘gur’ also occurs on its own, as does the similar ‘garu’:

“garoo” garu = “more, (beeliar)” more: [3] Lyon 1833 [:325:42] [NYUNGAR]

“kar-ro” garu = “again; more” again: [4] Grey 1840 [:199:41] [NYUNGAR]

“kor, kor” gur = “Again” again: Bates Grammar [:75:8] [NYUNGAR]

“Garro” garu = “Again; then.” again: Moore 1842 [:40:11] [NYUNGAR]

The meanings are ‘again’, and ‘more’, conveying a repetitive idea. Bates provided examples:

“benan kor jinan” binan gur dyinan = “tomorrow morning you will see me again” tomorrow again see: [14 (t) (v)] Bates [: 418:30] [Wajuk]

“ŋanya kor yenaga” nganya gur yinaga = “I went again” I again go did: Bates Grammar [:74:26] [NYUNGAR]

and Buller-Murphy noted a persisting difficulty with flies — ‘fly again’:

“nooduck koran” nudag guran = “again” fly again: [23] Buller-Murphy [:199:38] [Dordenup [Wardandi]]

SYDNEY

However, what makes the word especially interesting is its link, or coincidence, with the Sydney language (‘Biyal Biyal, or BB):

“Gore gore” gura gura = “More more” more: Dawes (b) [b:8:8] [BB]

“Go-ray” gura = “More” more: Anon (c) [c:17:9] [BB]

“Curra” gura = “More” more: Southwell [148.1:19] [BB]

 

The surveyor Mathews, who recorded many languages, noted a Darkinyung use, just to the northward of Sydney

“gurai” gurai = “Several” several: Mathews DARK 1903 [274:33.3] [Dark]

 

 

William Dawes, the first and greatest recorder of the Sydney language, seemed pleased to note that ‘gur’ more or less rhymed with its English counterpart ‘more’:

 

“[Wéaling white man gore?]” gura = “[What does white man say for ‘gore’? Answer: More.]” more: Dawes (b) [b:26:7.3] [BB]

and he provided another sentence example, recording a moment when his young informant sought warmth in front of a winter fire, naked, before putting on the clothes he had provided:

“Goredyú tágarin” guradyu dagarin = “I more it (that is I take more of it) from cold …” more I cold from: Dawes (b) [b:28:1.1] [BB]

 
Still further examples establish ‘gur’ and its variants as meaning ‘more’, ‘again’, in Sydney:

 

“Wålumibámi góre badyü´lgo” walumibami gura badyalgu = “When will you be sick again” when thou more ill-towards: Dawes (b) [b:26:5.1] [BB]

““Curra-Bar-do”” gura badu = “More water” more water: Southwell [148.1:20] [BB]

 

“Brúwi kar˙adyuwi ngábüng” buruwi garadyuwi ngabang = “(All) three have large breasts—that is: They are all three women grown” three increase did they-all breast: Dawes (b) [b:35:3] [BB]

 

 

 

A particular puzzle remains — ‘did-yer-re-goor’:

“Did-yer-re-goor” diyi dyiri gur = “Enough or I am satisfied” enough: Anon (c) [c:17:10] [BB]

“Didgerry-goor” diyi dyiri gur = “Only a little bit more” enough: Anon (c) [c:19:7.1] [BB]

“Did-yerre-goor” diyi dyiri gur = “No more” enough: Anon (c) [c:11:2] [BB]

“Didgerry-goor” didyiri gur = “I thank you” enough: King MS [402:20] [BB]

“Didgerry-goor Wogul Banne” didyiri gur wagal bani = “I thank you for one bit” enough, one-lacking: King MS [402:21] [BB]

This expression was recorded several times, with estimates as to its meaning. These boil down to the idea of ‘enough’. But what were the component parts of the ‘enough’ concept?

 

 

 

 

 

The difficulties for ‘did-yer-re-goor’ are:
—it is not known how properly to transcribe it, and two versions are given in the above examples;
—it is not known what ‘dyiri’ might mean;
—did the opening syllable stand for ‘diyi’, meaning ‘this’?
—could ‘dyiri‘ have been the ‘proprietive’ suffix: ‘having’? It is not unlike the equivalents in the NSW language names ‘Wira-dhuri‘ and ‘Kamil-arai‘ — ‘wira’-having, ‘gamil’-having, ‘wira’ and ‘gamil’ being the words for ‘no’ in those languages, a distinctive word (often ‘no’) being a common way of naming a language. (While the complementary ‘privative’ or ‘lacking’ suffix was clear in BB (‘-buni’), the ‘having’ form was not indicated in any of the wordlists.)

 

 

 

Australian indigenous languages did not have the politeness terms (‘good morning’, ‘please’, ‘thank you’, ‘how do you do?’ of English and European languages) but for modern day purposes such terms are sought for. ‘did-yer-re-goor’ has been adopted by some in Sydney for ‘thank you’, but that is not what it meant.

Could the literal translation possibly have been ‘this-having more’?

 

 

NYUNGAR Words: through / pierce / intend

On p. 283 of A Nyoongar Wordlist from the Southwest of Western Australia (Bindon and Chadwick, 1992) there is an entry of which the following is an adaptation:

“gur-rab-a-ra” gurabara = “[(wangurt yugow) having pierced through]” hole: [4] Grey 1840 [:283:21.1] [NYUNGAR]

This entry started off a trail of enquiry in which the following played a part:

—gurubara: hole

—wangurd: ???

—yugawu: stand

—pierce

—through

—hole

—intend

 

HOLE

“gur-rab” gurab = “hole, a; a hollow place” hole: [4] Grey 1840 [:290:35] [NYUNGAR]

“ka-ri-pa” gariba = “cave (or hole of any sort)” cave:[19] Isaacs 1949 [:233:30] [NYUNGAR]

“gãrrab” garab = “hole [cave; hollow]” hole: [9] Moore 1884 [:290:29] [NYUNGAR]

“karup” garab = “nostrils” hole: [3] Lyon 1833 [:337:20] [NYUNGAR]

“gur-rab” gurab = “hole, a; a hollow place” hole: [4] Grey 1840 [:290:35] [NYUNGAR]

From the above it seems clear that ‘garab’ and like forms convey the idea of ‘hole’. And from the following it seems there may be the possibility of a suffix denoting plurality:

“Garrabara” garabara = “Full of holes; pierced with holes.” hole: Moore 1842 [:40:4] [NYUNGAR]

“gur-rab-a-ra” gurabara = “[(wangurt yugow) having pierced through]” hole: [4] Grey 1840 [:283:21.1] [NYUNGAR]

 

 

 

 

 

yugawu: stand

According to Moore, ‘yugawu’ means roughly ‘stand’:

“Yugow” yugawu = “…To be; to stand; to exist.” stand: Moore 1842 [:114:24] [NYUNGAR]

“yugow” yugawu = “stand, to” stand: [9] Moore 1884 [:392:13] [NYUNGAR]

It is used in combinations such as the following:

“ira-yugow” yira yugawu = “stand up, to” high stand: [6] Brady 1845 [:392:18] [NYUNGAR]

“Gurdubakkan-yugow” gurdu bagan yugawu = “To want; as Ngadjo marynak gurdu bakkanyugowin, I want flour or food.” want [heart hurt stand]: Moore 1842 [:45:13] [NYUNGAR]

 

“Kobbalobakkan-yugow” gabalu bagan yugawu = “To want. To hunger for a thing.” want [belly hurt stand]: Moore 1842 [:58:20] [NYUNGAR]

 

“yu-gow-murrijo” yugawu muridyu = “run, to; (literally) stand & go” stand move: [4] Grey 1840 [:365:25] [NYUNGAR]

And in the present example, there is ‘wangurd yugawu’ indicated in the first example as meaning ‘having pierced through’.

 

PIERCE

Consider first the possibilities of ‘pierce’, and then ‘through’.

“dtan” dan = “pierce, to; penetrate; make an opening” pierce: [4] Grey 1840 [:349:24] [NYUNGAR]

“Dtan” dan = “pierce” pierce: Symmons, Charles [:16:36] [NYUNGAR]

“Dtan” dan = “Penetrate, to” pierce: Moore 1842 [:150:32] [NYUNGAR]

“dorn” durn = “pierce” pierce: [24] Hassell, Edney [:349:20] [NYUNGAR]

“dorn” durn = “pierce” pierce: [23] Buller-Murphy [:349:21] [Dordenup [Wardandi]]

These records suggest ‘dan’ as a probability for ‘pierce’ rather than ‘wangurd’.

 

THROUGH?

Could ‘wangurd/wagurd/wagad’ mean ‘through’?

“wau-gurt” wagurd = “through; pierced through” through pierce [?]: [4] Grey 1840 [: 413:35] [NYUNGAR]

“wau-gurt” wagurd = “pierced through” through pierce [?]: [6] Brady 1845 [:349:27] [NYUNGAR]

“wau-gart” wagad = “through; pierced through” pierce: [9] Moore 1884 [: 413:34] [NYUNGAR]

“Waugard dtan” wagad dan = “To pierce through.” through pierce [?]: Moore 1842 [:103:8] [NYUNGAR]

As Australian indigenous languages use suffixes for meanings in place of the prepositions of English, and as ‘wangurd/wagad’ is not a suffix, and as ‘through’ is a preposition, then what is ‘wangurd/wagurd/wagad’?

 

INTENTION

Moore offers a suggestion of ‘intention’ in the following:

“Ordak” wurdag = “A particle affixed to verbs, signifying to intend; to purpose….” intend: Moore 1842 [:94:5] [NYUNGAR]

“Ordakbarrang” wurdag barang = “… to intend to take…: Moore 1842 [:94:5.2] [NYUNGAR]

“Ordak dtan” wurdag dan = “…to intend to pierce.” intend pierce: Moore 1842 [:94:5.1] [NYUNGAR]

ENDNOTES

Two matters remain for clarification:

—’wangurd’ or ‘wagurd/wagad’

—’wurdag’ or ‘wagurd/wagad’ (intention)

 

Note that the first record cited in this ‘post’ is Grey’s, of 1840—the earliest of these records:

“wangurt yugow” wangurd yugawu = “(wangurt yugow) having pierced through” pierce: [4] Grey 1840 [:283:21] [NYUNGAR]

Grey uses ‘wangurt’. Subsequent wordlists feature “wau-gurd” and variants, including by Grey. It would seem likely that the letter ‘n’ may have been misread as ‘u’, and the mistake thereafter compounded by copying (unless Grey’s original ‘wangurt’ were the mistake).

 

As for ‘wurdag’ (intention), in the Nyungar languages the phenomenon of inversion occurs, known as ‘metathesis’, where sounds or syllables within a word are transposed.

‘wurdag’ displays this feature with respect to ‘wagurd’.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NYUNGAR Words: yuda

‘yuda’ occurs in all the following expressions connected with flowering plants:

“beljie-ah-yootah-boolyah” bildyiya yuda bulya = “leschenaultia (blue flowering bush)” blue shrub flowering: [16] Hammond [:309:41] [NYUNGAR]

“beljie-yootah-kwiljee” bildyi yuda gwildyi = “runner, red (red flowering climber)” red runner: [16] Hammond [:365:31] [NYUNGAR]

“{beljie-yootah, boolyah}” bildyi yuda = “everlasting, red” red flower : [16] Hammond [:264:30.01] [NYUNGAR]

“beljie-yootah, bounuh” bildyi yuda buna = “gum, red-flowering” red flower tree: [16] Hammond [:279:2] [NYUNGAR]”bounuh-yootah” buna yuda = “kangaroo paw (stick bush)” kangaroo paw: [16] Hammond [:302:37] [NYUNGAR]

“kahta-ninda-yootah” gada ninda yuda = “orchid, spider (head & tail flower)” orchid: [16] Hammond [:342:15] [NYUNGAR]

“yallominee-yootah-bounuh” yalumini yuda buna = “bush, smoke” smoke bush: [16] Hammond [:229:46] [NYUNGAR]

“yooljee-ah-mun-gyt-yootah” yuldyiya mangad yuda = “banksia” banksia: [16] Hammond [:209:42] [NYUNGAR]

“yooljee-ah-mun-gyt-yootah” yuldyiya mangad yuda = “tree, banksia (yellow honey flower)” banksia: [16] Hammond [: 421:10] [NYUNGAR]

 

 

From this is would seem the best interpretation of ‘yuda’ is ‘flower’.

 

Other vocabulary that can be deduced:

bildyi: red/blood

bulya: [normally ‘magic/evil spirit; so possibly a transcription error for ‘buna’]

gwildyi: climber, creeper [?]

buna: wood, tree, stick

gada: head

ninda: tail

yalumini: white (bright?); moon, smoke (both being white/bright)

yuldyiya: yellow

mangad: sweet, honey, nectar, sugar — hence sweet things such as banksia flowers

 

Further support from the records:

“bil-jee” bildyi = “blood” blood: [16] Hammond [:219:43] [NYUNGAR]

“biljie” bildyi = “red (same as for blood)” red: [16] Hammond [:360:8] [NYUNGAR]

“boo-na” buna = “wood” wood: [4 (a)] Grey [: 446:42] [Wajuk]

“boona” buna = “tree; wood; stick” tree: [23] Buller-Murphy [: 420:42] [Dordenup [Wardandi]]

“cata” gada = “head” head: [8] Salvado 1851 [:284:38] [NYUNGAR]

“kat-ta” gada = “head” head: [5] Symmons 1841 [:284:51] [Wajuk]

“yallominee” yalumini = “moon” moon: [16] Hammond [:325:7] [NYUNGAR]

“yallominee” yalumini = “white (same as moon)” white: [16] Hammond [: 438:45] [NYUNGAR]

 

“Neent” nind = “Tail” tail: Nind, Scott [:4:44] [NYUNGAR]

“neent” nind = “tail” tail: [2] Nind 1831 [:403:34] [NYUNGAR]

“neander” niyandir = “tail” tail: [24] Hassell, Edney [:403:35] [NYUNGAR]

“neint” niyind = “tail” tail: [11] Hassell AA 1894 [?] [:403:38] [NYUNGAR]

“yool-jie-ah” yuldyiya = “yellow” yellow: [16] Hammond [: 449:29] [NYUNGAR]

 

“mungitch” mungidy = “honey, sweet, sugar” sweet: [24] Hassell, Edney [:291:1] [NYUNGAR]

“mungitch” mangidy = “banksia; honey; sweet; sweetly; sugar” nut: [23] Buller-Murphy [:210:8] [Dordenup [Wardandi]]

“mungyt” mangad = “sugar; honey; anything sweet” nectar: [15] Hammond [:399:3] [NYUNGAR]

Observations

—’yuda’ would seem to mean ‘flower’, not ‘bush/shrub’

—’bulya’ (3rd example) might be a transcription error, given that ‘buna’ appears in the example following, having the same form

—’mangad’ would seem to mean ‘sweet’. This word was considered in a previous post, where is was suggested it might really mean ‘ant’. Perhaps there is a connection in ‘sugar ant’, Australian ants.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nyungar words: mangad: aunt / ant / any

English commonly has specific words to express shades of meaning. It has, for example, endless words for colour names: not only ‘red’ but ‘scarlet’, ‘crimson’, ‘vermilion’, ‘pink’ and so on. Australian indigenous languages might have words for ‘white’, ‘black’, ‘red’, ‘green’ and perhaps ‘yellow’, with ‘black’, for example, being also the word for ‘night’, and the other colour words being terms for entities of the colour concerned.
Indigenous languages were specific about some matters of concern, notably family relationships: ‘son’, ‘father’, ‘father’s sister’, ‘father’s father’ and many more. English terms have been adopted to approximate this usage: ‘uncle’, ‘aunt’, ‘mother-in-law’ and the like. The European term ‘aunt’ does not distinguish between ‘father’s sister’ and ‘mother’s sister’, and likewise for ‘uncle’. For Europeans, this lack of precision does not much matter.

“mun-gat” manGad = “ant” aunt: [4] Grey 1840 [:202:32] [NYUNGAR]

“Mân-gat” manGad = “Aunt” aunt: Symmons, Charles [:4:4] [NYUNGAR]

“Man-gat” manGad = “Aunt; mother-in-law.” aunt: Moore 1842 [:69:3] [NYUNGAR]

“man-gat” manGad = “mother-in-law” mother-in-law: [5] Symmons 1841 [:327:35] [Wajuk]

 

In the database from which the above extracts are taken there are ten examples similar to the above entries. All of the ten are provided by Grey, Moore or Symmons, and of these, Grey (1840), is the earliest. As in much of the database, it seems that one source copied copiously from another.

 

As can be seen from the first record above, Grey stated that ‘manGad’ meant ‘ant’. Subsequently all family relationship interpretations of ‘mangad’ (for it had other quite different meanings too) were not ‘ant’ but ‘aunt’ or ‘mother-in-law’, i.e. senior female relatives. On the basis of 9 to 1, I opted for ‘aunt’ for Grey’s word, assuming he had made a recording error. But perhaps he was right, and the copyists were wrong in their transcriptions of his work. When once an error is made, further copying compounds a blunder.

 

Sydney is far away, but nevertheless there is at times some relationship among the indigenous languages. All the Pama-Nyungan languages of most of the continent had a common origin. Over immense time, as the peoples spread over the continent, separate languages evolved.

 

In the Sydney language (which I have termed Biyal Biyal, abbreviated to BB), one word for ‘ant’ is ‘mang’—close to ‘mangad’.

 

“Mong” mang = “Ant …” ant: Painters [:] [BB]

“Mong” mang = “Small brown ant” ant: Brown, Rbt: Georges R [264.72:2] [DgR]

“Mon” man = “Any” ant: Anon (c) [c:31:15] [BB]

“Mong” mang = “An ant” ant: King in Hunter [409.2:19] [BB]

“muun” mun = “ant (green)” ant: KAOL Ridley [KML] [20:18] [Kamilaroi]

“mu-un” mun = “Greenheaded ant” ant: Mathews KML/Dwl [278.5:9] [Kamilaroi]

“Moon” mun = “Small black ant” ant: SofM 1900 05 21 [Tibbetts] [63:38] [WIRA]

Similar words are found in the inland NSW languages Wiradhuri and Kamilaroi, as can be seen from the bottom three examples above.

 

Of course this might just be a coincidence: ‘mangad’ in Nyungar, ‘mang’ or ‘mun/man’ in certain NSW languages.

 

And finally there is another curiosity concerning ‘ant’. In the ‘Anon’ notebook record of BB vocabulary compiled around 1790 a transcription error was made in copying a rough note into the governor’s word list, as the middle item in the following extract shows:

 


It was not ‘Any’ but ‘Ant’ that should have been written.

NYUNGAR Words: murdu, murda: high/deep hard/firm bald rat young night

There seem to be two distinct concepts here, one or the other possibly underlying several of the additional ideas presented below.
HIGH/DEEP

“mor-da” murda = “high; steep; deep” high: [4] Grey 1840 [:289:6] [NYUNGAR]

“moorda” murda = “blue mountains” high: [3] Lyon 1833 [:221:4] [NYUNGAR]

“marda” mada = “hill” hill: [10 (q)] Curr [:289:30] [Natingero]

“Mordo” murdu = “A mountain. …” hill: Moore 1842 [:77:5] [NYUNGAR]

“Mordak” murda[a]g = “Deep” deep: Moore 1842 [:129:8] [NYUNGAR]

“moodark” murda[a]g = “deep; depth” deep: [23] Buller-Murphy [:253:17] [Dordenup [Wardandi]]

“Mordak” murda[a]g = “Deep; steep, or high.” deep: Moore 1842 [:77:1] [NYUNGAR]

“mor-dak” murda[a]g = “hole in ground that by-yu is buried in” hole: [4] Grey 1840 [:290:36] [NYUNGAR]

“Murdong” murdang = “A mountaineer.” mountaineer: Moore 1842 [:79:11] [NYUNGAR]

“Murdar” murda = “(K.G.S.) A species of fish.” fish: Moore 1842 [:79:8] [Minang]

“[muda, murdo]” murdu = “whiting (fish)” whiting: [13] Rae [: 440:14.2] [NYUNGAR]

‘high’ suggests ‘hill’, and ‘mountaineer’;

‘deep’, which is another way of considering the vertical dimension, suggests a ‘hole in the ground’; and ‘fish’, insofar as the indigenous informant might have been pointing at one and said it was ‘deep’, this word having been mistaken for the word for ‘fish’.

 

“Mordakanan” murda[a]ganan = “Drown, to, active verb” drown: Moore 1842 [:130:14] [NYUNGAR]

“Mordakal-ap” murda[a]galab = “Drowned, to be drowned” drown: Moore 1842 [:130:15] [NYUNGAR]

 

 

To ‘drown’ is likewise associated with ‘deep’, the above ‘murda’ examples featuring the possessive suffix ‘-ag’, and the continuative ‘-an’ (in the first instance repeated as ‘-anan’.

 

HARD/FIRM

“murdoin” murduwin = “firm” firm: [9] Moore 1884 [::] [NYUNGAR]

“moor-doo-een, moordoo-een” murduwin = “hard; unpleasant to lie on” firm: [4] Grey 1840 [:282:43] [NYUNGAR]

“moor-doo-een” murduwin = “strong; powerful” firm: [4] Grey 1840 [:398:18] [NYUNGAR]

“murrt” murd = “penis” penis: [22] Gray 1987 [:348:16] [NYUNGAR]

While there are fewer sources for ‘hard/firm’, error nevertheless seems unlikely in view of the ‘expressions’ provided at the end of this post.

 

Linking ‘hard’firm’ to ‘penis’ is speculative, but might be apt under certain circumstances.

 

FURTHER EXTENSIONS TO THE ‘hard/firm’ CONCEPT

YOUNG

“mordie” murdi = “young” young: [24] Hassell, Edney [: 452:34] [NYUNGAR]

“mordie moragut” murdi muragad = “young man” young male: [23] Buller-Murphy [: 453:12] [Dordenup [Wardandi]]

“mordie boona” murdi buna = “sapling (young tree)” young stick: [23] Buller-Murphy [:367:2] [Dordenup [Wardandi]]

“mordie yorger” murdi yagir = “young woman” young woman: [23] Buller-Murphy [: 453:22] [Dordenup [Wardandi]]

“{marleet, mardung} ” madang = “{brother, younger}” brother: [10 (s)] Curr [:228:4.2] [Minang]

“mardial” madyal = “brother, younger” brother: [10 (k)] Curr [:228:5] [Kaniyang]

NUT

“Marda” mada = “Nut, York nut” nut: Moore 1842 [:148:29] [NYUNGAR]

BALD / BARE

“marda” mada = “bald” bald: [6] Brady 1845 [:209:5] [NYUNGAR]

“Marda” mada = “Bald …” bald: Moore 1842 [:70:8] [NYUNGAR]

“mardi” madi = “bald” bald: [9] Moore 1884 [:209:7] [NYUNGAR]

“mur-da” murda = “bald” bald: [4] Grey 1840 [:209:8] [NYUNGAR]

“moordu” murdu = “head, back of” head: [3] Lyon 1833 [:285:21] [NYUNGAR]

‘young’ things might be perceived as ‘firm’;

A ‘nut’ might be ‘hard’;

and a ‘bald’ head might be regarded, like a stone which it somewhat resembles, as ‘hard’ too; the same would apply to ‘the back of the head’.

 

MORPHOLOGICAL OBSCURITIES

The following resemble ‘murdu/murda’ but do not seem linked by meaning to the foregoing.

 

NIGHT / DARK [ERROR [?] ‘night’ words: mand…, mara…, maya…]

“moordong” murdang = “dark” night: [10 (e)] Curr [:250:24] [NYUNGAR]

“Mard-angwin” madangwin = “Hunting, by moonlight” hunt: Moore 1842 [:140:18] [NYUNGAR]

“mardangwin” madangwin = “hunting by the light of the moon” hunt: [6] Brady 1845 [:293:34] [NYUNGAR]

RAT / MOUSE

“mort” murd = “kangaroo rat, kind of” kangaroo rat: [11] Hassell AA 1894 [?] [:302:48] [NYUNGAR]

“moor-da” murda = “mouse, ground” rat: [19] Isaacs 1949 [:328:35] [NYUNGAR]

“mardo” madu = “mouse sp.” rat: [9] Moore 1884 [:328:28] [NYUNGAR]

“morder” murdir = “rat, marsupial” rat: [24] Hassell, Edney [:359:22] [NYUNGAR]

“Murdo” murdu = “In vain.” futile: Moore 1842 [:79:9] [NYUNGAR]

It is possible that the ‘night’ references were poorly recorded, as there are numerous examples in the word lists based on such stems as ‘mand…’, ‘mara…’ and ‘maya…’ So these ‘night’ instances, including ‘hunting’, might perhaps be disregarded in the present context.

 

In the case of ‘rat/mouse’, the only possible link would seem to be through ‘deep’, these animals perhaps making use of holes in the ground.

 

As for ‘in vain’, so far no support for this has arisen from the word lists.

 

EXPRESSIONS

It is intriguing to see how the indigenous people combined words to describe concepts.

 

“kattidj murdoinan” gadidy murduwinan = “fix the attention upon” hear firm-ing: [6] Brady 1845 [:267:49] [NYUNGAR]

“Kattidjmurdoinan” gadidy murduwinan = “To mind; to fix your attention upon.” hear firm-ing: Moore 1842 [:58:5] [NYUNGAR]

“Kattamordo” gada murdu = “…The mountains; the high head. The … Darling range of hills…” head high: Moore 1842 [:57:21] [Wajuk]

“Katta Marda” gada mada = “[Bald; as Katta Marda, bald-headed.]” bald: Moore 1842 [:70:8.1] [NYUNGAR]

“katta marda” gada mada = “bald headed” bald: [6] Brady 1845 [:209:11] [NYUNGAR]

 

“bidimurduin” bidi murdwin = “powerful” strong: [9] Moore 1884 [:354:46] [NYUNGAR]

“bidi-murduin” bidi murdwin = “strong” strong: [6] Brady 1845 [:398:15] [NYUNGAR]

“ngan-ga moor-doo-een” nganGa murduwin = “sun is powerful, the” sun firm: [4] Grey 1840 [:400:13] [NYUNGAR]

‘gadidy’ is of the ‘mind’: ‘hear’, ‘know’, ‘listen’, ‘understand’, ‘think’ and the like. So ‘hear firm-ing’ is ‘fixing the attention upon’.

 

‘gada murdu’ and ‘gada mada’ appear to be the same expression. ‘gada’ is ‘head’. So is the second word ‘high’ or ‘hard’. Were the Darling Ranges perceived as a ‘high head’ (or a ‘hard’ one?). If they were the same expression, then perhaps ‘hard’ is the better interpretation, for ‘bald’ could only realistically be linked to ‘hard’ (head).

 

Thursday 22 July 2010

================

 

 

 

NYUNGAR Words: igan / yagan

dog / wild / bad / turtle // arouse/ alarm /startle / disturb / drive / chase

“yockine” yagan = “bad” bad: [10 (p)] Curr [:208:23] [Kaniyang]

“yokine” yagan = “dingo” dog: [17] Markey 1942 [:191:50] [NYUNGAR]

“yuckine” yagan = “wild dogs” dog: [11 (a)] Hassell, A.A. [:195:24] [NYUNGAR]

“yakkine” yagan = “dog, wild” dog: [10 (m)] Curr [:257:1] [Kaniyang]

“yockine” yagan = “wild” wild: [23] Buller-Murphy [: 442:12] [Dordenup [Wardandi]]

“yekyn” yigan = “dog, wild” dog: [9] Moore 1884 [:257:11] [NYUNGAR]

“yek-kain” yigan = “wild dog” dog: [4] Grey 1840 [: 442:15] [NYUNGAR]

“yiee-kain” yigan = “wild dog” dog: [4] Grey 1840 [: 442:16] [NYUNGAR]

“yik-kan” yigan = “arouse, to; to awaken; to startle” arouse: [4] Grey 1840 [:204:39] [NYUNGAR]

“Yekan” yigan = “To drive; to chase; to tend cattle.” chase: Moore 1842 [:113:8] [NYUNGAR]

“yookin” yugin = “hungry” hungry: [10 (i)] Curr [:293:17] [Wajuk]

“yakkan” yagan = “turtle” turtle: [12 (b)] Bates [: 423:42] [Pinjarup]

“ye-kyn” yigan = “turtle, fresh-water” turtle: [5] Symmons 1841 [: 423:45] [Wajuk]

——————————–

“Igan” igan = “…To alarm; to disturb; to drive.” disturb: Moore 1842 [:47:23] [NYUNGAR]

“Igan” igan = “Disturb, to” disturb: Moore 1842 [:129:25] [NYUNGAR]

“igan” igan = “drive, to” drive: [9] Moore 1884 [:258:46] [NYUNGAR]

SPELLING

From the above record extracts it would seem that ‘yagan/yugan/yigan’ are effectively the same word.

Second, ‘igan’ is probably also the same word. In common with many Australian Indigenous languages, it is possible that there were no, or few, Nyungar words that began with a vowel. Words so recorded might have in reality begun with ‘y-‘, ‘w-‘ or ‘ng-‘: in this case, with ‘y-‘.

 

MEANING

Most of the quoted records, the nouns, relate to ‘dog’, specifically to ‘wild dog’.

Several of the other records, the verbs, relate to behaviour.

 

The behaviour in question is typical of dogs, especially in relation to game: dogs ‘startle’, ‘arouse’, ‘chase’ and ‘drive’ game (much as do sheep dogs in a European context).

 

APPARENT ANOMALIES

One of the records for ‘yagan’ is ‘bad’. Yet a dog doing such chasing might be classed ‘bad’.

Another, ‘hungry’: likewise a dog might chase game because it was ‘hungry’.

Not so readily explained are the two records for ‘turtle’. Perhaps they required some ‘chasing’ to catch them.

NYUNGAR Words: ‘bidya’ AND ‘bidyag’

‘bidya’: ‘sleep’ AND ‘bidyag’: ‘sinking’ — is there a connection? and if so, what?

“bidjar” bidya = “a state of repose” sleep: [4] Grey 1840 [:13:35] [NYUNGAR]

“beedjar” bidya = “sleep” sleep: [3] Lyon 1833 [:381:25] [NYUNGAR]

“bidjar” bidya = “sleep” sleep: [6] Brady 1845 [:381:48] [NYUNGAR]

“bid-jak” bidya[a]g = “stinking; offensive” stinking: [4] Grey 1840 [:394:50] [NYUNGAR]

“Bidjak” bidya[a]g = “Stinking” stinking: Moore 1842 [:161:14] [NYUNGAR]

The suffix ‘-ak’ [-ag] is the possessive. Thus bidya-[a]g might be ‘sleep-of’.

Perhaps the connection is:

—a dead animal might be viewed as ‘sleeping’;

—a dead animal is often associated with an offensive smell.

 

In the above records extracts, original entries are given in double quotes (for the Australian, and for the English translation). These are followed in each case by a modern respelling and a modern standarsided translation. Each extract ends with source and language information. The main source for this post is Bindon, Peter and Ross Chadwick. 1992. “A Nyoongar wordlist from the south west of Western Australia / compiled and edited by Peter Bindon & Ross Chadwick.” Pp. xi, 454. Perth: Anthropology Dept., Western Australian Museum.

 

BAD across the country

Wednesday 7 July 2010

 
BAD across the country
 
There are several words to express ‘bad’, but it is interesting to note one similarity between the Nyungar of south-west Western Australia and the Sydney language, and elsewhere in New South Wales:
———————-

“[Wiribü´ngadyémi]” wiribanga = “[Thou didst wrong or badly.]” bad DO, to: Dawes (b) [b:24:18.11] [BB]

“Wiribi´” wiribáyi = “Worn out (as clothes etc.)” bad did: Dawes (b) [b:24:13] [BB]

“we-ree no-rar” wiri ngura = “a bad country” bad camp: Anon (c) [c:21:3] [BB]

“wee-re” wiri = “Bad” bad: Collins 1 [507.2:28] [BB]

“Wèrè” wiri = “Bad” bad: King MS [398:20] [BB]

“weri” wiri = “bad” bad: AL&T Rowley GeoR [DgR] [260:28] [DgR]

“Weè-ree, Weè-ree” wiri = “He therefore cried out to the man, Weè-ree, Weè-ree, (bad; you are doing wrong) displaying at the same time, every token of amity and confidence.” bad: Tench [180:2] [BB]

“Wee-ri(e(” wiri = “Bad” bad: Southwell [148.1:15] [BB]

“We-re” wiri = “Bad” bad: Anon (c) [c:26:13.1] [BB]

“Waree” wari = “Bad” bad: Paine, Daniel [41.1:4] [BB]

“Muree Waree” mari wari = “Abhor, To” bad: Paine, Daniel [41.1:1] [BB]

“Muree Waree” mari wari = “very bad or improper” big bad: Paine, Daniel [41:19] [BB]

“wurai” warai = “bad” bad: KAOL Ridley [WAYIL] [128:5.3] [Wailwun]

“wurrai” warai = “Bad” bad: Mathews NYMBA 1904 [230.1:6] [NYMBA]

“Warroo” waru = “bad” bad: SofM 1896 09 12 [p.12.7: AMT-WAYIL] [12.7:18] [Wailwun]

====================================

“Warra” wara = “(Mountain dialect.) Bad.” bad: Moore 1842 [:101:11] [NYUNGAR]

“war-ra” wara = “horrible (?)” bad: [24] Hassell, Edney [:173:40] [NYUNGAR]

“worra” wara = “bad” bad: [13] Rae [:208:2] [NYUNGAR]

“war-ra” wara = “bad” bad: [4] Grey 1840 [:208:26] [NYUNGAR]

“warra” wara = “bad” bad: [22] Gray 1987 [:208:28] [NYUNGAR]

“worra worra” wara wara = “bad, very” bad: [13] Rae [:208:36] [NYUNGAR]

————————————————-

The Sydney language words are at the top, indicated as such by ‘BB” (for Biyal-Biyal) at the end of the line. The Nyungar words are at the bottom.

There are also two Wailwun examples, and Niyamba example, from north-central New South Wales.

The original entries are given in double quotation marks for both the Australian word and the original translation. Also provided are a modern simplified and standardised respelling, and a standardised translation (‘bad’ in this instance). Each entry concludes with the source details, with page number and line number in square brackets, with an estimated language name at the end.

Nyungar: Introduction

In 2010 I have been working on the Nyungar language area of south-west Western Australia. I used to live in Darlington not far from Perth, and in those days there used to be a train from Mundaring to Perth, passing through the siding of Boya. I would get off at East Guildford. Darlington is not that far from Kalamunda. I would go for holidays to Mooliabeenie. Indigenous names such as these meant nothing to me: they were just names.

It was intriguing to discover that Boya means ‘stone’; and that Kalamunda consists of the words ‘kalla’ meaning primarily ‘fire’, but also used for ‘camp’ (typified by having a ‘fire’); and ‘munda’, having several possible meanings such as ‘bush’, ‘dry’, ‘bracken’ and ‘fern’, and even ‘tiger shark’. So while the explanation given on the internet for Kalamunda is ‘home in the forest’ [‘camp’, ‘bush’], it might in fact mean ‘bush fire’.
Mundaring is a puzzle. It could be related to ‘munda’ (bush) already considered in ‘Kalamunda’. The explanations on the internet do not inspire confidence:
Mundaring is thought to be named from an Aboriginal word meaning “a high place on a high place” or “the place of the grass tree leaves”.”
‘minda’ has the meaning ‘grass-tree leaf’ (or frond): but this is not ‘munda’; and the nearest ‘high, steep, deep’ word to ‘Mundaring’ that I can find is ‘morda’.
Mooliabeenie might be mulya+bini. ‘mulya’ means ‘nose’, while there are possible meanings for ‘bini’ including ‘pre-dawn’, and ‘to itch’. Could this have been ‘nose itch’? There is one record for ‘mool-ya-bin’, the recorded meaning for this being ‘sulky, offended’. Perhaps itchy nose was the way the concept of ‘sulky’ was expressed.
As children we used to use the word ‘wongy’ for having a chat with someone, and ‘wongi’ turns out to be the Nyungar verb ‘to speak’; and we talked about ‘gilgy’s, pronounced Jill-Gee, for a small crayfish. And the same word can be found in the records for this very creature, which I would now spell ‘dyilgi’.
My main initial source of information was:

Bindon, Peter and Ross Chadwick. 1992. “A Nyoongar wordlist from the south west of Western Australia / compiled and edited by Peter Bindon & Ross Chadwick.” Pp. xi, 454. Perth: Anthropology Dept., Western Australian Museum.

and subsequently, among other sources:

Moore, George Fletcher. 1842. A Descriptive Vocabulary of the Language in Common Use amongst the Aborigines of Western Australia; with Copious Meanings, embodying much interesting information regarding the Habits, Manners, and Customs of the Natives, and the Natural History of the Country. London: Wm. S. Orr & Co., Paternoster Row.

Saturday 12 June 2010

UNDISCOVERED SITE

Not surprisingly, no-one has found the Naabawinya site so far, but perhaps this will change. I have put into modest circulation some language databases, which have been named the ‘Bayala Databases’ bayaladatabases.blogspot.com. These include information on the Sydney Aboriginal Language, and on languages adjacent to Sydney to the north and south. There is also information on some languages across the Blue Mountains, notably Wiradhuri and Kamilaroi. The original data was compiled by people in the century or so up to about 1908. The databases include considerably more than the original records. For example, all words have been respelt more or less systematically. In many cases parts of speech have been attributed to the words, and also classifications applied, common examples of these being, say, body parts, fauna and flora, but there are many more distinctions besides these.

The databases are useful. For example, if you want to find out what the ‘word’ for ‘water’ is or was, do a search, and a large number of results will emerge. One common result for Sydney is ‘badu’. However, I have increasingly come to suspect that this is the word for ‘drinking water’, and that a big mass of water, such as the ocean or a lake, might well be something else.

Similarly if you know an indigenous word and want to know what it means, do a search. However, results will only come if you have spelt it the same way as in the database. Consider the word for ‘good’, which matches the first part of ‘budgerigar’. It has probably been spelt several ways in the database because the original recorders wrote it down ambiguously. But to increase the probability of successfully finding it you can type ‘@’ where a vowel would go, and it stands for ‘any vowel’. Thus ‘b@dy@r@’ will find ‘budyari’ or ‘badyiri’ or any of a number of variations.

Now, I had to tell Google Blogger how I was going to sign this, so I chose Yimirawani. I can’t see the point of it, especially if no-one is going to find ‘Naabawinya’ anyway. When I go to England I sometimes look up Yennerawannie’s gravestone, in Eltham in south London. He was the 18-year-old who went to England with Bennelong, when Governor Phillip left. Bennelong returned, but Phillip did not, and neither did poor Yemmerawannie. As it happens, I am going to England tomorrow for some weeks.

Perhaps the nearest we can get to ‘blogger’ is ‘bulagu’. Sydney language speakers would not have permitted two consonants together, as ‘b+l—–‘ and would have inserted a vowel to separate them. ‘Bulagu’ was recorded by William Dawes as follows:
“Bulago” bula-gu = “Twice”: Dawes [b:4:19]
The double quotation marks are used to indicate the exact original recording, including the exact original translation. Its respelt form is given, and also the source: Dawes, notebook ‘b’, page 4, line 19. ‘Bula’ incidentally, is a widespread Australian word meaning ‘two’, and occurs in many place names. Find one, and you are beginning to unlock the mystery of Australian indigenous languages present all over the continent.

That will do for now. Naa-ba-wi-nya.

Yimirawani
Monday 23 April 2007
=================

Sydney Aboriginal Language

I have an interest in the Sydney Aboriginal Language.
I wrote a 16-page ‘Tourist’s Guide’ to it. I would like to put it here, but have not found out yet how to do so. In fact what I am looking at in a rectangular box for this blog posting does not look at all like the template I have just specified to get this far. (I have just discovered that if I hit ‘preview’ I get a result that looks a little more like what I expected—and is probably what you are seeing.)
‘Tourist’s Guide.pdf’ is the title of the document, and if anyone wants to see it, send a request, and I will see what I can do.

I have been working on the Sydney and nearby languages for about ten years, mainly through the creation of databases, and now have thousands of entries on various files. These have been grouped into comprehensive ‘Coastal’ and ‘Inland’ listings. The purpose in looking into the other languages is to see if they throw light on the Sydney language, and sometimes I have found that they do.

I am not myself indigenous. I find this activity to be of absorbing interest, and I would like to think it might be of some use to the indigenous people, at whose disposal I would like to place it, if they find out about it (which I would like), and if they would themselves like it.

A line I like to use is: naa-ba-wi-nya. It means, in the Sydney language, ‘I will see you’. Perhaps I will. Or perhaps ‘ngara-ba-wi-nya’ might be more appropriate, ‘ngara’ being to hear, think, listen.

JEREMY M. STEELE
19 June 2006