Victor Harbor Pavement Statements

The Narinyiri language area is in the south-east corner of South Australia, shown orange on the accompanying map. It gained notoriety in 1994 when, at its western end, a proposed bridge from the mainland to Hindmarsh Island in the mouth of the River Murray was objected to by the local Aboriginal people because one of the abutments would have been built on special land connected with ‘secret women’s business’. After government investigation the bridge was built anyway.

Two Europeans in particular recorded the Narinyiri language, H.A.E. Meyer, a Lutheran missionary in 1843, and G. Taplin, a missionary and anthropologist, in 1879.

The statements are on the curved band behind the standing figure in front of the tree at the beginning of the walkway to Granite Island

Just off Victor Harbor lies Granite Island, which can be reached by a walkway. There are various Aboriginal motifs round about at the start of the walkway, including four statements on the pavement there, expressing positive sentiments, together with translations. These were probably devised in recent times after the language was no longer fluently spoken, and it is open to question whether someone in the mid 1800s would have understood them.

Here follows an attempt to analyse the Narinyiri words on the pavement based on the Meyer and Taplin records.

Ya:ra inti towun, nginti ngul-ildal Ramindjeri meli

when         thou  tread-now thou  remember/hear-now  DESire      crowd

When you tread, remember the Ramindjeri people

In the tables that follow, the original records are in the grey columns. The orange column shows a modern simplified respelling, the yellow column a simplified literal translation, and the final pink column the source of the record concerned, including page and line numbers in square brackets.

Australian	respelt	English	EngJSM	source
"Yaral"	yaral	"when"	when	Meyer [Narrinyeri] Grammar [:48:27.2] [Nrjri] [sa] [1843]
"{Towun}"	dawun	"{Treading}"	tread-now	TpFlk Taplin, G., Narrinyeri [:140:32.1] [Nrjri] [sa] [1879]
"Nginte"	ngindi	"Thou"	thou	TpFlk Table of 43-13. Narrinyeri, Lake Alexandrina, S.A. [:151:13.1] [Nrjri] [sa] [1879]
"Ngullun"	ngul-un	"Remembering"	remember-now	TpFlk Taplin, G., Narrinyeri [:136:24] [Nrjri] [sa] [1879]
"Ngull-un"	ngul-un	"p., listening; recollecting."	hear-now	Meyer [Narrinyeri] Vocab [:88:25] [Nrjri] [sa] [1843]
"{-ildal}"	ildal	"particles expressing conditional inclination of the will, should, would."	DESire	Meyer [Narrinyeri] Vocab [:62:5.2] [Nrjri] [sa] [1843]
"Meli"	mili	"Party (a lot of people)"	crowd	TpFlk Taplin, G., Narrinyeri [:135:17] [Nrjri] [sa] [1879]

 Table 1

1. ya;ra: when — seven records give yaral, and one yare

2. inti and nginti are the same: you (singular), or ‘thou' — ng- beginning a word was often omitted in transcriptions as no words in English begin this way, and there was difficulty in knowing how to render the sound in writing.

3. Towun: treading — the -un ending indicates present tense.

4. ngullun: remember — Aboriginal languages often used the one word for processes on the mind: know, think, hear, listen and the like. This includes the present tense marker -un.

The pavement word ngul-ildal might be right, but there are no direct matches for it in Meyer/Taplin. -ildal expresses desire. Perhaps absence of a tense-marking suffix (e.g. -un) indicated imperative: Remember!

5. Ramindjeri — one of five Narinyiri dialects, the others being, according to Wikipedia, Warki, Tanganekald, Portaulun and Yaraldi (or Yaralde Tingar).

6. meli: crowd — this word indicates a group of people.

Ya:ra inti towun, nginti ngul-ildal Ramindjeri meli

when thou  tread-now  thou  remember/hear-now  DESire     crowd

When you tread, remember the Ramindjeri people

 Kar yamalai ma:thawi alyenik ruw-ald

they-all      one   xxx   here  country-at

They are the Original Custodians of the land

"Kar"	gar	"they"	they-all	Meyer [Narrinyeri] Grammar [:23.3:7] [Nrjri] [sa] [1843]
"{Yammalai}"	yamalayi	"{one}"	one	Taplin Narrindyeri [GNT] [:21:37.1] [Nrjri] [sa] [1878]
"Med-auwurli"	mid-awurli	"s., possessor of many houses."	hut-of	Meyer [Narrinyeri] Vocab [:78:28] [Nrjri] [sa] [1843]
"Mattemidlauwe"	madimidl-awi	"s., spleen, milt."	spleen-of	Meyer [Narrinyeri] Vocab [:78:24] [Nrjri] [sa] [1843]
"Mateñgauwe"	madingG-awi	"s., song used by the Adelaide natives."	song-of	Meyer [Narrinyeri] Vocab [:78:25] [Nrjri] [sa] [1843]
"[matiñgg-auwe]"	madingG-awi	"[s., captain of a ship (etymology not known). [66]]"	xxx-of	Meyer [Narrinyeri] Vocab [:66:43.1] [Nrjri] [sa] [1843]
"Mīnindauwe"	minind-awi	"s., yolk of egg."	yolk-of	Meyer [Narrinyeri] Vocab [:81:3] [Nrjri] [sa] [1843]
"-auwurle"	awurli	"signifying genitive case ’s, of, belonging to"	of	Meyer [Narrinyeri] Grammar [:23.4:32] [Nrjri] [sa] [1843]
"auwurle"	awurli	"Genitive"	of	Taplin Narrindyeri [GNT] [:12:4] [Nrjri] [sa] [1878]
"Alyenik"	alyi-n-ig	"adv., here, at this place."	here-this-place	Meyer [Narrinyeri] Vocab [:52:27] [Nrjri] [sa] [1843]
"Rūwe"	ruwi	"s., land, country, birth-place."	country	Meyer [Narrinyeri] Vocab [:97:11] [Nrjri] [sa] [1843]

Table 2

1. Kar: they-all — Both Meyer and Taplin show kar, sometimes ar, as ‘they’, i.e. ‘they-all’ as opposed to ‘they-two’.

Here some difficult concepts begin to appear in the pavement statements. If no records were made for a modern concept of ‘original custodians’ (Your Amateur Researcher, the present writer, did not find any), the term used in the pavement statement is likely to have been newly contrived.

2. yamalai: one — there is only one record in this form, but there are several for ‘one’ as yammalaitye or yammalaityi (yamaladyi), and this word ‘one’ seems to have been selected to stand for ‘original’.

3. ma:thawi — this word is the most problematic in the pavement statements, no direct equivalents for it having been found in the records. Five possibilities of somewhat similarly sounding words are given in the table above, of which only the first, med-auwurli: possessor of many houses, seems a possibility for representing ‘custodians’. Most words for ‘hut, or ‘house’ are mand or mandi. The suffix -awurli, is the possessive ‘of’.

4. Alyenik: here — nothing controversial in this, except ‘here’ is not included in the pavement translation.

5. Rūwe: country, land — ruwe, ruwi, ruwar are the words for ‘country’ in the records, and the suffix -ald denotes the locative usage, for ‘at’, ‘in’, ‘on’ in English, making this ‘land-at’, likely to have been idiomatically correct in such an expression as ‘custodians of the land’.

Kar yamalai ma:thawi alyenik ruw-ald

they-all      one   xxx   here  country-at

They are the Original Custodians of the land

Ngarni Ramindjeri yuntulun alyenik ruwi elun yuntulun namawi mi:wi

we-all        Ramindyiri         together-ing-now       here-this-place  country       DESire           together-ing-now     us-all-of    bowels (emotion)

We Ramindjeri, belong to this land and this land is a part of our soul

"Ngăne"	ngani	"we"	we-all	Meyer [Narrinyeri] Grammar [:22.3:32] [Nrjri] [sa] [1843]
"{Yuntulun)"	yund-ul-un	"{Together, being?"	together-ing-now	TpFIk Taplin, G., Narrinyeri [:140:22.1] [Nrji] [sa] [1879]
"Alyenik"	alyi-n-ig	"This here place"	here-this-place	Taplin Narrindyeri [GNT] [:22:29.1] [Nrjri] [sa] [1878]
"Ruwi"	ruwi	"A country"	country	TpFIk Taplin, G., Narrinyeri [:112:19] [Nrjri] [sa] [1879]
"Ell-in"	il-in	"(4), wanting."	DESire-now	Meyer [Narrinyeri] Vocab [:59:14] [Nrjri] [sa] [1843]
"{Ellin;"	il-in	"{Wishing}"	DESire-ing	TpFIk Taplin, G., Narrinyeri [:141:60.1] [Nrjri] [sa] [1879]
"Năm au we"	nam-awi	"us of"	us-all-of	Meyer [Narrinyeri] Grammar [:31:14.4] [Nrjri] [sa] [1843]
"{Mewe}"	miwi	"{Inside (bowels)?"	bowels	TpFIk Taplin, G., Narrinyeri [:132:70.2] [Nrjri] [sa] [1879]

Table 3

1. Ngāne: we-all — Aboriginal language pronouns distinguished between two and more than two people, thus we-all, you-all and they-all for plural forms, and we-two, you-two and they-two for dual forms.

2. Yuntulun: together — used in the pavement statement for ‘belong’.

3. Ruwi: country, land — same as in Table 2.

4. Ell-in: DESire — this seems to be another form for, or subtle variant of, ‘desire’, (compare with -ildal in Table 1). Note that both -il-in and -ildal begin with -il…

5. Nām au we (nam-awi): us-all-of — another plural pronoun, this time in the possessive case. -awi, and -awurli are both possessive suffix forms.

6. Mewe: bowels — this seems odd at first sight. In Aboriginal languages the term ‘bowels’ can be used for emotion, not unlike in the English expressions ‘in my heart of hearts I believe …’ or ‘I have a gut feeling that …’ This occurs not just in Narinyiri but is widespread. In the pavement text the term is used for ‘soul’.

Ngarni Ramindjeri yuntulun alyenik ruwi elun yuntulun namawi mi:wi

we-all    Ramindyiri     together-ing-now   here-this-place  country   DESire   together-ing-now     us-all-of    bowels (emotion)

We Ramindjeri, belong to this land and this land is a part of our soul

Ngarni nglelun namawi ngapaldar mangadhang, piltenggi, piltenggi-kungulurmi ambi

we-all        know-ing-now   ye/us-all    three-PLUR       scar-PLUR       strong think-ing-now INSTR         for

We acknowledge our Elders for their courage, strength and resilience

"Ngāne"	ngani	"we"	we-all	Meyer [Narrinyeri] Grammar [:24:21] [Nrjri] [sa] [1843]
"Nglēl-in"	ngl-il-in	"p., knowing."	know-ing-now	Meyer [Narrinyeri] Vocab [:87:22] [Nrjri] [sa] [1843]
"Nomauwe"	num-awi	"Yours"	ye-all-of	TpFlk Taplin, G., Narrinyeri [:141:107] [Nrjri] [sa] [1879]
"Nām-auwe"	nam-awi	"of us"	us-all-of	Meyer [Narrinyeri] Grammar [:24:24] [Nrjri] [sa] [1843]
"neppaldar"	nibald-ar	"three"	three-PLUR	Taplin Narrindyeri [GNT] [:21:38.2] [Nrjri] [sa] [1878]
"Nepaldar"	nibald-ar	"number three; the highest number for which they have a name."	three-PLUR	Meyer [Narrinyeri] Vocab [:85:6] [Nrjri] [sa] [1843]
"Mangar"	mang-ar	"s. pl., cuts on the breasts and shoulders of the natives."	scar-PLUR	Meyer [Narrinyeri] Vocab [:77:24] [Nrjri] [sa] [1843]
"Piltengge"	bildingGi	"adj., strong."	strong	Meyer [Narrinyeri] Vocab [:92:16] [Nrjri] [sa] [1843]
"piltengi"	bildingi	"strong"	strong	Taplin Narrindyeri [GNT] [:19:40.1] [Nrjri] [sa] [1878]
"Kungullun"	gung-ul-un	"Thinking"	think-ing-now	TpFlk Taplin, G., Narrinyeri [:139:97] [Nrjri] [sa] [1879]
"{Urmi}"	urmi	"{Agent} [affix]"	INSTR	TpFlk Taplin, G., Narrinyeri [:125:40.1] [Nrjri] [sa] [1879]
"-urmi"	urmi	"signifying thing or instrument."	INSTR	Meyer [Narrinyeri] Grammar [:19:8] [Nrjri] [sa] [1843]
"-ambe"	ambi	"for (instead of) [23]"	for-PURP	Meyer [Narrinyeri] Grammar [:23.4:36] [Nrjri] [sa] [1843]
"ambe"	ambi	"for"	for	Taplin Narrindyeri [GNT] [:8:37.2] [Nrjri] [sa] [1878]
"āmbe"	ambi	"(1), particle, for, on account; used with both genitive and accusative."	for-PURP	Meyer [Narrinyeri] Vocab [:53:6] [Nrjri] [sa] [1843]
"-āmbe"	ambi	"(2), denoting desire,"	for-PURP	Meyer [Narrinyeri] Vocab [:53:9] [Nrjri] [sa] [1843]

Table 4

1. Ngāne: we-all — as in Table 3.

2. Nglēl-in: know — -un seen above, and -in mark the present tense, ‘now’. -il in the middle of the word might indicate the continuative -ing in Narinyiri: it does so in some languages in New South Wales.

3. namawi: means ‘our’ (or us-all-of), according to Meyer, although for this word Taplin gives ‘yours’ (ye-all-of). The pavement statement adopts the Meyer interpretation.

Now follow more challenging concepts: elders, courage, strength and resilience.

4. ngapaldar: three — for some reason the pavement statement has opted for the word ‘three’ to represent a plurality, presumably of people, for ‘elders’. Taplin gave tendi for a ‘council of elders’, which might have been a better choice of word in this instance.

5. mangadhang: xxx — this word does not feature in the records, a relatively close possibility for it being mangar, to indicate body scarring or tattooing. There are few examples of words ending -dang, all signifying the possessive pronoun ‘my’. Presumably mangadhang was adopted to represent the concept ‘courage’. Perhaps one had to be courageous to endure body scarring, or body scarring was a mark of courage.

6. piltenggi: strong — Meyer and Taplin agree on this. Presumably this is intended for ‘strength’.

7. piltenggi-kungulurmi: If kungullun indicates ‘think-ing now’ as given in Table 4, then the combination piltenggi-kungulurmi ‘strong think-ing-now’ was intended to represent ‘resilience’.

8. -urmi: INSTRumental, or using — this suffix is used for ‘with’ or ‘using’ as in ‘I beat it with (using) a stick’. While it might not appear that Taplin and Meyer agree on this, effectively they do, as Aboriginal languages commonly use the same instrumental suffix to indicate ergative, a case ending marking the ‘agent’ referred to by Taplin, as in ‘the dog bit the cat’, where ‘dog’ is the ‘agent’ and ‘cat’ the ‘patient’. In such a sentence ‘dog’ would have the -urmi suffix to indicate that it, not the cat, was doing the biting.

9. ambi: signifies 'for'. So the full expression piltenggi-kungulurmi might have been intended to convey the idea of thinking strongly for a practical purpose, or something of the sort.

Ngarni nglelun namawi ngapaldar mangadhang, piltenggi, piltenggi-kungulurmi ambi

we-all   know-ing-now   ye/us-all    three-PLUR   scar-PLUR       strong think-ing-now INSTR      for

We acknowledge our Elders for their courage, strength and resilience

References

Meyer, Heinrich August Eduard. Vocabulary of the Language Spoken by the Aborigines of the Southern and Eastern Portions of the Settled Districts of South Australia, Viz., by the Tribes in the Vicinity of Encounter Bay, and (with Slight Variations) by Those Extending Along the Coast to the Eastward around Lake Alexandrina and for Some Distance up the River Murray: Preceded by a Grammar, Showing the Construction of the Language as Far as at Present Known. Adelaide: James Allen, King William Street., 1843.

Taplin, G, Rev., ed. The Folklore, Manners, Customs, and Languages of the South Australian Aborigines: Gathered from Inquiries Made by Authority of South Australian Government. Adelaide: E. Spinner, Acting Government Printer, North Terrace., 1879.

Jeremy Steele

20 November 2025