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Yi-djenmarnburren ba yi-wernhwokdi

Getting your tongue around Kunwinjku

April 8, 2012

Yi-djenmarnburren ba yi-wernhwokdi! (literally: Organise your tongue so you can speak properly!)

In a recent lesson we looked at the various sounds of Bininj Kunwok and the letters used to represent them. In this lesson we will look at some of the combinations of sounds including what are known as double stops, and combinations of two vowel sounds (or a vowel and a glide such as y or w) known as diphthongs.

Double stops

You will notice that some of the words listed in previous lessons had double letters as in:

dedded red-collared.lorikeet

gukku (KW= kukku) water

ngabbard father

These double stop sounds only appear in the middle of words. They can never appear at the start or end of a word. This is because they straddle a syllable boundary and effectively the first of the two consonants closes off one syllable and the second commences the next one. When you pronounce these words you need to clearly articulate each of the two stops. All of the stop consonsants in Bininj Kunwok can be doubled:

bb, dd, rdd, djdj, kk

The retroflex sound rd when it is doubled is usually just written rdd. Here are some examples of each double stop:

nganabbarru buffalo

dabbarrabbolk ancestors, elderly people

bedda them

gaddum (KW= kaddum) above, up high

dardda younger brother

gun-durddu (KW= kun-durddu) heart

godjdjan (KW= kodjdjan) a skin name

yirridjdja a moiety name

gakkak (KW= kakkak) mother’s mother, mother’s mother’s brothers and sisters and converse (e.g. a woman’s daughter’s child)

bokko type of spear with uniserial barbs

Whilst these double stops usually appear between vowels, there are also 6 consonants that can combine with a long stop:

with rr

lorrkkon hollow log coffin

with r

njarlkkan kind of orchid

with rl

warlkkarra ox-eye herring (Kuninjku dialect)

with l

Balbbun Escarpment near Jim Jim Creek, which is the home of the spirit being Algaihgo

gubuldjdjarn in the middle

Diphthongs

Kunwinjku iw, ew, aw, ow, ey, ay, oy, uy

Gun-djeihmi iu, eu, au, ou, ei, ai, oi, ui

These sounds are pronounced exactly the same in Gundjeihmi and in Kunwinjku. They are spelt differently because Gundjeihmi has a different orthography or spelling system to Kunwinjku.

Gundjeihmi / Kunwinjku