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Woiwurrung–Taungurung language

Marn grook football, played by speakers of Woiwurrung from the Wurundjeri clan, c. 1857
Building signage says Welcome - Wominjeka
Welcome sign on Medley building, University of Melbourne

Woiwurrung, Taungurung and Boonwurrung[3] are Aboriginal languages of the Kulin nation of Central Victoria. Woiwurrung was spoken by the Woiwurrung and related peoples in the Yarra River basin, Taungurung by the Taungurung people north of the Great Dividing Range in the Goulburn River Valley around Mansfield, Benalla and Heathcote, and Boonwurrung by the six clans which comprised the Boonwurrung people along the coast from the Werribee River, across the Mornington Peninsula, Western Port Bay to Wilsons Promontory. They are often portrayed as distinct languages, but they were mutually intelligible.[4] Ngurai-illamwurrung (Ngurraiillam) may have been a clan name, a dialect, or a closely related language.[5]

Related languages

Boonwurrung is closely related to Woiwurrung, with which it shares 93% of its vocabulary, and to a lesser degree with Taungurung spoken north of the Great Dividing Range in the area of the Goulburn River, with which it shares 80%.[6] Woiwurrung, Taungurong and Boonwurrung have been considered by linguists to be dialects of a single Central Victorian language, whose range stretched from almost Echuca in the north, to Wilsons Promontory in the south.[7]

R. Brough Smyth wrote in 1878 that "The dialects of the Wooeewoorong or Wawoorong tribe (River Yarra) and the Boonoorong tribe (Coast) are the same. Twenty-three words out of thirty are, making allowances for differences of spelling and pronunciation, identical; five have evidently the same roots, and only two are widely different".[8]

Woiwurrung

Woiwurrung dialect phonology

The following is the Woiwurrung dialect:

It is not clear if the two rhotics are trill and flap, or tap and approximant. Vowels in Woiwurrung are /a e i o u/.[9]

Pronouns

In the case of the Woiwurrung pronouns, the stem seems to be the standard ngali 'you and I', but the front was suffixed to wa-, so wa+ngal combines to form wangal below.[10] In Kulin languages there is no grammatical gender.[11]

Other Woiwurrung vocabulary

Number and sign system

A numbering system was used when Wurundjeri clans sent out messengers to advise neighbouring clans of upcoming events, such as a ceremony, corroboree, a challenge to fight or Marn grook ball game. Messengers carried a message stick with markings to indicate the number and type of people involved and a prop to indicate the type of event, such as a ball for a Marn grook event. The location of meeting was spoken, but neighbouring clans might not use the same language, so a sign language was used to indicate the number of days in the future when the people should assemble. The number was indicated by pointing to a location on the body from 1 to 16. After 16, at the top of the head, the count follows the equivalent locations across the other side of the body.[13]

Boonwurrung

Placenames derived from Boonwurrung language terms

Animals and plants

Some Boonwurrung words for animals and plants include:[28]

Plants

Birds

Aquatic animals

Insects

See also

References

  1. ^ Dixon, R. M. W. (2002). Australian Languages: Their Nature and Development. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-47378-0.
  2. ^ S35 Woiwurrung–Taungurung at the Australian Indigenous Languages Database, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies  (see the info box for additional links)
  3. ^ Other spellings and names include Boonerwrung, Boon Wurrung, Putnaroo, Thurung, Toturin, and Gippsland dialect ("Detailed record of the Bunurong". AusAnthrop Australian Aboriginal tribal database. AusAnthrop anthropological research, resources and documentation on the Aborigines of Australia. Archived from the original on 7 July 2010. Retrieved 30 May 2012.)
  4. ^ Barry Blake 1991: 31
  5. ^ S83 Ngurai-illamwurrung at the Australian Indigenous Languages Database, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
  6. ^ Melbourne and Surrounds (PDF) – via vcaa.vic.edu.au.
  7. ^ Blake, Barry J., ed. (1998). Wathawurrung and the Colac Languages of Southern Victoria. Pacific Linguistics, Series C. Vol. 147. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. doi:10.15144/PL-C147. hdl:1885/146194. ISBN 0-85883-498-7.
  8. ^ Smyth, R. Brough (1878). The Aborigines of Victoria, with Notes Relating to the Habits of the Natives of other Parts of Australia and Tasmania, compiled from various sources for the Government of Victoria. Vol. 2. Melbourne: John Ferres. p. 13 – via Google Books.
  9. ^ Hercus (1969).
  10. ^ Blake, Barry J. (1991). "Woiwurrung". In Dixon, R. M. W.; Blake, Barry J. (eds.). The Aboriginal Language of Melbourne and Other Sketches. Handbook of Australian Languages. Vol. 4. Oxford University Press. pp. 31–124.
  11. ^ Blake, Barry. "Dialects of Western Kulin, Western Victoria Yartwatjali, Tjapwurrung, Djadjawurrung" (PDF). VCAA. Retrieved 2 March 2022.
  12. ^ Oxford Dictionary of English, p 2,054.
  13. ^ Howitt, Alfred William (1901). "Chapter 11" . Native Tribes of South-East Australia. McMillan. p. 701 – via Wikisource.
  14. ^ "Allambee". victorianplaces.com.au. Retrieved 1 December 2022.
  15. ^ Dawson, W. T.; Pettit, H. W. (1850). Gippsland place names and vocabulary. p. 11 – via Howitt and Fison Archive.
  16. ^ Aboriginal Resource Trail (PDF). Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne Education Service.
  17. ^ Bird, Eric (12 October 2006). Place Names on the Coast of Victoria (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 February 2017. Retrieved 13 March 2017 – via bcs.asn.au.
  18. ^ "Corinella - Victoria's Best Kept Secret". www.visitcorinella.com. Retrieved 1 December 2022.
  19. ^ a b First, Jamie (7 January 2014). "The A-Z Story of Melbourne's Suburbs". Herald Sun. Retrieved 1 December 2022.
  20. ^ Clark, Ian D. (2014). "Dissonance Surrounding the Aboriginal Origin of a Selection of Placenames in Victoria, Australia: Lessons in Lexical Ambiguity". In Clark, Ian D.; Luise, Hercus; Kostanski, Laura (eds.). Indigenous and Minority Placenames: Australian and International Perspectives. Canberra: ANU Press. pp. 251–271. doi:10.22459/IMP.04.2014.14. ISBN 9781925021639.
  21. ^ "About the profile areas | Fish Creek - Sandy Point - Wilsons Promontory | profile.id".
  22. ^ Whitehead, Graham J. (27 June 2018). "Moorabbin Becomes a City". Kingston Local History. Retrieved 1 December 2022.
  23. ^ a b [The Argus Newspaper, 12 Feb 1938, page 19]
  24. ^ [Language of the Aborigines of the Colony of Victoria and other Australian Districts, Daniel Bunce 1856]
  25. ^ "The Bunyip". South Bourke and Mornington Journal. Vol. 49, no. 5. Victoria, Australia. 20 February 1913. p. 2. Retrieved 7 August 2020 – via National Library of Australia.
  26. ^ "Angus McMillan". Gippsland Times. 24 May 1865. p. 1. Retrieved 26 July 2020.
  27. ^ "Yarragon | Victorian Places". www.victorianplaces.com.au. Retrieved 1 December 2022.
  28. ^ Clark, Ian; Briggs, Carolyn (2011). The Yalukit-Willam: The First People of Hobsons Bay (PDF). Hobsons Bay Council.

Further reading

External links

Look up Woiwurrung in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.