Category Archives: Sydney language

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 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 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 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’s original record

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 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 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 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 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 Various other mara records

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.

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, 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 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 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 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 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:

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

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STARS SHINE

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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:

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:

Fig. 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:

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’:

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:

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?

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

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BUTTERFLY

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A friend wrote:

“If possible would you email the aboriginal word for butterfly.”

Here is the reply:

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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

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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

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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

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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-wan” gawan = “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

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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

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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

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MUOGAMARRA

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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

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SYDNEY CLAN BOUNDARIES: Cadigal and Wangal

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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

“Caddie” Gadi = “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:

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

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ZOO TOUR NAME

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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?

1 Reply

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?

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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]

“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’.

Morooberra, the person, and Maroubra, the place

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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

SYDNEY Words: Sirius Cove (or Mosman Bay)

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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:

“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:

“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:

“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:

“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

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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

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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]

BAD across the country

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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.