Anbinik dja Kukodjdubbe Ankabo

September 6, 2012 By Filed Under: community information, cultural text, environment, plants, publication Tagged With: , , ,

Anbinik dja Kukodjdubbe Ankabo

(Allosyncarpia ternata trees and headwater wetlands)

The Bininj Gunwok Language Project has been working together with Warddeken Land Management Ltd, ecologist Jeremy Freeman from Charles Darwin University, and the Nature Conservancy to produce two new resources. One is a poster about anbinik trees and the other is about kukodjdubbe mankabo 'headwater wetlands' on the Arnhem Land Plateau. The anbinik poster is featured here in this post. Kunwinjku extracts from the poster are followed by the English translations. At the end of the images, there is a link to several files where you can download copies for your classrooms and offices. If you would like full size copies of these posters, use the contact tab on the main menu strip to get in touch with us.

Ngad nawu ngarridurrkmirri Bininj Kunwokken, ngarrbenbidyikarrmeng bedda nawu Warddeken kabirridurrkmirri kabirribolknahnan manbinik manngarre. Wanjh ngarridjarrkmarnbom bokenh djurra nawu manbinik dja kukodjdubbe mankabo.

Anbinik

The 'old people' (dabbarrabbolk) on the Arnhem Land plateau in the rock country used to speak Kundedjnjenghmi, one of the dialects of Bininj Gunwok. It has some similarities with Gundjeihmi spoken to the west. One of these similarities is that it uses an- as the vegetal noun class prefix, as does Gundjeihmi. In Kunwinjku this prefix is man-, so in Gundjeihmi and Kundedjnjenghmi the name for the Allosyncarpia ternata tree is anbinik and in Kunwinjku it is manbinik. The poster includes words from both Kundedjnjenghmi and Kunwinjku.

Files of the posters (pdf) are available here:

anbinik poster Kunwinjku

wetland poster Kunwinjku

anbinik poster English

wetland poster English

Thanks to our translation team:

Alfred Nayinggul, Andrew Manakgu, Donna Nadjamerrek and to 'the old people' who taught us about the importance of these trees.

Nabangardi Ka-yolyolme

July 2, 2012 By Filed Under: cultural text, environment, language Tagged With: ,

Nabangardi Nabordoh ka-yolyolme

kun-wardderurrkken Enamaraway.

Djarrang kore Enamaraway, Wamud Namok ba-bimbom c1950s wanjh kum-durndi 1996 wanjh ba-yawoyhbimkerrngehwong djarrang.

Horse (and rider) at Enamaraway by Wamud Namok, painted c1950s and then again in 1996 he returned to renew the horse image again.

Story by Nabangardi Nabordoh about life in rock shelters.

Inspired by a visit to sites in Djordi clan country at Enamaraway and Dumebe

Recorded by Alys Stevens, photo by Peter Cooke

Nabangardi_Terrah_20120402_1

[00:00:00]

[00:00:08] mm manekke kunwardde

Yes, that rock [shelter]

[00:00:11] yiman kayime Enamaraway, Dumebe manwarddekuken dabbarrabbolk korroko barriyoy yiman

such as at Enamaraway and Dumebe which are important traditional camping places for our ancestors who lived there long ago

[00:00:20] dabbarrabbolk yiman kayime nawu kakkak, doydoyh

the ancestors such as my grandparents and great grandparents

[00:00:27] djongok and then nawu bewuh mak nawu birriyungki duninj nawu birriyoy

and my in-laws and then before them, there were other early ancestors who lived here

[00:00:35] bindiwaddabukkahbukkang nawu anwaddakuken korroko birriyoy

They passed on knowledge about these traditional camping places to the next generation

[00:00:38] like yiman ngad nawu bininj karrkakarrkad

like us, the people who live up on the higher country

[00:00:43] nawu kuwarddehwardde birriyoy

there where they lived in the rock country

[00:00:46] kunwardde wanjh manekke kurrambalk bedberreni yiman bolkkime ngarrkarrme kurrambalk

Our ancestors lived in these rock shelters which were their houses, but we live in other houses

[00:00:50] kunkukbelebeh bedda makkanj mane kurrambalk bedberreni

the houses introduced to us by white people, but these [rock shelters] were their houses [the ancestors]

[00:00:55] birribolkbodmerawoni yiman kayime njamed dolobbo birrikurrmi

They enclosed all along the side of the shelter with stringybark

[00:00:58] birriyoy

and camped there

[00:01:00] kume wurdurd bindibukkabukkani daluk bu birrikarungi bedman njamed

The women would teach their children how to dig whatsit

[00:01:03] kayawal birribuni njalenjale

long yams and other foods

Nabangardi_Terrah_20120402_2

[00:01:06] anburre mak ...[pause] manyong yiman kayime

such as bush radish (Decaschistia byrnesii) called anburre or manyong

[00:01:13] bedman bininj start birrimey kume borndok birrimangi

that was in the time when men walked around taking their spear throwers

[00:01:16] bedman daluk birrimey kume bedman kundjadj birrimangi, korroko

and the women would take with them their digging sticks, long ago

[00:01:19] wanjh manborndok birriwanawam bedman kundjadj birringolkani daluk

so that men went with spear throwers and women with their digging sticks

[00:01:25] kubebeh, start birriyimi birriyoy

from the time they started living there [in these rock shelters]

[00:01:30] (someone) kunlenj (inaudible)

[and they gave] gifts of meat to their in-laws

[00:01:30] lenjno

gifts to in-laws [affinal prestations]

[00:01:31] kunmurrng bindimarnemurrngkurrmi

and they laid out the bones of their dead for each other

[00:01:35] bindimarnemurrngbarungi kume yerre kuwardde

and they painted those bones with ochre there in the rock shelters

[00:01:45] mak bu ...

and also

[00:01:49] bu kundarrkid kumeke birriyoy manek... birriyoy manu bu birriyakwong wanjh bonj bindikurrmi wanjh bindidudjengi kunbuyika birridudjengi o bindiyawoyhkarungi

when they were alive, they lived there... they camped there and when they died, they would place them [in the rock shelter] and bury them at another place and later they might dig them up again [in a disinterment ceremony]

[00:01:57] yimarnek manek mandjewk ankudji bindihkarungi bindimurrngbebkeni

they might wait for a year and then disinter the bones, taking them out

[00:01:59] o yika bindikukkurrmi kore njamed kalawu

or sometimes they were placed up on a mortuary platform

[00:02:02] bindihmurrng... njamed wanjh bindiwelengmurrngbarungi bindikurrmi kore lorrkkon

they would then paint the bones with ochre and prepare them for a lorrkkon hollow log ossuary ceremony

[00:02:06] lorrkkon biwelengkarrmeng wanjh

they would finally rest in a hollow log coffin

[00:02:07] birriyikolungi birriwelengkani namud all the families

they would bring all the family together into the camp [to complete the lorrkkon ceremony]

[00:02:12] bindikokbokayinj wanjh

they would lead the people out as they called out 'kokbo kokbo'

[00:02:14] djabdi yimane birridjabnami djaldi wanjh manek kumek wanjh bidurndiweninj

then the hollow log was stood upright into its final resting place

[00:02:18] mane kumekke birrurrkmangi durndi wanjh kuwardde

and then they would return to the stone country

[00:02:21] wanjh yawoyhdurndi kuwardde bikodj ngad karriwarddewaken bininj wanjh kume'e kumeke ankarre kayime, that's our life and people of this warddeken birriyoy kunkare

they would go back to the stone country because we are people who belong to the stone country and that is our way of life, the people of the stone country who have have lived here since ancient times

Bonj

That is all.

Bale ga-rrungyime?

March 21, 2012 By Filed Under: environment, language, vocabulary

Ngaled ga-rrungyime?

What's the time?

[Gundjeihmi spelling]

Here's a nice language development. The folk at Gagadju Dreaming who run a whole group of tourist businesses have a new range of boating tours at Ngurrungurrudjba (Yellow Waters) near Cooinda in Kakadu National Park. These are Indigenous owned businesses and so they are keen to incorporate the Gundjeihmi language into their tours. You can take a range of different boating cruises at Ngurrungurrudjba throughout the day and each one is named after one of the Gundjeihmi words for different times of the day. I went on the new night time cruise and had a great time listening to the commentary in Gundjeihmi translated into English by the Bininj guides. What a nice opportunity for tourists— to listen to an Australian language out on the water in a very beautiful place.

Here are the boat cruise names and the times they depart (click the icon to hear the audio):

gugabelwi gugabelwi dawn, sunrise (6:45am)

ba-rrungbidbom ba-rrungbidbom late morning (9:00am)

ba-rrungborledmeng ba-rrungborledmeng just after midday, literally: the sun has turned' (11:15am)

ga-rrungbangmen ga-rrungbangmen the sun is at full strength (1:15pm)

wolewoleh wolewoleh afternoon (2:45pm)

ba-rrungyibmeng ba-rrungyibmeng sunset (4:30pm)

algohgarrng 'the stars' (night time cruise)

Now for the rest of the language lesson.

These are Gundjeihmi words. In other Bininj Gunwok dialects, there is some variation.

Gugabelwi

You can also say just gugabel. There is a synonym malamalayi 'in the morning' and also 'tomorrow'. Gugabel gam-dungbebme 'In the morning the sun comes up'.

Ba-rrungbidbom

Yes and this is a verb too. There's the ba- prefix again and there is a noun incorporated into the verb. This is the word gun-dung 'sun' but it also means 'time'. You can see the gun- prefix is dropped and the -dung stem comes in between ba- and the verb -bidbun 'climb up' (past tense is -bidbom). Well not exactly. The d at the front of -dung has changed to rr. This is because there is a vowel before it as part of that ba- prefix. This is a rule in Bininj Gunwok- d changes to rr when in between by a vowel.

Ba-rrungborledmeng

Same pattern again, but this time after the incorporated noun -rrung 'sun' there is another verb -borledmeng which means 'to turn around or turn over or change'. This verb is in the past tense. There are two parts of the word that mark this past tense. Firstly the ba- prefix means 'it [PAST tense]' and the fact that verb ends in ng. There are many verbs that have the final theme -me which is present tense but in the past tense they change to -meng.

ba

rrung

borledme

ng

it [past tense]

sun

turn

past tense

Ga-rrungbangmen

This is a verb. It is made up of the prefix ga- 'it/he/she (present tense), then the noun -rrung (from gun-dung) 'sun' is incorporated into the verb and the next part -bangmen is the present tense of the verb 'to become powerful'. This verb belongs to a class which end in -men. This ending is associated with verbs of becoming or development. In the past tense the -men changes to -minj. Notice how a single verb also contains other things like the noun (gun-)dung (pronounced 'doong') for 'the sun' and the prefix which tells you who is doing the action— in this case ga- means 'it (the sun)'. Remember that the d in -dung 'sun' will change to rr because with the addition of the ga- prefix it now has a vowel on both sides which triggers the rule: d > rr in between vowels.

Wolewoleh (also Wolewole)

This word means afternoon, but if you put the verb -ni 'stative (also verb to sit') on the end it will mean 'yesterday'. Wolewolehni 'yesterday'. It makes sense doesn't it. Many languages of the world have this pattern (afternoon also = yesterday AND tomorrow also = morning). For Australian English speakers please do not pronounce this word as 'wally wally' (you'll make a wally of yourself) but try to pronounce the 'e' vowel at the end (which rhymes with 'air' in English). The letter h is a glottal stop (in this case it is optional) so if you choose to say wolewoleh, make sure you make the abrupt termination required by the glottal stop.

Ba-rrungyibmeng

It should be a familiar pattern now but here we have a new verb after the incorporated -rrung 'sun'. This is the verb -yibme 'to sink down'. Again it is in past tense so it has a final -ng. So it is clear that this word ba-rrungyibmeng means 'the sun has set' or 'sunset'.

Finally, let's return to the title of this lesson Ngaled Ga-rrungyime which means 'what time is it'. In a literal sense ngaled 'what' ga- 'it [PRESENT tense] -rrung 'sun/time' and the final part is a verb -yime 'to say or do'. What's the sun doing? But that is not really a good translation into English, so let's say 'what's the time?'

For those of you learning Kunwinjku, the equivalent phrase would be Baleh Ka-rrungyime? Kunwinjku also doesn't have the ba- prefix. Instead it uses zero (nothing) which gives us these equivalents for some of the terms (if it has ka- as a prefix it means it's still in present tense):

kukabel, dungbidbom, dungborledmeng, ka-rrungbangmen, wolewoleh, dungyibmeng

In Kunwinjku you can also say kun-barnangarra for the middle of the day or for a period of a day (24 hours) or kun-barnangarrakenh 'daytime' where the -kenh possessive suffix means 'pertaining to, belonging to'. In Kuninjku and Kune dialects you say benbekad for 'daytime'. This word is based on a synonym for 'the sun' ngal-benbe which has a feminine noun class prefix ngal-. The -kad part of the word is related to kaddum 'up high'.

If you are wondering about the spelling again, why gugabel in Gundjeihmi versus kukabel in Kunwinjku, have a refresher course here.

Bonj That is all.



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