Meaning of Kojonup, Karrinyup, Porongorup: all those WA ...ups

While everyone in the West already is familiar with placenames ending in ‘-up’, visitors soon discover them there. One of the early recorders of language information for the south west, the Nyungar or Noongar area, G.F. Moore, explained:

“Ap, or Up ... An affix used to denote a locality fit for, or used as, a resting-place; as Mangaga ap, the resting-place at Mangaga."

Moore, George Fletcher. 1842. A Descriptive Vocabulary of the Language in Common Use among the Aborigines of Western Australia; with Copious Meanings, embodying much interesting information regarding the Habits, Manners, and Customs of the Natives, and the Natural History of the Country. London: Wm. S. Orr & Co., Paternoster Row.

Wikipedia accepts this concept, adds that the suffixes -in and -ing had similar significance, and adds that -up does not signify ‘near water’. Wikipedia also provided a list of 100 examples, the meaning for 56 of which was not known. Those given for the others cannot be completely relied upon.

At least one of these, however, is almost certainly correct: Balgarup: ‘place of the black boy trees (Xanthorrhoea preissii)': over two dozen sources in the Bayala databases attest to balga meaning ‘grass tree’. Curiously, at first glance at least, nine other sources give balag for this plant. What is happening in this instance is that the final sound of the word is inverted, in a process linguists call ‘metathesis’ in which sounds or syllables are transposed: so bal-ga becomes bal-ag.

Languages across Australia have elements in common. Words for ‘eye’ and ‘foot’ are similar in many languages. So it is curious, and probably coincidental rather than metathesis, that the language of the Lake Macquarie area in NSW has a suffix -ba, the reversal of WA’s -up (or -ab), also meaning ‘place of’. For example, the original name of Newcastle in the Hunter River language there was mulubin-ba: the place of the mulubin fern.

Below are the placenames in the Wikipedia list for which no meanings were offered. The names have been respelt in the middle column, and tentative meanings for most of them have been offered, based on entries in the Bayala databases for the Nyungar language area.

Amelup	ngamilab	mullet-place;
	yamilab	….."
Bailup	bayilab
Balingup	balingab
Banjup	bandyab	patient (tolerant)-place
Barragup	baragab	sore [?]-place
Beenup	binab	dig, navel, sharp-place
Binningup	biningab	resin [?]-place
Boranup	buranab	brother, swamp-place
Chinocup	dyinugab	white man [?]-place
Condingup	gandingab	mouse, mouth-place
Coodanup	gudanab	swamp, parrot-place
Coolbellup	gulbilab
Culeenup	gulinab	fib, swamp, youth-place
Dalyellup	dalyilab	fungus-place
Dandalup	dandalab
Dardanup	dadanab	shallow [?]-place
Dinninup	dininab
Gelorup	dyilurab	mouse [?]-place
Gwindinup	gwindinab	bandicoot [?]-place
Jacup	dyagab
Jerdacuttup	dyada gadab	white head [?]-place
Jingalup	dyingalab	horn-place
Joweelingup	dyawilingab
Karnup	ganab
Karrinyup	garinyab	barnacle, scrub, shrub, wattle-place
Kebaringup	gibaringab	canoe [?]-place
Kendenup	gindinab
Kudardup	gudarab	bag, heart, rug-place
Kulikup	guligab
Kundip	gandib	heavy [?]
Mandogalup	mandugalab
Marbelup	mabilab	swan [?]-place
Marrinup	marinab	crayfish, grub, bread-place
Mayanup	mayanab	echo [?]-place
Metricup	midrigab
Moodiarrup	mudyarab
Morangup	marangab	root, wallaby-place
Mumballup	mambalab
Mungalup	mangalab
Munglinup	mangalinab
Muradup	muradab	pigeon, replete-place
Nambeelup	nambilab
Needilup	nidilab
Noggerup	nagarab	cold-place
Palgarup	balgarab	grass tree-place
Peringillup	birinGilab
Porongurup	buranGurab
Quigup	gwigab	bone-place
Wannanup	wananab	duck [?]-place
Warawarrup	wara-warab
Wattleup	wadalab	whistle-place
Wokalup	wagalab	snake-place
Wonnerup	wanarab	yamstick-place;
	wunarab	excrement, hair-place
Yallingup	yalingab	meat-place
Yalup Brook	yalab	paperbark-place
Yornup	yurnab	bobtail goanna-place

Jeremy Steele

2 May 2019