Kamalay Kamak = 'Good Morning'. Ngaye Bulanj Linton. Ngarrurrkmirri Manawukan School kunwok Kuninjku. Nganedjarrkdurrkmirri Bangardi Nadukurrdji dja Kamarrang Naborn.
Translation:

Good morning. I am Bulanj Linton (left). I work at Maningrida School teaching Kuninjku language . I work with Bangardi (from Dukurrdji clan, centre) and Kamarrang (from Born clan, right).

Bonj

That is all.

QUESTION FROM A STUDENT about ngahborlbme 'I am learning':

"I was wondering about the word for learning too as I hadn’t come across that exact phrase. Is there a suffix like -ing? or would you always add in the -h- if currently in the process of doing something?

I am just curious as when I learnt Portuguese there is a suffix -ndo that is the equivalent of our -ing, for example the verb to learn = aprender and if you were to say I learn (as in right now) it would be ‘Eu aprendo’, but you can also say ‘Eu estou aprendendo’ = I am learning.

The Bininj Kunwok Language Project is guided by our Bininj Kunmayali reference group who are interested speakers of Bininj Kunwok languages such as Kunwinjku, Kundjeyhmi, Kundedjnjenghmi, Mayali, Kune and Kuninjku. At our most recent meeting in Kunbarlanja we discussed the development of the forthcoming online course for Kunwinjku. There are about 120 students who have already expressed an interest in signing up for this trial course. Present were Jill Nganjmirra, Analam Gamarrawu, Cheryl Nadjalaburnburn, Roseanne Nawirridj, Rev. Lois Nadjamerrek, Julie Narndal, Donna Nadjamerrek, Andrew Manakgu, Alex Marley, Cathy Bow, Andy Peart and Murray Garde.

Ngarrinang Facebook ngadberre dja ngarriwokbimbom kumekke:

Bonj

That is all.

In Bininj Kunwok dialects ome people call the moon dird and some say karrakbarl. There is an important story about the moon involving two characters, the moon and the quoll. In their human forms in the creation period or 'the dreaming' as some English speakers call it, they both fought over the fate of humanity. The quoll said that when people die, they should die forever and not return to earth but the moon disagreed. As they could not resolve their differences, the moon said he would leave the earth and live in the sky where he could live through a monthly cycle, die, and then return again for another cycle. The quoll stayed on earth and introduced death and so now all humans die but the moon is reborn each month. This is why a waning moon is said to be 'dying' or dird karrowen  [moon it-dies] in Bininj Kunwok. In sign language, the hand sign for the quoll is the same as that used for wayarra 'spirit of a dead person' or 'death'. A beautiful and famous image of the moon spirit with his long arms and long penis is depicted at Ngalurdbirrhmi. The picture below depicts this image with Obed Wurrkkidj standing in front.

Obed Wurrkkidj at Ngalurdbirrhmi. © Bininj Kunwok Language Project

The most noticeable difference between English and Bininj Kunwok terms for phases concerns the new moon. A new moon in English is announced before any crescent is visible, i.e. on the night when the whole moon in dark. In Bininj Kunwok the very first thin crescent is called lirrk and when that first thin crescent does appear it is said that 'it [the moon] has put lirrk [the first crescent]'. The opposite term, when the last waning crescent is visible, the term is:

kalirrkdangen karrowen 'the crescent stands and is dying'

ka-lirrk-dangen ka-rrowe-n

it-crescent-stands it-die-non-past

The full moon is called either bukkulurl or dird nayuyhmi.

The word for moon is also the word for month, these two concepts being closely related or the same word in many languages of the world.

You can hear the pronunciation of the word dird by clicking here.

Bonj

That is all.

Or if you prefer it in compact layout:

The alphabet strip is available for classrooms and community language teaching groups in the Kakadu and Western Arnhem Land region. Each letter of the Bininj Kunwok alphabet is used in a word. Here's the alphabet:

a b d dj rd e h i k l rl m n ng nj rn o r rr u w y

Bininj Kunwok alphabet chart. (L > R) Julie Beer, Martina Balmana, Kaylene Djandjomerr, Shannon McLeod, Kestianna Djandjomerr, Christianna Djandjomerr, Marcus Dempsey, Annie Cameron, Murray Garde, Sonya Nango and Dion Hietmann kabirri-karrme Bininj Kunwok alphabet chart. (bim: Dominic O'Brien)

Bonj

That is all.

In this post we will learn the verb -barung 'to cover in paint or ochre, to smear'.

In this picture Balang Djimarr (a speaker of Kuninjku) has painted his body and face. His body has a plant design painted in black ochre. This plant is called wurrurrumi in Kuninjku which is a vine that botanists call Tinospora smilacina. This is also the name of a song series that Djimarr sings. That's why he has that design painted on his body. On his face he has white ochre or delek splattered in a design known as bedjek-bedjek.

The verb -barung means to cover with paint or ochre or to smear a surface with some liquid or viscous substance (like paint, glue, oil etc). There is another verb -bimbun which means to draw, write or paint an image. This has a different meaning to -barung which means to smear, cover a surface with paint, ochre or some other similar substance.

Here are some examples of the verb with a few different pronoun prefixes:

nga-barung 'I smear it'

yi-barung 'you smear it'

karri-barung 'we are (all) smearing it'

kabirri-barung 'they are smearing it'

You can incorporate a noun into the verb, between the pronoun prefix and the verb. The word kun-keb means 'nose/face' but when it gets incorporated into the verb you drop off the noun class prefix kun- like this:

kabi-kebbarung 'he is painting/smearing his (another person's) face'. In this example, the prefix kabi-means 'he/she acting on another single person' (third person singular subject acting on a third person singular object). If you wanted to say he/she is painting their faces you would use:

kaben-kebbarung

The prefix kaben- means that a single person is acting on a plural (three or more) object i.e. 'he/she acting on them'.

If you are painting your own face, then you need to use the reflexive form of the verb which is -barurren [baru-rr-en]. This is the present or future tense form. In the past tense the reflexive is -barurrinj. 

If I want to say 'he painted his face' then in the third person singular past tense, there is no prefix on the verb. It is what linguists call a zero prefix. We need to keep the noun 'face' incorporated however so we end up with this:

kebbarurrinj

ø-             keb- baru-  rr-             inj

3sg.past-face-smear-reflexive-past

Then we can change the "mood" to an event that is not real, i.e. something that didn't happen, or what is known as "irrealis mood". This form of the verb occurs with the negative marker minj 'not'. If you wanted to say 'she didn't smear/cover it with paint' you would say:

minj baruyi

But if Balang didn't paint his face with the ochre in the above picture, you would say this:

Balang minj kebbarurremeninj.

Balang did not paint/smear his/her (own) face.

Bonj

That is all.

Tongue-twisters

The Resource Network for Linguistic Diversity has been posting some great Australian language tongue-twisters recently. Here is a selection from across the country. Sometimes the texts are also given in the International Phonetic Alphabet as well as a practical community spelling:

A tongue-twister from Bininj Kunwok (Kuninjku dialect):

ngangangh-ngangangh ʼngehngehʼ yimeng

(ŋaŋaŋʔŋaŋa ŋɛʔŋɛʔ yimeŋ)

The grey-crowned babbler said nge’ nge’.

and another favourite:

Dabborrabbolk birribidbom bembem birribimbom.

dabːorabːolk bɪrɪbitbom bembem bɪrɪbɪmbom

'The old people climbed up and painted a sole fish.'

--Murray Garde

From: Burarra/Gun-nartpa

rrugurrgurda jin-digigirrnga

'the crab crawls around'

--Margaret Carew

Here are some Lardil ones:

Dubuduburr durathur dulbiribiriwu burururu.

(ɖubudubur ɖuɹaðuɹ ɖulbiɹibiɹiwu buɹuɹuɹu)

'The tiger mullet will tickle the rain bird with a (species of bush used for firedrill)'

Burbur bana buribur bana burdu.

(buɹbuɹ bana buɹibuɹ bana buɖu)

'Both the feather and the gun are short'

Dulbiribiri dulburri burrurri.

(ɖulbiɹibiɹi ɖulburi bururi)

'The rain bird picked seaweed up off the ground'

--Norvin Richards

Murrinhpatha

I’m loving these tongue twisters!  My students always struggle with this

one when learning Murrinhpatha - it’s a good test for the initial velar

nasals.

ngunungam-ngem ngarra Kungarlbarl

‘I’m going to Kungarlbarl’.

Cheers,

--Rachel Nordlinger

bonj

that is all

See here for more discussion about the pronouns in other languages:

http://allthingslinguistic.com/post/118149053875/i-am-your-father-in-20-different-languages

Bornang! 'I am your father'

In Kunwinjku you just say it in one word bornang ‘I am your father’ (literally: 'I>you fathered'). The subject and object marking is by zero prefix (i.e. nothing) ‘first singular acting on second singular’ on the kinship verb -bornan ‘to father OBJECT’. In past perfective you change the final alveolar nasal to a velar ø-borna-ng ‘I>you father PP’. In light of the above discussion about pragmatics (follow the link above) however, you could add the free standing first person pronoun ngaye for emphasis so that ngaye bornang “Me, I fathered you”.

nga-bornang 'I fathered him/her' > I am his/her father

ngan-bornang 'he fathered me' > he is my father

ngun-bornang 'he fathered you' > he is your father

yi-bornang 'you fathered him/her' > you are his/her father

kan-bornang 'you fathered me' > you are my father

bornang 'I fathered you.' > I am your father

But a woman can also use this verb to talk about the children of her brothers because she too as father's sister 'fathered them'.

bonj

that is all

New staff at Djidbidjidbi Residential College do cross-cultural training

Djidbidjidbi Gurrambalk gure Jabiru barri-gerrnge nawu gabarri-durrkmirri barri-wam training-gen. Barri-borlbmeng Bininj an-garre dja Bininj Gunwok yiman ga-yime Gundjeihmi dja Gunwinjgu.

New staff at Djidbidjidbi Residential College and some existing Gundjeihmi Aboriginal Corporation staff in Jabiru went to do some training at the college recently. They have been learning about Bininj culture and learning some Gundjeihmi and Kunwinjku language.

Arri-borlbmeng gun-wok wurdurd-gen bu arri-djarrkdurrkmirri:

We learnt some phrases for when we are working with the students:

Bu wolewoleh arri-djarrkngun an-me, arri-djarrkyime gun-wok.

Each evening when we eat together, we always say this together:

Garri-djarrkngun— an-me an-mak garri-murrngrayekmen.

We are all eating together— good food makes us healthy.

garri-djarrkngun anme anmak

Some other phrases for youth workers to learn include:

Yim-rai

Come here!

yim-rai

Ngunem-rai

Two of you, come here

ngunem-rai

Ngurrim-rai

All of you, come here!

ngurrim-rai

Yi-rai

Go away (to 1 person).

yi-rai

Ngune-rai

Go away (you 2)

ngune-rai

Ngurri-rai

Go away (you all, 3+)

ngurri-rai

Ma wurdurd, an-me garri-ngun.

OK children, time to eat.

ma wurdurd an-me garri-ngun

Ngurri-biddjirridjburren.

Wash your hands (said to 3+).

ngurri-biddjirridjburren

Gorrogo yi-biddjirridjburrinj?

Have you (1) washed your hands?

gorrogo yibiddjirridjburrinj

Gorrogo? ma!

Already? OK then!

gorrogo ma

Yi-yerrga!

Sit down (1).

yiyerrga

Ngune-yerrga!

You 2 sit down!

nguneyerrga

Ngurri-yerrga!

You all sit down!

ngurri-yerrga

Plate yi-djirridjburrimen!

Wash the plates!

plate yidjirridjburrimen

Bolkkime na-ngale ga-djirridjbun plate?

Who is doing the washing up today?

bolkkime nangale gadjirridjbun plate

Bale yi-yime?

What are you doing?

bale yiyime

Bale ngune-yime?

What are you two doing?

bale ngune-yime

Bale ngurri-yime?

What are you all doing?

bale ngurri-yime

Wurdurd bau!

Hey kids, be quiet!

wurdurd bau

An-gudji yi-djare?

Would you like another one?

an-gudji yi-djare

Yi-worrkminj?

Are you full up (food)?

yi-worrkminj

Ngune-worrkminj?

Are the two of you full up (food)?

ngune-worrkminj

Ngurri-worrkminj?

Are you all (3+) full up (food)?

ngurri-worrkminj

Ma wurdurd ngurrim-rai garri-wokdi.

OK kids, come here and let's have a talk/meeting!

ma wurdurd ngurrimrai garriwokdi

Wurdurd bau, ngurri-yun!

Hey kids, quiet, go to sleep!

wurdurd bau ngurri-yun

Yawurrinj, ga-mak?

Hey boys, everything OK?

yawurrinj ga-mak

Yaukyauk, bale ngurri-re?

You girls, where are you going?

yaukyauk bale ngurri-re

Bale yi-re?

Where are you (1) going?

bale yi-re?

Al-godjok baleh wam?

Where has Al-godjok gone?

algodjok baleh wam

Al-godok baleh gah-di?

Where is Al-godjok?

algodjok baleh gahdi

Ga-dirri guberrk. (the 'd' changes to 'rr' between vowels, so it is actually ga-rrirri)

He/she is playing outside.

ga-dirri guberrk

Ngale gah-di.

There she is!

ngaleh gah-di

Nanih gah-di (close distance)

Here he is!

nanih gah-di

Nabe gah-di.

He's just over there.

nabe gahdi

Gorrogo ngurri-yidmedjirridjburrinj?

(ngurri- 'you all'-yidme 'teeth'-djirridjbu 'wash' -rren 'yourself')

Have you brushed your teeth?

gorrogo ngurri-yidmedjirridjburrinj

Yi-re yi-yidmedjirridjburrimen.

(yi-yidme-djirridj-burri-men)

Go and brush your teeth! (said to 1 person)

yire yi-yidmedjirridjburrimen

Yim-rai, arr-wokdi.

Come here (1 person), let's talk.

yimrai arr-wokdi

Yi-dangbalhmen. (addressing 1 person)

Close the door! (You can just say yi-balhmen to mean 'close it'  for anything, window, box etc)

yirrangbalhmen

Yi-dangmarrhma!

Open the door!

yi-rrangmarrhma

Wurdurd gandi-bekka!

Children, listen to me!

wurdurd gandibekka

Yun gun-warre yi-wokdi!

Don't say nasty/obscene things/don't swear! (gun-warre means 'bad speech, bad things')

yun gun-warre yi-wokdi

Bonj

That is all.

Gundjeihmi:

Gure Jabiru, boyen arri-marnbom DRIL workshop ba gamak Gundjeihmi dja Gunwinjgu gabarri-djalwokdi. Daluk bani-bogenh banim-wam andi-bidyigarrmeng, Margaret Florey dja Donna McLaren. Gabani-durrkmirri gure RNLD (Resource Network for Linguistic Diversity). Andi-walebukkang gun-wern ba arrban-bukkan wurdurd dja barri-buyiga bu gabarri-djare gabarri-borlbme Gundjeihmi.

English:

Recently in Jabiru we conducted a DRIL (Documenting and Revitalising Indigenous Languages Workshop) to help people keep speaking Gundjeihmi and Kunwinjku. Margaret Florey and Donna McLaren came and helping us run the workshop. They both work for RNLD (Resource Network for Linguistic Diversity). They showed us many techniques to help us teach Gundjeihmi to children and other people who want to learn the language.

[Show as slideshow]

12►

Follow @Bininjkunwok

Bonj

That is all.

Photos by Kevin Arthur, BIITE.

Tom Wood and Raymond Guymala have a planning discussion the day before their trip from Gunbalanya to Batchelor College on 20 June 2013 for their graduation ceremony at Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education (Certificate 2 in Construction). Thanks to Andy Peart, CDEP Training Officer at Gunbalanya for the recording and thanks to Kevin Arthur (BIITE) for the photos. Thanks to Tom Wood and Raymond Guymala too.

T= Tom, R= Raymond, A= Andy Peart.

[00:00:00.00] R: Tom, wanjh balekeno ngarri-re malayi?

[00:00:04.06] T: malaywi karri-re

[00:00:06.12] R: balekeno kukabel?

[00:00:09.00] T: kukabel karri-re o kumurrng

[00:00:12.24] T: nungka njaleken karri-re?

[00:00:16.12] R: graduate

[00:00:19.04] T: graduate karri-yime

[00:00:19.24] T: kore birri-wern?

[00:00:23.03] R: mulil

[00:00:25.23] T: malayi karri-re, kumurrng, kukabel

[00:00:32.06] T: karri-dungbebme

[00:00:33.20] T: kareh kanjdji kah-dungyo kah-kakyo wanjh karri-dolkkan kunukka six o'clock

[00:00:40.05] T: darnki kah-bebme name karri-re karri-bolkbawon Kunbarlanja

[00:00:43.22] T: seven o'clock mani bas karri-mang mani manu ka-bidbun, kan-bekkan

[00:00:51.23] R: wo kurebeh wanjh ngarr-ngokkowiyidurndeng

[00:00:55.19] yo, karri-ngokkowiyidurndeng

[00:01:00.19] A: njale, njale kabirri-re?

[00:01:02.23] T: murrika karri-re, mandengeyi

[00:01:05.05] R: murrika ngarri-re

[00:01:06.01] mandengeyi

[00:01:22.02] A: Bale ngurri-borlbmeng?

[00:01:09.20] R: aa... building

[00:01:10.18] building, building construction ngarri-re... manekke, ...graduate ngarri-yime

[00:01:15.13] R: graduate

Vocabulary:

balekeno when

malayi, malaywi tomorrow

-re to go

kukabel morning

njaleken why

-dungbebme 1. arrive in daylight 2. morning rising of the sun

name short version of namekke that

kunukka like that, at that time, that topic mentioned

-mang to get

-bolkbawon leave a place, depart from a place

kurebeh other side, at the other place/other end

ngokkowi evening

-ngokkowiyidurndeng return in the evening

murrika, mandengeyi motor vehicle (car, truck)

-borlbme to learn, to become accustomed to

manekke that, that thing mentioned (of man- class)

njale what, how

wanjh then (sequential)

-dungyo sun be located, exist

-bidbun, go up, go upland

mulil lots, many (also a ceremony name)

Bonj

That is all.

Follow @BininjKunwok

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What's this plant called? part 2

Here is the transcript for the plant identification video in the previous post.

[00:00:00] Ma!
OK

[00:00:02] An-bunbarr ngurrurdu kabarri-kerribun.
They use the Corynotheca lateriflora herb to cook emu in ground ovens.

[00:00:05] Burdah
Golden Eye-grass (Curculigo orchioides)

[00:00:06] Mani an-karnbirr.
This is Acacia oncinocarpa.

[00:00:09] Mani njale...
This is whatsisname.

[00:00:10] Terrah: An-djalh kun-yarl.
The bark is for making string.

[00:00:11] An-djoh
Acacia difficilis

[00:00:12] Terrah: Kunj barri-biddukkani, ngurrurdu.
They used it to tie up the arms of kangaroos and emu (legs).

[00:00:13] Woh, namekke.
Yes, that's right.

[00:00:14] Mani njamed, an-ngunngun.
This is whatsit, an-ngunngun.

[00:00:16] Nguyungu.

?

[00:00:18] Mani njamed, an-marnanj.
This is whatsisname, red-flowered kurrajong.

[00:00:23] An-kawalh.
?

[00:00:23] An-dudjmi.
Green plum (Buchanania obovata).

[00:00:26] An-djedj.
Kapok bush (Cochlospermum fraseri).

[00:00:27] An-korlh.
Cocky apple (Planchonia careya).

[00:00:29] Mani...
This plant...

[00:00:31] Terrah: An-bunbarr.
Corynotheca lateriflora.

[00:00:32] Speaker 3: eh ee!
No!

[00:00:33] Njamed, an-djungkurrk.
Whatsit, Gardenia fucata.

[00:00:35] Terrah:

[00:00:36] Mani njamed, ... an-lerrelerre
This is whatsit... Bossiaea bosseaeoides.

[00:00:40] An-bulu.
Xanthostemon paradoxus.

[00:00:41] Djarduk.
Bush apple (Syzygium suborbiculare).

[00:00:43] karrbirlk, karrbirlk
Merremia.

[00:00:44] bunbarr
Corynotheca lateriflora

[00:00:46] Mani njamed...
This is whatsit...

[00:00:47] speaker 3: (inaudible) yerre dja mani njamed...
already, so what's this one...

[00:00:50] speaker 3: mani yi-ngeybom man-yungki
You already said this one.

[00:00:51] Terrah: Mani yi-ngeybom mula!
Mum, you said the name of this one!

[00:00:53] speaker 3: yoh, mani yi-ngeybom,
yes, you said this one,

[00:00:55] Terrah: An-ngale mak yi-ngeybom bu bolkkime?
What was that name you said just now?

[00:00:57] speaker 3: bu korroko yi-ngeybom
you already said it

[00:00:58] Mahni, manu?
This one here?

[00:00:59] Terrah: yo
yes

[00:00:59] Manu nuk man-ngamed (> manu-uk)...
This is whatsisname...

[00:01:01] someone: man-bulngbulng
Acacia gonocarpa

[00:01:02] bulngbulng
Acacia gonocarpa

[00:01:03] Yo, an-bulng... an-bulngbulng
Yes, Acacia gonocarpa

[00:01:05] bulngbulng
Acacia gonocarpa

[00:01:06] Terrah: yo
yes

[00:01:06] Lillian: Dja baleh nga-ngeywarrewong.
So I made a mistake with the name.

[00:01:07] Terrah: (ka-djekme 'laughs')

Bonj.

That is all.

What's the name of that plant?

Ma, ngurri-wokbimbu! A transcription exercise.

Note that the Kundedjnjenghmi dialect of Bininj Kunwok is used in this video (spoken on the Arnhem Land plateau around Manmoyi).

In this video made by Warddeken Land Management Ltd (and used with their permission here) you can hear Ngal-wakadj Lillian Guymala from Manmoyi teaching younger family the names of plants that grow in the rock country. If you want to know the English or scientific names of these plants, you can contact us (on the main menu contact tab). The transcript is for you to complete. All of the words are given below in the list after the transcript template, you have to pick them out of the list and fit them into the blanks after the time code. We have started the first few lines and the outline of some words. Now watch the video and see how you go. We'll post our version of the transcript (with English translation) in a later post.

[00:00:00] Someone: Ma!

[00:00:02] Lillian: An-bunbarr, ngurrurdu kabarri-kerribun.

[00:00:05] Lillian: B_ _ _ _ _

[00:00:06] Lillian: M _ _ _  an-_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

[00:00:09] Lillian: M_ _ _  _ _ _ _ _

[00:00:10] Terrah: An-_ _ _ _  kun-_ _ _ _

[00:00:11] Lillian: An- _ _ _ _

[00:00:12] Terrah: K_ _ _   barri-_ _ _ _ _ _ _  ng_ _ _ _ _ _ _

[00:00:13] Lillian: Woh, namekke.

[00:00:14] Lillian: Mani njamed, an-_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

[00:00:16] Lillian: Ng_ _ _ _ _ _

[00:00:18] Lillian: M_ _ _ nj_ _ _ _ an-_ _ _ _ _ _ _

[00:00:23] Lillian: An-_ _ _ _ _ _

[00:00:23] Lillian: An-_ _ _ _ _ _

[00:00:26] Lillian: An-_ _ _ _ _

[00:00:27] Lillian: An-_ _ _ _ _

[00:00:29] Lillian: Mani...

[00:00:31] Terrah: An- _ _ _ _ _ _ _

[00:00:32] Speaker 3: eh ee

[00:00:33] Lillian: njamed an-_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

[00:00:35] Terrah: an-_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

[00:00:36] Lillian: M_ _ _ nj_ _ _ _, an-_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

[00:00:40] Lillian: an-_ _ _ _

[00:00:41] Lillian: Dj_ _ _ _ _

[00:00:43] Lillian: k_ _ _ _ _ _ _, k_ _ _ _ _ _ _

[00:00:44] Lillian: b_ _ _ _ _ _

[00:00:46] Mani njamed...

[00:00:47] speaker 3: (inaudible) yerre dja mani njamed...

[00:00:50] speaker 3: mani yi-ngeybom man-yungki

[00:00:51] Terrah: Mani yi-_ _ _ _ _ _ _  M_ _ _!

[00:00:53] speaker 3: yoh, mani yi-ngeybom,

[00:00:55] Terrah: An-ngale mak yi-ngeybom bu bolkkime.

[00:00:57] speaker 3: bu korroko yi-ngeybom

[00:00:58] Mahni, manu?

[00:00:59] Terrah: yo

[00:00:59] Lillian: Man-nuk man-_ _ _ _ _ _

[00:01:01] someone: man-_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

[00:01:02] Lillian: b_ _ _ _ b _ _ _ _

[00:01:03] Terrah: Yo, an-bulng... an-b_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

[00:01:05] Lillian: b_ _ _ _ b _ _ _ _

[00:01:06] Terrah: _ _

[00:01:06] Lillian: _ _ _  b_ _ _ nga-_ _ _ _w _ _ _ _w_ _ _

[00:01:07] Terrah: (ka-djekme 'laughs')

Here is the word list of all words used in the transcript.

an-bulngbulng

An-bulu

An-bunbarr

An-bunbarr

An-djoh

An-djedj

An-djoh

an-djungkurrk

An-dudjmi

an-karnbirr

An-kawalh

An-korlh

an-lerrelerre

an-marnanj

An-ngale

an-ngunngun

baleh

barri-biddukkani

bu bolkkime

bu korroko

bulngbulng

bulngbulng

bunbarr

Burdah

dja

Dja

Djarduk

eh ee

kabarri-kerribun

karrbirlk

karrbirlk

Kunj

kun-yarl.

Ma!

Mahni

mak

man-bulngbulng

man-bunbarrmani

Mani

Mani

Mani

Mani

Mani

Mani

mani

mani

Mani

mani

Mani...

man-ngamed

manu

Manu

man-yungki

mula

namekke

nga-ngeywarrewong.

ngurrurdu

ngurrurdu

Nguyungu

njale...

njamed

njamed

njamed

njamed

njamed...

njamed...

nuk

Woh

yerre

yerre

yi-ngeybom

yi-ngeybom

yi-ngeybom

yi-ngeybom

yi-ngeybom

yo

Yo

yo

yoh

Bonj. That is all.

Here it stands (literally 'here it-knee/node')

(W) = Kunwinjku (Gdj) = Gundjeihmi

For those who have been learning their body part vocabulary and playing the Kunwinjku body part game you will have learnt the word for knee kunbard (W) gunbard (Gdj). The word also refers to nodes on the stem of plants such as bamboo mankole (W) an.gole (Gdj) and sorghum spear grass manbedje (W) anbedje (Gdj). In this sense (plants), the word will take a vegetal noun class prefix man-bard (W) an-bard (Gdj).

You might also come across another kind of construction where the noun stem -bard has a pronoun prefix ka- (W) ga- (Gdj) on it:  kabard (W) gabard (Gdj). This means 'it [the plant] is standing [by virtue of its 'knees/nodes']. An illustration of this 'predicate noun' usage is in a couple of songs of the Wurrurrumi song set of the kunborrk musical genre sung by Kevin Djimarr. In these songs Djimarr sings about wayarra 'spirit beings' from whom he receives his music. Djimarr talks about seeing wayarra holding the stems of manbedje 'Sorghum spear grass' in the wet season and they point out each of the nodes towards the seed head at the top. They say "here is a node, here is a node, here further up it is coming into seed'.

Konda kabard manbedje, kudjewk. Here the spear grass is standing, in the wet season.

You can hear Kevin Djimarr singing about wayarra spirits and their obsession with spear grass nodes here:

The song text is:

Konda kabard konda kabard here it stands here it stands [the spear grass]

konda kabard konda kabard here it stands here it stands [the spear grass]

kumekke kumekke kabard there and there it stands

kumekke kumekke kabard there and there it stands

konda kabard konda kabard here it stands here it stands

In the next audio file, you can hear Djimarr chanting the final coda sequence when he performs the last song of the evening at Mamurrng ceremonies. Here he imitates the wayarra spirit beings chanting the spear grass nodes or 'knees'. The text is below the audio.

konda kabard konda kabard konda kabard here it stands here it stands [the spear grass]

konda kabard konda kabard konda kaba... here it stands here it stands [the spear grass]

konda yungki kanganjboke here further up it is coming into seed

Bonj

That is all.

Learning a new language involves committing many words to memory, regularly. But there are of course many points of grammar that you also need to know in order to construct sentences correctly. If you have already read the post on the polysynthetic nature of languages such as Kunwinjku, you will know that it is necessary to learn parts of words as well as whole words. In this lesson you will learn the most common pronominal prefixes that are used on verbs. This means the word parts that go on the front of a verb that indicate who is the subject or participant relating to the verb. For those of you who subscribe to Karriborlbme Kunwok, a recent word we learnt was kun-bolk 'place' and an example of this noun being incorporated into a verb was this:

ngabolknan

This word consists of four word parts or morphemes:

1. nga- the pronominal prefix that means 'I'
2. -bolk an incorporated noun kun-bolk 'place' (after the noun prefix is stripped)
3. -na the verb to see or look
4. -n the tense marker on the verb indicating non-past (present or future)

In this post we are concerned with word parts as in part 1 above, the pronominal prefixes on verbs.

The pronoun prefixes in the table below will need to be committed to memory. You will also need to know the grammatical concepts of ‘tense’, ‘person’ and ‘number’. The concept of number in English is limited to singular and plural. In Kunwinjku you can also have dual forms i.e. pronoun prefixes that indicate two referents such as 'you and me', 'me and another person (but not you)', 'they 2' and 'you 2'. Note the idea of inclusive and exclusive pronoun prefixes 'we all (but not you the addressee)' and 'we all (including you the addressee)'.

As far as tense is concerned, the only change in tense for pronominal verb prefixes is in the third person:

Kunwinjku:

ka- 'he/she/it' in the non-past tenses becomes ø (zero i.e. nothing) in the past tense.

There are some differences in the Kundjeyhmi language, where ka- he/she/it' in the non-past tenses, but in the past tense it changes to ba-.

Kundjeyhmi: ga-re 'he/she/it is going, ba-wam 'he/she/it went.

Kunwinjku: kabene- 'they 2' becomes bene- in past tense

Kundjeyhmi: gabani- 'they 2' becomes bani- in past tense

If you are learning Kundjeyhmi, here is the Kundjeyhmitable. In Kundjeyhmimany initial nasal sounds 'ng' are optional and so this is indicated by brackets e.g. (ng)ani-

If you are learning Kunwinjku, here is the Kunwinjku table:

Kundjeyhmi prefixes using the verb to go -re as an example:

Present Tense

(ng)a-re I go, I’m going, I will go

(ng)ani-re we two go, we two are going, we two will go

arri-re we (but not you) go, etc

arre you and me go (see [1] below)

kani-re you+me and he/she go (we 3)

karri-re we all go, let’s go (including the addressee)

yi-re you (singular) go, you are going, you will go

(ng)uni-re you two go, you two are going, you two will go

kurri-re (or wurri-re) you all go (more than 2 people)

ka-re he/she is goes, he/she is going, he/she will go

kabani-re they two go, they two are going, they two will go

kabarri-re they (more than 2) go

In the past tense, the verb 'to go' is irregular (or suppletive), just as it is in English go>went. In Bininj Kunwok it is –re > -wam (where the hyphen means that there must be a prefix).

Past Tense

nga-wam I went

ngani-wam we (2 of us) went

ngarri-wam we (3+ but not you) went

ngarr-wam you and I went

gani-wam you+me and him/her went

garri-wam we all went (including the addressee[s])

yi-wam you (singular) went

nguni-wam you two went

ngurri-wam you (3+) went

ba-wam he/she/it went

bani-wam they two went

barri-wam they all (3+) went

A good way to learn these paradigms is to make up cards that you can post up on the wall where you will see them frequently or alternatively, make up pocket cards that you can carry with you and check when you have time.

Bonj

That is all.

bongolinj-bongolinj mankarre.

madjandemed barra ngalero

madjandemed barra ngalero

madjandemed barra ngalero

kabidbun kuwardde kawohbarndi

madjandemed is Gilbert's dragon (Lophognathus gilberti) also known as the 'tata lizard' because of its habit of lifting its hand and 'waving tata'.

barra ngalero has no meaning in ordinary language as it is said to be the language of the madjandemed lizard.

ka-bidbun 'it climbs up' ku-wardde 'on the rock' ka-wohbarndi 'it sits half way up'

Kamarrang Nawarddjak kayolyolme nawu "One Mob, Different Country" kabirriborrkke.

Kamarrang Nawarddjak talks about the "One Mob, Different Country" dance group

Nangarridj Reuben benbimmey kabirriborrkke dja biwokmey Kamarrang.

Audio and video recorded by Nangarridj Reuben Brown.

20120706RB02-01_Lazarus_Nabobob (Yibiddjuyme yiwokbekkan / Click for audio)

[00:00:00.00] Ngarri-yawurrinj ngarri-borrkke one group ngarrimarnburrinj

We young men are dancing in a group we have made ourselves.

[00:00:06.06] one mob different country ngarriborrkke ngarringeyyo.

We are dancing in a group called "One mob, different country".

[00:00:08.13] ngad kun-ngey but ane song manu

That's our name, but there are songs

[00:00:12.19] Bangardi rowk banih-wayini Bangardi Laywanga, Jolly Laywanga

that Bangardi used to sing, that Bangardi Jolly Laywanga

[00:00:19.06] and mani yoh like family ngad family yerre old man nungkah nuye family

and we are all family of that old man, his family

[00:00:24.15] so ngarriwayini mahni kunkare like ngarridjare mankarre kayilhyo kare

so we sing these songs because we want them to keep going and be passed on to the next generations

[00:00:29.13] kore entertain ngarriyime Balanda Bininj kayime Mumurrng kayime kabirrikarrme o kabirridadjke lakkayen kayime

and we entertain Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people such as at Mamurrng ceremonies or circumcision ceremonies

[00:00:39.21] o kayime funeral ngarrbenkurrme ngarriwayini

or at funerals when we take the deceased, we sing

[00:00:45.04] this song manu ?? celebrate ngarriyime, yiman kayime Mamurrng

we use these songs to celebrate, like at a Mamurrng ceremony

[00:00:46.13] ngaye, ngaye Kamarrang, Nawarddjak ngamdolkkang Maburrinj kunred ngarduk

I am Kamarrang subsection and Warddjak clan and I am from Maburrinj which is my country

[00:00:54.13] kore ngaye ngarduk kunred Maburrinj

Maburrinj is my country

[00:00:56.01] ngabuhme mako, ngawayini, ngaborrkke

I play the didjeridu, I sing and I dance

[00:01:00.06] kore ngaye mawah ngaye ngabbard nganbukkang ngayahwurdni

I was taught by my grandfather and my father when I was small

[00:01:04.05] kune kayime ngaborrkke dja ngabuhme

that's how I can sing and play didjeridu now

[00:01:07.04] bad namekke yawurrinj ngarribukkan laik kabirriborrkke warridj

but we have also taught these young guys here to dance these songs also

[00:01:10.08] ngarrim-... nani yawurrinj birrimwam from koyek kore kayime Yirrkala

these young men are from the east, such as at Yirrkala

[00:01:15.02] kore kayime Kaliwinhku konda ngamed kayime Bulmun kore kayime Nukka

and places like Galiwin'ku and whatsit Bulman and Ngukurr

[00:01:23.06] kore kayime ngamed Duck Creek kayime Jilkminggan kabirriyime

and whatsit, the place Duck Creek which they call Jilkminggan

[00:01:31.06] ngarriwokbibika ngarriwokbiyika ngarriwayini

we are all from different language groups singing together

[00:01:35.01] mani "one mob" ngarri-... ngarrimarnburren "one mob" ngarriwayini

that's why we called ourselves "one mob" we made our singing group as "one mob"

[00:01:37.15] en ngarriborrkke so ngarribukkan nawu Balanda la kabirriwakwan

and we dance to show non-Aboriginal people who don't know anything about such traditions

[00:01:42.06] konda kabirriwakwan nawu yiman kayime kabirrimre kore oversea-beh

here the people don't know about this, such as people from overseas

[00:01:46.23] kabirrinan korlhdja ngadberre Kunbarlanja konda Kunbarlanja konda karri Australia

they can see something of our culture here form Kunbarlanja here in Australia

[00:01:51.14] mani korlhdja ngandiwong ngadberre ngandiwong nawu mawah ngarriyime

this is the culture given to us by we call our grandfathers

[00:01:54.09] ngabbard ngarrbenyime kakkak ngarrbenyime makkah

our fathers and mother's parents and father's mother's family

[00:01:57.06] ngandiwong korlhdja ngadberre ngad

they gave us our culture

[00:01:59.04] ngarridjare ngarrbenbukkan birribiyika

and we like to show it to foreigners

[00:02:02.16] dja ngarriwokdi kunwok kunbihbiyika

and we are a group made of people speaking many different languages

[00:02:04.18] dja half bedda Rembarrnga, Dalabon kabirriyime kabirriwokdi nani kayime Kumadj kabirriwokdi

some of them speak Rembarrnga and Dalabon and some speak Gumatj

[00:02:11.19] koyek kabirrimdolkkan ngarriwokbiyika ngad

from north-east Arnhem Land, we are all from different language groups

[00:02:14.14] laik ngarrimre represent ngarriyime one song ngarriborrkke kunkudji ngarringeyyo "one mob"

but we all represent one song tradition and we come together as one and call ourselves "one mob"

Bonj

That is all.

Karri-wok-djob-djob-ke

we (inclusive)-word/language-reduplicate-cut-[transitive verb theme]

'Cutting up words'- learning about Bininj Gunwok verb parts.

Linguists describe Bininj Gunwok (Kunwinjku, Gundjeihmi, Kuninjku, Kune, Kundedjnjenghmi, Mayali) as a ‘polysynthetic language’ because of the way meaning is built up at the word level. Many different word parts are glued together around the root of verbs such that a single word in the language can be a sentence when translated into English. For this reason languages such as Bininj Gunwok are also called ‘agglutinative’ because of the way a string of morphemes (word parts) are 'glued' together to make what can sometimes be very long words.

[Gundjeihmi] gabarrire ‘they are going’

[Kunwinjku, Kuninjku, Kune] kabirrire ‘they are going’

gabarri- / kabirri- 'they plural'

-re 'go'

[Gundjeihmi] gabarriyawoihre ‘they are going again’

[Kunwinjku, Kuninjku, Kune] kabirriyawoyhre

gabarri- / kabirri- 'they plural' -yawoyh- / -yawoih- 'again' -re 'go'

OK, let's glue together a few more word parts:

[Kunwinjku, Kuninjku, Kune] ngurriwernhyawoyhwarddemoyhma

[ngurri-wernh-yawoyh-wardde-moyhma-ø]

[‘you.all-properly-again-rock-collect.from.ground-COMMAND’]

‘you all pick up the rocks again carefully’

The -ø symbol at the end of the definition above is not a letter in the language but a linguistic symbol which means 'zero' i.e. nothing on the end. The verb -mang means 'to get' but when you drop off the final nasal sound [ng] -ma then it becomes a command (an imperative).

Here’s a sentence transcribed from a Kune speaker at Korlobidahdah outstation talking about a particular kind of native honey bee which unlike most species of native bees, can give an irritating little nip when the hive is raided:

Ngokkowino ngandjalkuyinmimbayehbayemeninj, ngadjalborrohborrohmeng.

‘Yesterday it [the bees] nearly bit my eyes, I was chasing [it] them away with my hands.'

Don't fret yet. Yes, it's a long word, but in the same way that you can fluently join many words together in an English sentence, so with practice you will be able to join word parts together to make a polysynthetic word in Bininj Gunwok.

When the individual parts of the words are broken up into their smaller units of meaning (or morphemes) it looks like this:

Ngokkowi-no ‘yesterday-its’ (the 'its' means a part of the whole daily cycle)

ngan-djal-kuyin-mim-bayehbaye-meninj

it>me-just-nearly-eye-bite.bite-IRREALIS

ngan- it (as the SUBJECT) acting on me (as the OBJECT). This prefix is pronominal (relating to pronouns, i.e. words in English like I, me, you, he, she, it, they, us, them). Note that this prefix combines two grammatical elements simultaneously i.e. both the subject and the object of the verb.

-djal- ‘just kept the action going’. This is an adverbial prefix on the verb stem. There are many different kinds of adverbial prefixes that can be used in this slot. They give information about the direction, location, immediacy, the manner or quantification of an action and other information about time.

-kuyin- ‘almost, nearly happened but didn’t’. This is another adverbial prefix to the verb as described above for –djal-

mim ‘eye(s)’ (but it also means 'seeds'). This is a noun which has been incorporated into the verbal complex. Linguists call this ‘nominal incorporation’ (nominal means ‘related to nouns’). The kind of nouns which can be incorporated in this way belong to a closed class. This means, you can’t just incorporate any kind of noun into the verb complex, but only those in a limited set. One of the type of nouns which are in this set are body parts and so mim ‘eye(s)’ is acceptable. Note that when this happens, nouns with noun class prefixes drop the prefix when incorporated. Normally the word for eye would be kun-mim (or spelt gun-mim in Gundjeihmi) and so the kun- / gun- is dropped and the stem –mim is what is incorporated into the verbal complex.

bayehbaye ‘to bite [repeatedly]. This is our verb stem which in its base form is -baye but it has been reduplicated according to a formula which produces bayehbaye. This iterative reduplication gives the verb a sense of repetition, that is, there were many bees trying to 'bite and bite' the speaker’s eyes.

-meninj Irrealis suffix. Now we have moved on to the bits glued on the end of the verb. This suffix is of a form which applies only for those verbs which fall into a particular class of which –baye is a member. We will look at verb classes some time in a future lesson post. Suffixes on verbs give information about:

• the tense (the time of an event)
• aspect (temporal view and issues of continuity, or not)
• mood (kinds of speech acts and issues of realisation of an event)

In this case, the irrealis form –bayemeninj means that the biting didn’t actually occur, but nearly did. Irrealis is a linguistic term meaning 'not a real or realised event'. This is also consistent with the –kuyin adverbial prefix ‘nearly’ mentioned above.

bonj

that is all

Many Bininj working out bush need to travel by helicopter, especially those doing land management and site survey work. This safety briefing is a Kunwinjku translation of the Civil Aviation Safety Authority's poster:

Helicopter Safety

Translation by Donna Nadjamerrek, Julie Narndal & Murray Garde.

Click on the links beneath each panel to hear the Kunwinjku audio.

helicopter safety1

helicopter safety2

helicopter safety3

helicopter safety4

helicopter safety5

helicopter safety6

helicopter safety7

Bonj, that is all.

This is another lesson for those studying Bininj Gunwok in Jabiru, Gunbalanya, Maningrida and other parts of Western Arnhem Land.

Did you ever learn French, Italian or German at school? If you did, you will remember having to learn that nouns have gender assignment. Some language such as French, Italian and Spanish have two classes, masculine and feminine. German has a third gender, neuter. Bininj Gunwok dilaects have four classes— masculine, feminine, vegetal and other. The assignment of a noun to a particular gender class is most obvious when the noun has a prefix (a part that attaches to the front of the word) which denotes gender. The four noun class prefixes in Bininj Gunwok are:

Gundjeihmi= •na- ‘masculine’ •al- ‘feminine’ •gun- ‘other’ •an- ‘vegetal’

Kunwinjku= •na- ‘masculine’ •ngal- ‘feminine’ •kun- ‘other’ •man- ‘vegetal’

nabeiwurd na-beywurd 'male child of patriline (man's son or a woman's brother's son)'

ngalkohbanj ngal-kohbanj 'old woman'

kunbolk kun-bolk 'place'

mandjewk man-djewk 'rain'

Whilst these four genders in Bininj Gunwok can sometimes be organised based on the meanings of words, we can also organise nouns into classes based on the kind of prefixes the noun normally takes. Noun class prefixes appear on both nouns (but not all nouns) and the adjectives which qualify these nouns. Other kinds of word classes such as demonstratives (‘this one’, ‘that one’, ‘those’, ‘these’, ‘this one here’, ‘those over there’ etc) are also marked for gender.

namekke

manekke

ngalekke

kunekke

The prefixes which appear on nouns are referred to by linguists as ‘head class’ prefixes. The prefix on the adjective must agree (i.e. have the correct prefix) with the noun class of the noun, but as always in language learning, there are exceptions. Sometimes the prefix on the noun will be different to that on the adjective qualifying this noun but this is still considered grammatically correct. When this happens linguists call this 'agreement class'. This means that a noun can be associated with a particular gender, but be in a different agreement class. An example is the word gun-dulk (spelt kun-dulk in Kunwinjku) ‘tree’ which is in the vegetal class, but it does not have a vegetal class prefix man-.

kun-dulk man-kimuk 'a big tree' (notice it is wrong to say kun-dulk kun-kimuk)

There is quite a bit of difference amongst the various Bininj Gunwok dialects as to the strictness of agreement with gender prefixes. Kunwinjku would seem to be the strictest and in Kune the system is breaking down (i.e. in Kune you can use the masculine prefix on an adjective qualifying a noun in the feminine class e.g. daluk na-wern 'many women'. That would be grammatically incorrect in Kunwinjku or Gundjeihmi) . Some nouns have a noun class prefix and others do not. For example in Gundjeihmi:

namekke bininj na-gimuk ‘that big man’

(ng)alekke al-daluk al-wernwarre ‘that girl is the eldest [in a line of siblings]’

garrbarda an-wern ‘lots of long yams Diascorea transversa’

gun-wok gun-wern ‘many languages’

Notice that in the first example there is no masculine gender prefix na- on bininj but there is on the following adjective –gimuk ‘big’. In the next sentence, the demonstrative ngalekke ‘that female referent’ is marked with a ngal- prefix as is the word ngal-daluk ‘girl, sister, female’. In the third example the word for yam you would expect to be in the vegetal class and it certainly is, but a vegetal class prefix only appears on the adjective an-wern ‘many (vegetal class things)’. In the fourth example both the noun and the adjective have neuter gender prefixes which are the same on both the noun gun-wok 'language' and the adjective gun-wern 'many (neuter class) (gun- + gun-).

Number is another consideration. When referring to people, adjectives have a noun class prefix in the singular but pronoun prefixes in the plural as in the following Gundjeihmi examples:

daluk al-gudji ‘one woman’(-gudji means 'one')

daluk barri-wern ‘many women’ (barri- is a pronoun prefix that means 'they [past tense or referential]')

(You can also use reduplication to mark plural but the last consonant is replaced by a glottal stop daluhdaluk ‘women’)

If you are not sure of the gender of a noun and there are no obvious clues, then you can usually get away with using masculine as the default gender in many cases, but not always. Many birds and other animals use female gender as the default. For example emus and magpie geese are referred to as feminine nouns:

al-wern bamurru barri-mei ‘they got a lot of magpie geese’

Alwanjdjuk gorrogo al-gohbanj ba-rri ba-yimi. ‘Long ago the emu was an old woman’.

You should be aware that in a number of other dialects of Bininj Gunwok (like Kune, Kuninjku and Kundedjnjenghmi), the noun class prefixes on part nouns (things which are parts of some other whole) are optional  and can be dropped off and the suffix –no added (which originally meant 'its' e.g. bidno 'its hand', otherwise gun-bid) Other languages such as Dalabon and Rembarrnga have this same feature (but they do not have gender prefixes). There are examples of when this is acceptable in Gundjeihmi but to find out more about this, you should consult the native speakers of Gundjeihmi who are assisting with this course. Some examples:

gun-mim > mimno ‘eyes, seeds, bullets’

gun-godj > godjno ‘head’

an-ngui > nguino ‘flower’

Gender and meaning.

Some nouns can have a gender prefix that can change, which means that the meaning of the word will also change. Some examples are:

na-ngordo ‘man with crippling or disfiguring illness’

al-ngordo ‘woman with crippling or disfiguring illness’

gun-ngordo ‘crippling or disfiguring illness’

Some words change their meaning in significant ways that you cannot always predict:

gun-garre ‘calf, shin and lower leg’ an-garre ‘culture, law, way of life’ an-garre ‘traditional song’

Other changes have specialised meanings:

na-Badmardi ‘male member of the Badmardi clan’

al-Badmardi ‘female member of the Badmardi clan’

gun-Badmardi ‘someone whose mother’s clan is Badmardi’

Gundjeihmi ‘Gundjeihmi language’

na-Djeihmi ‘Gundjeihmi man/person or people’

Many kin terms change when noun class prefixes are added:

daluk ‘woman’

al-daluk ‘female, sister’

yabok ‘sister’

al-yabok ‘my child, your sister [parent talking to their child about the child’s sister]’ Note: this is a special way of referring to people called Gun-dembui.

Changing the noun class prefix can also change the word class.

na-mak ‘a good man/boy’ (adjective)

al-mak ‘a good woman/girl’ (adjective)

gun-mak ‘goodness, satisfaction, righteousness’ (noun)

Some words are the same except for the presence of a noun class prefix and the change in meaning, but there is sometimes a logic to how the meaning was derived as in the following examples:

djak 'meat ant'

gun-djak 'sickness, pain'

mok bush fly

gun-mok sore, skin infection

Some common adjectives that can take gender prefixes:

good -mak [na-mak, al-mak, an-mak, gun-mak]

bad -warre

big -gimuk

small -yahwurd

many -wern

few -gudji, -gudjihgudji

Whilst there are four noun class prefixes you will encounter on nouns and adjectives that agree with them, as mentioned above, not all nouns have prefixes and in fact there are a great number of nouns which do not have an obvious gender assignment. These nouns might be grouped into a residual fifth class, but there are no general principles for why these nouns belong in this ‘left-over’ class. However, when you use an adjective with these nouns without gender prefixes, there is often a correct ‘agreement class’ reflecting the words association with a gender which must be known although there is some variation amongst the dialects.

Some principles

Basic principles for noun class organisation in Gundjeihmi look like this:

Class 1 (na-) higher male animates some lower animates some kinds of honey [e.g. na-biwo]

Class 2 (al-) higher female animates some lower animates other things such as a few meteorological terms algokkarrng ‘stars’, aldjurlum ‘willy-willy’

Class 3 (an-) plants, plant parts and products, sexual and excretory body parts, song, ceremony and custom, bushfire, food (not meat), some kinds of honey, some landscape features (with water or plant features). Things like motor vehicles, boats and aircraft are also in this class. This is probably an extention from the fact that canoes are in the vegetal class because they are made from trees. Other modern forms of transport are likewise placed in the (m)an- class. E.g. man-kerrnge muddika 'a new car'.

Class 4 (gun-) human/animal body parts some common plant form terms [e.g. gun-dulk ‘tree’, gun-dalk ‘grass’ gun-god ‘paperbark’, gun-ngobarn ‘new leaf sheath of pandanus trees’] some objects made form plants [e.g. gun-yarl ‘string’] fire [used for domestic purposes] weather and sea, time measurement, languages (Kunwinjku, Gundjeihmi) and speech some social categories [gun-mogurrgurr ‘clan’] abstract nouns [e.g. gun-njilng ‘feelings, emotions’, gun-mak ‘goodness’]

Bonj that is all.

(Kunwinjku)

Kore Kunbarlanja, yawurrinj kabirri-durrkmirri kore CDEP.

Kodjok na-Kardbam Charles ka-yolyolme djob yawurrinj bedberre:

CDEP story Charles

[00:00:00.00] Charles ngaye

[00:00:01.18] Yoh, ngudda baleh yi-kurn... ngudda?

[00:00:03.04] Kodjok

[00:00:03.22] Kodjok

[00:00:04.07] Yoh

[00:00:04.19] eeen

[00:00:05.19] Kodjok na-Kardbam

[00:00:07.06] Kodjok na-Kardbam, korlonjhme.

[00:00:09.11] Yoh

[00:00:10.05] Ngudda... yi-yolyolme djob nguddake kondanj.

[00:00:13.23] Aam, ngarri-marnbun, yawurrinj yika kabirri-marnbun welding kabirri-yime wali.

[00:00:20.02] Yiman ka-yime training kabirri-marnbun.

[00:00:22.03] Yoh, training kabirri-re... welding. Hab yawurrinj nakka njamed, kabirri-marnbun... mowing yika kabirri-yime.

[00:00:32.21] Yoh

[00:00:34.11] Nani bar, njamed kabirri-marnbun.

[00:00:37.18] Kore rubbish kabirri-we bad ngudda ngurri-mang wanjh

[00:00:39.19] Yoh, ngarri-mang ngarri-yawoyhmarnbun wanjh tabol yiman. Njamed shel[f] yiman ngarri-marnbun makka ka-dingihdi.

[00:00:46.06] O yeah.

[00:00:46.18] Yoh, nani-yih bar use ngarri-yime.

[00:00:48.16] Oh yeah. En na-ngale ngun-bukkan ngudberre?

[00:00:51.06] Nani kukbele kabirrih-di ngandi-bukkan.

[00:00:54.01] Yiman ka-yime Gedje

[00:00:55.01] Yoh, Gedje

[00:00:55.22] Troy

[00:00:56.07] Mick name kah-di

[00:00:56.24] Mick, yoh. Ngundi-bukkan?

[00:00:59.07] Yoh

[00:01:00.00] En yawurrinj ngurri-djare manih djob?

[00:01:01.19] Ngarri-djare, kun-kuyeng ngarri-durrkmirri.

[00:01:05.12] Ma!

Dja na-Bulanj Tom warridj ka-yolyolme:

CDEP story Tom

[00:00:02.14] well every morning ngarrim-re ngarri-durrkmirri like ngad mak ngarribuyika ngarri-dalkdadjdje

[00:00:05.05] ngarri-re slasher ngarri-kan njamed nakka

[00:00:07.15] ride-on kabirri-kan yawurrinj kabirrih-...dalkdadjdje ngarri-re koreh

[00:00:11.09] kun-rurrk man-bihbuyika ngarri-dadjdje kore Bininj kabirri-yo o kukbulerri kabirri-yo, Balanda ka-yo, ku-bolkwern

[00:00:18.08] man-mak man-wern djob ngarri-durrkmirri

[00:00:20.24] ma sometimes every Friday ngarri-re kore mak fishing border store ngarrim-durndeng yoh

[00:00:25.22] konda Balanda ngarri-yidurrkmirri ngadberre birri-mak naninj mak ngarri-durrkmirri

[00:00:29.05] ngandi-kan ngadberre

[00:00:30.04] MG: and baleh-beh nawu kun-wardde ngurri-mang?

[00:00:31.21] CDEP Council konda

[00:00:34.02] Oh yeah

[00:00:34.18] Yoh, ngandi-won ngadberre

[00:00:36.18] O man-wern yo ngarri-re kore ku-bolkwern, school ngarri-re, bale yarrkka yawurrinj ngan-bidyilobme kondanj birri-buyika kabirri-durrkmirri

[00:00:43.02] Ngarri-buyika kore ngarri-re.

[00:00:45.19] Ngarri-re Injalak ngarrbin-nan kabirri-bimbun dolobbo mak bu time ngarri-karrme ka-yime bu ten o'clock, 12 o'clock o ngadberre time

[00:00:50.19] anywhere ngarri-re

[00:00:53.13] MG: Yika mak bu training kabirri-yakwon wanjh djob ku-bolkbuyika kabirri-mang?

[00:00:57.06] Yoh. Yiman manu konda course kabirri-re, kabindi-won kore djob bale njale kabirri-durrkmirri. Manekke kabirri-re like...

[00:01:04.01] MG: Nga-bekkang yika nawu kabirri-re kabirri-durrkmirri kore Territory Alliance.

[00:01:08.00] Territory Alliance o makkanj birri-durnderrinj... ngarrim-re konda kore Shire wanjh.

[00:01:12.13] Yo wanjh manekke ngaye mak manekke nga-durrkmirri Territory Alliance. Ngam-durndi kondanj.

[00:01:17.14] Konda mak nga-lobme every morning ngaben-marnemang all the yawurrinj ngarrim-re konda ngarri-ngun ngarri-bongun konda ngarri-re start ngarri-durrkmirri.

[00:01:24.04] Nga-nan konda nawu yawurrinj kabirri-djare manih djob. What do you reckon, njaleken kabirri-wernhdjare mani kind of djob?

[00:01:34.21] Something to do because ngarri-djaldi kured minj njale ngarri-marnbun, yo.

[00:01:37.10] Ngarri-durrkmirri like ngarri-djare mani ngarri-marnbun you want to get something else for in the future

[00:01:41.00] or... djob djob yo, manekke, kamak, kamak Bulanj

[00:01:51.23] OK thank you.

Bonj

That is all.

Organise your tongue so you can speak properly!

In a recent lesson we looked at the various sounds of Bininj Gunwok and the letters used to represent them. In this lesson we will look at some of the combinations of sounds including what are known as double stops, and combinations of two vowel sounds (or a vowel and a glide such as y or w) known as diphthongs.

Double stops

You will notice that some of the words listed in previous lessons had double letters as in:

dedded red-collared.lorikeet dedded

gukku (KW= kukku) water gukku

ngabbard father ngabbard

These double stop sounds only appear in the middle of words. They can never appear at the start or end of a word. This is because they straddle a syllable boundary and effectively the first of the two consonants closes off one syllable and the second commences the next one. When you pronounce these words you need to clearly articulate each of the two stops. All of the stop consonsants in Bininj Gunwok can be doubled:

bb, dd, rdd, djdj, kk

The retroflex sound rd when it is doubled is usually just written rdd. Here are some examples of each double stop:

nganabbarru buffalo nganabbarru

dabbarrabbolk ancestors, elderly people dabbarrabbolk

bedda them bedda

gaddum (KW= kaddum) above, up high

dardda younger brother dardda

gun-durddu (KW= kun-durddu) heart

godjdjan (KW= kodjdjan) a skin name godjdjan

yirridjdja a moiety name yirridjdja

gakkak (KW= kakkak) mother’s mother, mother’s mother’s brothers and sisters and converse (e.g. a woman’s daughter’s child) gakkak

bokko type of spear with uniserial barbs bokko

Whilst these double stops usually appear between vowels, there are also 6 consonants that can combine with a long stop:

with rr

lorrkkon hollow log coffin lorrkkon

with r

njarlkkan kind of orchid njarlkkan

with rl

warlkkarra ox-eye herring (Kuninjku dialect) warlkkarra

with l

Balbbun Escarpment near Jim Jim Creek, which is the home of the spirit being Algaihgo Balbbun

gubuldjdjarn in the middle gubuldjdjarn

Diphthongs

Kunwinjku      iw, ew, aw, ow, ey, ay, oy, uy

Gun-djeihmi    iu, eu,  au,  ou, ei,  ai,  oi,  ui

These sounds are pronounced exactly the same in Gundjeihmi and in Kunwinjku. They are spelt differently because Gundjeihmi has a different orthography or spelling system to Kunwinjku.

Gundjeihmi / Kunwinjku

iu / iw iw

gun-diu / kun-diw liver gun-diu

eu / ew ew

an-djeuk / man-djewk rain an-djeuk

deudeu / dewdew dollar bird (Eurystomus orientalis) deudeu

au / aw aw

wurdyau / wurdyaw child wurdyaw

bauh / bawh be quiet, shush! bauh

ou / ow ow

an-bouk / man-bowk seasonal swamp an-bouk

rouk / rowk all rouk

ei / ey ey

ba-mei / mey he/she got it ba-mei

na-beiwurd / na-beywurd a man's son or woman's brother's son na-beiwurd

ai / ay ay

maih / mayh meat, animals maih

malaiwi / malaywi tomorrow malaiwi

oi / oy oy

gun-boi termite mound gun-boi

doidoih / doydoyh great grandparent doidoih

ui / uy uy

ba-rui / ruy it got cooked ba-rui

bi-rrui / bi-rruy he/she swore at him/her bi-rrui

Bonj. That is all.

[= Kunwinjku]

After reading about the facebook interface in minority Australian languages on that mununga linguist we took up the challenge at the Bininj Gunwok Language Project to create versions for Kunwinjku and Gundjeihmi. Thanks to the skill and dedication of Kevin Scannell and our translators Violet Lawson- (Gundjeihmi) and Andrew Manakgu and Dean Yibarbuk- (Kunwinjku), the scripts are now available:

Update 12 August 2012:

Note there has been an update to these scripts made on 13 August (again thanks to Kevin Scannell's hard work) as Google has changed the way they handle installation of extentions in Chrome (installation from outside of the Chrome webstore is no longer allowed). If you used scripts that appeared in this post before 13 August 2012, you will have to replace them with these scripts which are now official Chrome webstore compliant scripts:

For Kunwinjku:

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/oahnkebhdjhfcnipndkeddicjlecfjka

For Gundjeihmi:

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/mdloehadmkkehlnpogfnhfiommlingnp
Basically the process for installing these scripts is the same as that described on that mununga linguist but Kevin also adds the following:

I'm strongly recommending to everyone that they use these scripts with Google Chrome - they will run much faster and with fewer errors, and they don't require any special addons to install - just click one of the links above in Chrome, accept the install, and then visit Facebook. Things should start to appear in the language, no need to restart. If things revert to English, reloading the page can help.

If you are thinking of doing this for another minority language here is how we dealt with some of the translation issues for a north Australian polysynthetic language. This is only a selection so if you want to ask about a term not listed here, leave a comment below and we'll reply. Also, Kevin has a wiki about how other languages have dealt with these translations and so we'll eventually add how Kunwinjku and Gundjeihmi have dealt with the translation there, or you can read the same information here (actually only Gundjeihmi is described below).

The following relates to the Gundjeihmi version and therefore the Gundjeihmi orthography is used.

The term 'friend' doesn't really have an analogue in Indigenous cultures where classificatory kinship means everyone in your social universe is a relative. So we opted for 'people we know'. But shift that along to 'mutual friend' and there are some other translation complications.

"1 mutual friend"

This created some interesting discussion about subject and object number. In Bininj Gunwok, these prefixes cover a large range of number possibilities in portmanteau forms. To say that we two (exclusive) both know another (i.e. 1) person would be 1 ngani-djarrk-burrbun:

ngani-djarrk-burrbun

'1st person  dual exclSUBJ>3rd person sing. OBJ.-both/together-know[non-past]'

But once the number of mutually known friends is >1, the prefixes must indicate this change in number. This is not possible in the Facebook translation which must remain constant except for the proceeding numeral (there might be a technical fix, but it probably doesn't really matter at this stage). For example to say 'we 2 both (i.e. mutually) know 3 other people' in Gundjeihmi you would say ngarrban-djarrkburrbun, where ngarrban- is the prefix that marks 'we two acting on them (3 or more)'. Here the 'mutual' element is captured by the dual subject (we both share friendships with the object), but as Violet pointed out, the people we both know also know us too and so to capture the reflexive nature of our relationships with our mutually known friends we opted for arri-burrburren 'we (plural exclusive) all know each other' where -burrburren is the reflexive of -burrbun. So that was one translation down, another 90 to go!

One issue for many Australian languages in relation to this kind of translation is that the English terms do not overtly specify grammatical arguments— that is, who is doing what to whom. So when the Facebook button says '1 share' in English, a polysynthetic language such as Bininj Gunwok must specify who is doing the sharing because all verbs must have a prefix that shows this. Our translation then is "1 garri-djarrkgadjurren" where garri- is the first person plural inclusive participant prefix on the verb ('we all'), djarrk 'together' and -gadjurren 'share REFLEXIVE (with each other)'.

Another issue is anything to do with numeric or temporal quantification, so that '1 hour ago' or '6 minutes ago' is going to problematic in most Australian languages. The solution is to find some other equivalent for relative expressions of time such as 'just now, recently, long ago'. Another solution is to loan the English terms and combine them with the Bininj Gunwok terms thus 'gorrogo 5 hours' already [some time] 5 hours. We translated 'about an hour ago' as djal bolkki ba-bebmeng 'it just came out now/recently' where bolkki can mean 'now/today/soon/just now' (although a future reading is not possible because the verb ba-bebmeng is marked for past tense).

Other problems arise with culturally alien concepts such as 'accounts' so that 'account settings' is translated as:

yi-marnbun nawu ngudda ge 'fix/make those things relating to you'.

Whilst these kind of translations might seem semantically underspecified  at first, it doesn't take long for a user to learn the function associated with them. Likewise, "activity log" is ngaled yi-yimi 'what have you been doing'. Advertising comes out as a verb,gabarri-bayahme 'they purchase [things]' (it could equally have had a first person plural prefix). These may be issues to be dealt with once enough people are using the translation and thinking about any unsatisfactory aspects of the initial version.

Here are a selection of other translations in the list but note that the translations back into English are literal and designed to reveal something of the conceptual composition of the translation:

"Add Friend" Yi-ngeigurrme 'put a name'

"Add Photo / Video" Yi-bimgurrme 'put an image'

"APPS" nawu gabarri-dirri an-buiga 'other things they play with'

"Apps and Games" An-buihbuiga Gabarri-dirri 'assorted other things to play with'

"Careers" Yi-rrurrkmirri '2sg-work'

msgid "Change Cover" Yi-bimbularrbu An-buiga Yi-namen 'delete the image and place another one.'

"chat (offline)" Ngurri-wokmun.gewerren (ba-rromburrinj) 'send each other talk (turned off/not operating)'

"Close Friends" Darn.gi arri-ni adman 'we (excl.) who sit close'

"Comment" Yi-wokgurrmen 'put talk/a message'

"Create an Ad" Yi-marnbu ba gabarri-bayahme 'make it so people can buy [something]'

"Create a Page" An-buiga yi-marnbu 'make something else/another'

"Create Group..." Yi-marnbu bu Ngurri-djarrkwokdi... 'make it so that you all speak together'

"%d shares" %d arri-wokgadjurrinj '%d we have shared language'

"Edit Options" [Allows you to hide certain stories from your home page] Yi-wokwarlkkan '2sg-hide talk/language'

#.A link to a list of events that you've been invited to "Events" Garri-bengdaihgerren 'we (pl. incl.)-remind/notify each other'

"FAVORITES" NAWU YI-DJAREHDJARE 'things you really like'

"Find Friends" Yiban-ngalge bininj 'find people'

"Friend Requests" Nawu Ngundi-djawan Yiban-ngeigurrme 'those who are asking you to place their names'

"Friends" Nawu Yiban-burrbun 'those you know'

"groups" mirndewern 'groups'

"Life Event" Gorrogo Ba-yimerranj Ngudda-gen 'things that have happened in the past relating to you'

"Likes"-  Plural noun. Link that shows you a list of music, books, etc. you like on FB, Nawu a-djare 'that which I like'

Heading above your lists of friends ("Work", "Family", etc.) "LISTS" GABARRI-NGEIHNGEIDI 'they-name.name.stand'

"Map"  Bim nawu gun-bolkgen 'an image about places'

In the "New Message" dialog "Message:" Gun-wokgerrnge yi-mun.gewe: 'send a new message [talk]'

Link in bottom navigation. Click it to see additional links: Careers, etc. "More" An-buiga ga-djale 'other it-keeps.going'

"News Feed" Gabarri-yolyolme Gun-wok 'they are discussing stories [and] talk/news'

"PAGES" — it was decided not to translate this word yet. We will wait to see what other speakers might say.

"People who like this" Gabarri-ngeidi Nawu Gabarri-djare 'the names of those who like this lit: they-name.stand REL.pronoun they-like.it'

Link at the bottom of home page to Facebook's privacy policy "Privacy" Bu yiga minj yi-djare gabarri-nan 'if sometimes you don't want them to see'

"Privacy Settings" Yi-marnbun ba minj gabarri-nan 'fix/make it so that they cannot see'

"Profile" Djal Aye 'just me'. But I think this could also be Djal aye-gen 'just all about me'.

Box near the top of your personal timeline showing your recent actions on FB "Recent Activity" Njanjuk Yi-marnbom 'what have you done'. Again, I think this would be better as Njanjuk yi-djalmarnbuni (imperfective). 'what have you just been doing'. Needs more thought on getting the 'recent' element incorporated.

"Recommended Pages" Gubuyiga ngundi-bukkan 'they can show you things elsewhere'

Prompt when you comment on a post "Write a comment..." Yi-wokbimbu... '2sg-write.talk'.

When you share a link in a comment, use this to remove the preview image "Remove Preview" Yi-bimbularrbu 'remove image'

Option on every post on your personal timeline "Resize" Yi-marnbun an-gimuk dja an-yahwurd 'make it big and small'.

Link that appears under a post in another language; click it to translate "See Translation" Yi-nan ga-wokborledge 'see the language turned' (this is an established verb for 'translate').

Verb. A link that allows you to share a post with your friends "Share" Gabarri-nan rouk gun-wok ge 'they can see all of your talk'

"Timeline" Ga-rrungbelbbelbmerren 'the sun/time is sticking to itself'

Months of the year are joined with one of the six season names. These names do not consistently map on to names of the months but generally they are equivalent:

Gudjeuk January, Gudjeuk February, Bangkerreng March, Bangkerreng April, Yekke May, Yekke June, Yekke July, Wurrgeng August, Wurrgeng September, Gurrung October, Gurrung November, Gunumeleng December.

Are you interested in more about the underrepresentation of minority languages online? Have a look here.

Bonj That is all.

What's the time?

[Gundjeihmi spelling]

Here's a nice language development. The folk at Gagadju Dreaming who run a whole group of tourist businesses have a new range of boating tours at Ngurrungurrudjba (Yellow Waters) near Cooinda in Kakadu National Park. These are Indigenous owned businesses and so they are keen to incorporate the Gundjeihmi language into their tours. You can take a range of different boating cruises at Ngurrungurrudjba throughout the day and each one is named after one of the Gundjeihmi words for different times of the day. I went on the new night time cruise and had a great time listening to the commentary in Gundjeihmi translated into English by the Bininj guides. What a nice opportunity for tourists— to listen to an Australian language out on the water in a very beautiful place.

Here are the boat cruise names and the times they depart (click the icon to hear the audio):

gugabelwi gugabelwi dawn, sunrise (6:45am)

ba-rrungbidbom ba-rrungbidbom late morning (9:00am)

ba-rrungborledmeng ba-rrungborledmeng just after midday, literally: the sun has turned' (11:15am)

ga-rrungbangmen ga-rrungbangmen the sun is at full strength (1:15pm)

wolewoleh wolewoleh afternoon (2:45pm)

ba-rrungyibmeng ba-rrungyibmeng sunset (4:30pm)

algohgarrng 'the stars' (night time cruise)

Now for the rest of the language lesson.

These are Gundjeihmi words. In other Bininj Gunwok dialects, there is some variation.

Gugabelwi

You can also say just gugabel. There is a synonym malamalayi 'in the morning' and also 'tomorrow'. Gugabel gam-dungbebme 'In the morning the sun comes up'.

Ba-rrungbidbom

Yes and this is a verb too. There's the ba- prefix again and there is a noun incorporated into the verb. This is the word gun-dung 'sun' but it also means 'time'. You can see the gun- prefix is dropped and the -dung stem comes in between ba- and the verb -bidbun 'climb up' (past tense is -bidbom). Well not exactly. The d at the front of -dung has changed to rr. This is because there is a vowel before it as part of that ba- prefix. This is a rule in Bininj Gunwok- d changes to rr when in between by a vowel.

Ba-rrungborledmeng

Same pattern again, but this time after the incorporated noun -rrung 'sun' there is another verb -borledmeng which means 'to turn around or turn over or change'. This verb is in the past tense. There are two parts of the word that mark this past tense. Firstly the ba- prefix means 'it [PAST tense]' and the fact that verb ends in ng. There are many verbs that have the final theme -me which is present tense but in the past tense they change to -meng.

Ga-rrungbangmen

This is a verb. It is made up of the prefix ga- 'it/he/she (present tense), then the noun -rrung (from gun-dung) 'sun' is incorporated into the verb and the next part -bangmen is the present tense of the verb 'to become powerful'. This verb belongs to a class which end in -men. This ending is associated with verbs of becoming or development. In the past tense the -men changes to -minj. Notice how a single verb also contains other things like the noun (gun-)dung (pronounced 'doong') for 'the sun' and the prefix which tells you who is doing the action— in this case ga- means 'it (the sun)'. Remember that the d in -dung 'sun' will change to rr because with the addition of the ga- prefix it now has a vowel on both sides which triggers the rule: d > rr in between vowels.

Wolewoleh (also Wolewole)

This word means afternoon, but if you put the verb -ni 'stative (also verb to sit') on the end it will mean 'yesterday'. Wolewolehni 'yesterday'. It makes sense doesn't it. Many languages of the world have this pattern (afternoon also = yesterday AND tomorrow also = morning). For Australian English speakers please do not pronounce this word as 'wally wally' (you'll make a wally of yourself) but try to pronounce the 'e' vowel at the end (which rhymes with 'air' in English). The letter h is a glottal stop (in this case it is optional) so if you choose to say wolewoleh, make sure you make the abrupt termination required by the glottal stop.

Ba-rrungyibmeng

It should be a familiar pattern now but here we have a new verb after the incorporated -rrung 'sun'. This is the verb -yibme 'to sink down'. Again it is in past tense so it has a final -ng. So it is clear that this word ba-rrungyibmeng means 'the sun has set' or 'sunset'.

Finally, let's return to the title of this lesson Ngaled Ga-rrungyime which means 'what time is it'. In a literal sense ngaled 'what' ga- 'it [PRESENT tense] -rrung 'sun/time' and the final part is a verb -yime 'to say or do'. What's the sun doing? But that is not really a good translation into English, so let's say 'what's the time?'

For those of you learning Kunwinjku, the equivalent phrase would be Baleh Ka-rrungyime? Kunwinjku also doesn't have the ba- prefix. Instead it uses zero (nothing) which gives us these equivalents for some of the terms (if it has ka- as a prefix it means it's still in present tense):

kukabel, dungbidbom, dungborledmeng, ka-rrungbangmen, wolewoleh, dungyibmeng

In Kunwinjku you can also say kun-barnangarra for the middle of the day or for a period of a day (24 hours) or kun-barnangarrakenh 'daytime' where the -kenh possessive suffix means 'pertaining to, belonging to'. In Kuninjku and Kune dialects you say benbekad for 'daytime'. This word is based on a synonym for 'the sun' ngal-benbe which has a feminine noun class prefix ngal-. The -kad part of the word is related to kaddum 'up high'.

If you are wondering about the spelling again, why gugabel in Gundjeihmi versus kukabel in Kunwinjku, have a refresher course here.

Bonj That is all.

OK, let's go, let's speak Gundjeihmi.

1. Getting Started

This is the first post for Jabiru students and agency employees learning the Australian languages Gundjeihmi and Kunwinjku, which are spoken in Kakadu National Park and Western Arnhem Land. Other people who live and work in Western Arnhem Land might also be interested in these lessons. Whilst they are in the form of blog posts in English, there will be some posts from time to time which will be exclusively in Bininj Gunwok dialects. You can ask questions or make comments in response to these lessons and I will attempt to answer your questions.

What does 'Bininj Gunwok' mean? There are a number of Aboriginal languages spoken in Western Arnhem Land today. You will already know the names Gundjeihmi and Kunwinjku, but in addition  to these two, there are also four other varieties (call them dialects) of the same language. These varieties are Mayali, Kuninjku, Kune and Kundedjnjenghmi. You can find more information about the six Bininj Gunwok dialects here. And you can see the map of their locations here. These are all the same languages, just different dialects. If you speak in one, the people who speak a different dialect will still understand you. Linguists define dialects along the lines of 'mutual intelligibility'. Bininj will have a range of different views on these dialect names.  We need a way to refer to these varieties as one group and so linguists have coined a new name after talking to Bininj (Aboriginal people) about what might be an appropriate collective name. Bininj in some cases use the name of their own language variety to refer to all the other dialects too but this doesn't always go down well with the speakers of another dialect. Some people say that all the dialects are really 'Mayali' and others say that all the varieties should be called 'Kunwinjku'. No collective name is perfect, but Bininj Gunwok is the name we will use to refer to all the varieties mentioned above when we need a collective name. Otherwise, just use the name of the variety you are learning, Gundjeihmi or Kunwinjku. The learner's guide material presented here is a general course where I have tried to keep the technical grammatical terms to a minimum. If you want to read a more technical grammatical description of Bininj Gunwok see this:

Evans, Nicholas (2003) Bininj Gun-wok: A pan-dialectal grammar of Mayali, Kunwinjku and Kune. [2 volumes] Canberra: Pacific Linguistics

2. The sounds and symbols that represent them.

Vowel Sounds in the English Language

We need to say something about the difference between the sounds of a language and the symbols that represent them (what linguists call phonemes and orthography). Depending on the accent, the English language can have anywhere from 11 to 20 vowel sounds. The English alphabet only has 5 letters that are used exclusively to represent these many vowels.

It is important to understand the difference between the letters and the sounds they represent. In Australian English there are about 20 vowels (includes some diphthongs – combinations of two vowels in one unit), represented by individual or combinations of five roman letters (a,e,i,o,u). Examples of these are in the table above.

But in Gundjeihmi and Kunwinjku there are 5 vowels represented by 5 letters, a, e, i, o, u.

gakkak (would be spelt kakkak in Kunwinjku)

dedded

gikkik (would be spelt kikkik in Kunwinjku)

bobo

gukku (would be spelt kukku in Kunwinjku)

Bininj Gunwok orthography

Use these letters ONLY:

VOWELS

Kunwinjku & Gundjeihmi         a, e, i, o, u

DIPHTHONGS

Kunwinjku       iw, ew, aw, ow, ey, ay, oy, uy

Gun-djeihmi    iu, eu,  au,  ou, ei,  ai,  oi,  ui

CONSONANTS

b, bb ,d, dd, dj, djdj, h, (g)/k, kk, l, m, n, ng, nj, r, rr, rd, rdd, rl, rn, w, y

Note that in Gundjeihmi there are both g and k. The former is used at the start of syllables and the latter at the end of syllables except if there is a long stop represented by kk which straddles the syllables as in gakkak. In Kunwinjku only the letter k is used. There is no letter g except when it appears as part of the digraph symbol ng which is what linguists call a velar nasal. There are no pronunciation differences between g in Gundjeihmi and k in Kunwinjku. Gundjeihmi speakers just wanted to have a different spelling system to Kunwinjku to distinguish themselves from other dialects.

Some of these letters have the same sound as they do in English; others do not. As you can see from the list above, some combinations are not found in English, e.g. nj, iw/iu. These may cause problems until you get used to the system.

Note that in writing Aboriginal languages each sound is always written in the same way and letters (single and double) stand for one and only one sound in a given position. This means you can make a reasonable attempt at pronouncing new words once you know the sound that goes with each letter.

Some of the letters are called vowels (a,e,i,o,u). Some are called DIPTHONGS (Kunwinjku= aw, ay, ew, ey, iw, oy, ow, uy / Gundjeihmi= au, ai, eu, ei, iu, oi, ou, ui). The rest are called CONSONANTS. We will discuss the vowels first, then the dipthongs, then the consonants. But first, here is an overview of the whole set of letters together with rough English equivalents.

VOWELS

a as in             about, but

e as in             bed or French e

i as in             bit

o as in            pot or Italian o as in Dio

u as in            put

DIPTHONGS

Kunwinjku spelling on left / Gundjeihmi spelling on right (both sound exactly the same)

aw / au as in  house

ay / ai as in 'ay-ay, captain'

ew / eu (no English equivalent - nearest to the Adelaide pronunciation of 'hell')

ey / ei as in hey, they

iw / iu (no English equivalent - nearest to the Adelaide pronunciation of 'hill')

oy /oi as in boy

ow / ou as in  oak, choke

uy / ui as in  Nhulunbuy

CONSONANTS

b as in bank

d as in dog

dj as in jump

h as in Cockney wha' for 'what'

(g), k as in get or  (Gundjeihmi has g a the beginning of a word or syllable, Kunwinjku never uses g except in the symbol ng as in English sing)

l same as in English

m as in  mad

n as in nose

ng as in  sing

nj as in  canyon.

r as in  rice

rr as in  Scottish carry, or 'sloppy' pronunciation of 'butter'

rd as in  American pronunciation of 'harder'

rl as in  American pronunciation of Harlem

rn as in  American pronunciation of harness

w as in wait

y as in yell

Long consonants are written double, e.g. bb, dd, djdj. These have no English equivalent.

LONG STOPS (consonants)

Kunwinjku

short b              k                d            rd              dj

long bb            kk            dd          rdd            djdj

Gun-djeihmi

short b            g,k            d             rd            dj

long bb           kk            dd          rdd         djdj

(note in Gun-djeihmi spelling, ‘g’ syllable initial and ‘k’ syllable final e.g. gakkak ‘MM(B)’)

Dialect Differences

What kind of differences are there between Kunwinjku, Gundjeihmi and some of the other Bininj Gunwok dialects?

The grammatical differences are minor. The vocabulary differences are more noticeable. For example, look at the following:

English:         Why did he go?                He went (for) magpie geese.

Gundjeihmi: Njanjukgen ba-wam? Bamurru ba-wam.

Kunwinjku:  Njaleken wam?              Manimunak wam.

Kuninjku:     Njaleken wam?              Murnubbarr wam.

Don't worry too much about these differences for the time being. You can ask about these kind of differences as comments to this post. If you want to read some more about dialect differences, have a look here.

3. Examples

Vowels- click on the audio link to hear pronunciation.

-Yi-biddjuyme ba yi-wokbekkan.

A

ngabbard ngabbard father

nga-yawan nga-yawan 'I'm looking for it/him/her'

E

bedberre bedberre 'theirs, for them'

dedded dedded red-collared lorikeet

I

mimih mimih rock spirit

bininj bininj man, human being

O

dolobbo dolobbo bark of stringybark tree

bobo bobo goodbye

U

bun bun I'll hit you

kukku kukku water

Consonants-

b ba-bidbom 'he/she climbed up'

d doidoi various great grandparents: FFM, FMF, MFF, MMM(B) (where F= father, M= mother, B= brother)

dj ngadjadj 'mother's brother' Note: this sound is not the same as that represented by the English letter 'j'. Linguists call it a voiced palatal plosive. It sounds like this.

h Gundjeihmi

(g), k gek (Gundjeihmi spelling), kek (Kunwinjku spelling) 'is that so, I see'

(Gundjeihmi has g a the beginning of a word or syllable, Kunwinjku never uses g except in the symbol ng as in English sing)

l lablab 'spotted nightjar' (bird)

m gun-mim 'eye, seed' kun-mim (Kunwinjku spelling)

n nin 'grass wren'

ng ngalelek 'little corella'. This sound often occurs word or syllable initially. It doesn't in English. It sounds like this.

nj gun-njam 'guts, intestines' kun-njam (Kunwinjku spelling). Linguists call this sound a palatal nasal. It sounds like this.

r Rol 'a clan name'

rr barri-wam 'they've gone' birri-wam (Kunwinjku). This sound is an alveolar tap. It sounds like this.

rd gun-bard 'knee' kun-bard (Kunwinjku spelling). Remember that 'd' and 'rd' are two different sounds. It sounds like this.

rl gun-garlang 'shoulder' kun-karlang (Kunwinjku). Just remember that 'l' and 'rl' are two different sounds. It sounds like this.

rn ga-marnbun 'she/he is making it. Kunwinjku= ka-marnbun. Remember that 'n' and 'rn' are two different sounds. It sounds like this.

w wolewoleh 'afternoon

y yekke 'early dry season'

Ma, bonj. OK that's enough for this first lesson.

Look for a Bininj language teacher to help you with your learning.

Gundjeihmi: Yi-yawa bininj dja daluk nawu ngundi-bidyigarrme gun-wokgen.

Kunwinjku: Yi-yawa bininj dja daluk nawu ngundi-bidyikarrme kun-wokken.