Those of us who speak English often fail to see what the difficulties in it are. English seems the simplest of languages: no complicated endings for verbs (as in French and other languages); no nonsense with genders. Spelling can be a bit tricky, until you get the hang of it. But every now and then a problem comes up, such as with the word ‘lie’ in vocabularies. What problem? Well, does it mean ‘lie down’, or ‘tell a lie’? In the Tasmania vocabularies ‘lie’ crops up quite of

Trying to make sense of the Tasmanian language records is difficult, and akin to reading the future from tea-leaf arrangements in a cup. Take this as an example: war.ka.la we.tin.ne.ger when the sun rise The record indicates two words. So perhaps one is ‘sun’ and the other ‘rise’. Australian respelt English EngJSM source "war.ka.la we.tin.ne.ger" wagala widi niga "when the sun rise" sun rise Plomley gar [:430:40] [NE] [Tas] [c.1835] Fig. 1 wagala widiniga: ‘when the sun rise’

It is very easy to grab the wrong end of the stick. It is very easy to jump to wrong conclusions. Perhaps that is being done here. In the...

There is a sequence b–d–n… in the Tasmanian language records. There are many examples of it. Little Here are a few such records: Fig. 1...

N.J.B. Plomley had provided a 10 000 or so long word list of Tasmanian words in: Plomley, N.J.B. 1976. A word-list of the Tasmanian...

N.J.B. Plomley has provided a splendid resource for information on the languages of Tasmania, and there probably were several. His book...

First visit to SOAS Twenty years ago, on Monday 3 April 1995, your Sydney-based amateur researcher into Australian languages called on ‘the School of Oriental and African Studies [SOAS: part of the University of London] in London in a vain quest to look up information on the Sydney Aboriginal language gathered by First Fleeter William Dawes’. It was known that they held the notebooks compiled by Dawes. A diary entry further records that: ‘however, one needed a letter of intro

A friend wrote: “If possible would you email the aboriginal word for butterfly.” Here is the reply: ————————– Thank you for your enquiry...

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...

Although William Dawes is a splendid resource for understanding the classical Aboriginal language of Sydney Biyal Biyal, there are...

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...

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...

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...

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”

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...

Mooney Mooney is a suburb in the north of Sydney on the Hawkesbury River. There is a club there where lunch may be had, with a balcony offering a view over the water; noisy mynas tormented a kookaburra sitting on telegraph wires. The question presented itself as to what this placename might mean. The receptionist at the club visited for the lunch, a resident for the past forty years, asserted it meant ‘many rivers‘ — something he had learnt from other locals. This explanation

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

A koala is one of Australia’s favourite treasures of the animal kingdom. It looks almost unbearably attractive and cuddly. On closer scrutiny koalas seem to spend most of their time asleep, and they are scarcely cuddly, with claws, and perhaps with a temperament that has never made them household pets in the manner of cats and dogs. ‘Koala’ is an indigenous word that might have been retranscribed as guwala , but probably more properly as gula as the following examples suggest