Your Amateur Researcher (YAR) happened to go to Glenorie recently, a rural suburb in the northwest of Sydney. On the way he wondered about the name. Was it Aboriginal? It looked more Scottish. On arrival he had the chance to consult Google. This is what came up: ‘The name Glenorie, a suburb in Sydney's northwest, has two possible origins. One suggests it's an Aboriginal name meaning "much water," while another proposes it's named after a town in Scotland. The name was officia

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”

When reviewing Wiradhuri records made by Archdeacon James Günther around 1837, your amateur researcher chanced upon: Australian respelt English EngJSM source “Yarbarra” yarba-ra = “to dig, scrape with the spade.” dig  : Günther (Fraser) [:108:31] [Wira] This called to mind a Threlkeld entry from Awabakal (or the Hunter River language), which was then found: “yarr-bulliko” yarba-li-gu = “to saw …” saw  : Tkld/Frsr AWA 1892 [:101:27] [Awa] “yarr-bulla” yarba-la = “saw (mandator

Rev. Jakob Wilhelm Günther, 1832 [source: Basel Mission QS30.001.009.01] Reverend James [Jakob Wilhelm] Günther was a German-born missionary, appointed by the Church Missionary Society to its mission in Wellington N.S.W. in August 1837, where he stayed until the mission was disbanded in 1843. During his time in Wellington, Günther compiled Wiradjuri wordlists and studied its grammar. He subsequently became a chaplain to convicts, and later archdeacon at Mudgee.

Suffixes attached to verbs In Australian indigenous languages, or some at least, there seem to be five kinds of suffixes that may be attached to verb stems. Not all five are present every time, and in fact it seems to be rare to have more than one, two or three of them. They might be classed as follows: transitiviser [trvsr]  stem-forming suffix [SFX] derivational suffix [DFX] status suffix tense marker In some languages (such as Wiradhuri and the Sydney language Biyal Biyal

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

One of the earliest recorded names for Sydney, or Sydney Cove, was provided by Philip Gidley King: Australian respelt English Eng JSM source “ 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 Walume

The word “waan”, spelt with a long double-a, appears fairly frequently in the work of Lynette Oates: Oates, Lynette Frances. 1988. The Muruwari language . Canberra: Dept. of Linguistics, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University and is shown as meaning ‘tree’, or ‘stick’. So when wan arose in the following: wan puumpi-ta wii hey! blow-IMP fire-ABS Hey you, blow the fire up! it looked as possibly wrong. This was a sentence about ‘fire’, and it seemed a

Lynette Oates has produced a comprehensive introduction to Muruwari , a language group straddling the NSW-Qld border south of Cunnamulla and north of Bourke, Brewarrina and Lightning Ridge. The reference is: Oates, Lynette Frances. 1988. The Muruwari language . Canberra: Dept. of Linguistics, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University. It includes over 1100 sentences and verbs for which Oates has provided a grammatical analysis. Unsurprisingly, for suc

Sometime in 1791, William Dawes recorded the verb ‘to tear’, as in ‘tearing a piece of paper’: Australian respelt English EngJSM source “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 mea

There are some transcontinental words, and bila is one of them. It means ‘stream’. WIRADHURI The following are from the Wiradhuri language, across the Blue Mountains from Sydney, stretching from Bathurst effectively to the Victorian border. It is the largest language area in New South Wales, and possibly the country. Australian respelt English Eng JSM source “Billa” bila “a river” stream : Günther WIRA (Fraser) [73:49] [WIRA] “Beelah” bila “a creek” stream : SofM 1896 09 12 [

English commonly has specific words to express shades of meaning. It has, for example, endless words for colour names: not only ‘red’ but ‘scarlet’, ‘crimson’, ‘vermilion’, ‘pink’ and so on. Australian indigenous languages might have words for ‘white’, ‘black’, ‘red’, ‘green’ and perhaps ‘yellow’, with ‘black’, for example, being also the word for ‘night’, and the other colour words being terms for entities of the colour concerned. Indigenous languages were specific about som

Not surprisingly, no-one has found the Naabawinya site so far, but perhaps this will change. I have put into modest circulation some language databases, which have been named the Bayala Databases . These include information on the Sydney Aboriginal Language, and on languages adjacent to Sydney to the north and south. There is also information on some languages across the Blue Mountains, notably Wiradhuri and Kamilaroi . The original data was compiled by people in the century