🚀 go-pugleaf

John Atkinson wrote:
> 
> Mark Addinall wrote:
> >
> > Ananke wrote:
> > >
> > > On Wed, 02 Jan 2002 00:06:44 +0800, Mark Addinall wrote:
> > > >
> > > >Water
> > > >
> > > >anheme    - Eastern Arrente
> > > >badu      - Sydney
> > > >bawa      - Yindjibarndi
> > > >galiyn    - Wir
> > >
> > > How is that pronounced?  I assume Wir is Wiradjuri?
> >
> > Correct.
> >
> > GAL-lin-Jhun
> >
> > As far as I can tell.
> 
> I think not.  The "yn" is the palatal nasal (like the ny in canyon).
> It's usually written "ny" in transliterations of Australian languages,
> but some use the convention of swapping the n and the y when this sound
> occurs at the end of words, so that monolingual English speakers won't
> be tempted to pronounce the last part the same as in "felony".
> 
> Since few non-linguist English speakers can distinguish the palatal
> nasal at the end of a word, you can probably get away with "gah-leen"
> 
> I'm not sure about the stress, but most Wiradhuri words have it on the
> first syllable -- unless the second vowel is long (as it is in bila: =
> casuarina species -- spelt belah in English)
> > > >
> > > >River
> > > >
> > > >bila       - Wir
> > >
> Here the a is short, so it's not homonymous with the tree!
> 
> This has the variant bilabang, which has of course been borrowed into
> Australian English as billabong.
> 
> Around Wellington (NE dialect of Wir), it meant "milky way" (the big
> river in the sky)

Thank you.  I have never met a Wir speaker.  I am more familiar with
Datiwuy and make the great mistake of (not) thinking all aboriginal
languages should sound the same as East Arnhem land.

Mark.

> 
> John.

-- 

                 ____   ---------------------
                /   /\   addinall engineering
               /   /  \   mark addinall
              /   /    \   addinall@tik.com.au
             /   /      \   0417 795 327
            /   /   /\   \   satellite
           / L /   /  \ E \   wireless
          / E /   /\   \ S \   WAN/LAN
         / D /   /  \   \ C \   project design
        / O /   /    \   \ H \   project management
       / G /   /      \   \ E \   embedded systems
      /   /   /        \   \ R \   C programming
     /   /   /          \   \   \   unix administration
    /   /   /            \   \   \   perl
   /   /   /              \   \   \   solaris, linux, bsd,
  /    `-------------------\   \   \   sco, aix. hp-ux
 /             B A C H      \   \   \   TCP/IP. X.25, VPN
'----------------------------'   \   \   -------------------
 \                                \  /
  \________________________________\/