🚀 go-pugleaf

On Sat, 5 Jan 2002 11:52:44 +1100, "John Atkinson" <johna@bigpond.com> wrote:
>"Ananke" <FarrallNO@SPAMdingoblue.net.au> wrote
>>
>> It just got worse ;-)  How about words for 'blue' or 'sky'?  He is blue,
>> afterall.  This is the page I was using to refer to areas and histories...
>> http://www.dnathan.com/VL/byLang.htm  Can't find much Warrung stuff at all
>:-(
>
>Just about all that's been recorded is collected by Barry Blake in
>"Woiwurrung, the Melbourne language" in vol 4 of "The Handbook of Australian
>Languages", ed RMW Dixon and Blake, Oxford, 1991.
>
>For other extinct and near extinct Victorian languages, a good reference is
>Louise Hercus "Victorian Languages, a Late Survey" (Canberra: Pacific
>Linguistics, 1986; earlier edition, Australian Institute of Aboriginal
>studies, 1969)

It's a crying shame.  Apparently they even had their own taxonomies for the
animals they knew, all lost.

>As you know, Woiwurrung divides into two dialects (among others), Woiwurrung
>("the Melbourne Language") and Thagungwurrung ("the Goulburn River
>Language), the division apparently lying along the Great Dividing Range.

How curious.  A reference I use for native rat names is "Australian names for
Australian rodents", published by the Australian Nature Conservation Agency and
the CSIRO.  I've found it fascinating, not only for the info and names of native
rodents, but also the history and pronunciations.  My main interest is the rats,
but I can see myself being slowly but surely dragged into the whole anthropology
scene.

The languages mentioned in the paper include Peek Warrung, Woiwarrung and Wada
Warrung.  Unfortunately our local library has bugger all in the way of
information, but I can see the librarians being enthusiastic about being given
long lists of references to transfer in.  (Anthropology and language -after- the
maths.)

>Here's some words from Blake:
>
>black, blue:  wurrgurdin (W only), wurrga(rra)bil (both W and T)

I understand the rr needs to be rolled substantially, but how does the r affect
the g, is the g soft or hard and which syllable has the emphasis?

>green: wurrwarrin (W), wunwarren (W)
>(all these look like they could be variants of the same term)
>
>water: baany (ny = palatal nasal) (W,T)
>waterhole: "tam-boore" (W) (phonemization unclear)
>sky: wurru-wurru (W,T)
>
>No word seems to have been recorded for "river"
>
>John.

Thankyou John.  Thanks also to Jacques for suggesting the enquiry.  Enquiry or
inquiry?

Ana



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and act like that.
farrall at dingoblue dot net dot au
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