DETECTIVE MYSTERIES

Although William Dawes is a splendid resource for understanding the classical Aboriginal language of Sydney (Biyal Biyal) there are numerous mysteries. Some of these he left deliberately, being too modest to put in writing the blunt truth. One instance of this is:

TABLE 1

Australian	respelt	English	EngJSM	source
"Yạ´nga"	yanga =	"NO TRANSLATION"	copulate  :	Dawes (a) [a:33:0.2] [BB]

But your researcher has filled in the translation, based on the less prudish entries in the Anon notebook:

TABLE 2

"Yang-a"	yanga =	"Copulate"	copulate  :	Anon (c) [c:28:9] [BB]
"Yang-a"	yanga =	"For Copulation he uses all these words"	copulate  :	Anon (c) [c:23:11.1] [BB]
"Can-na-ding-ga"	gana-di-nga =	"For copulation he uses all these words"	burn  :	Anon (c) [c:23:11.2] [BB]

From the Anon records it was possible to put in the meanings for another two of Dawes’s entries, left untranslated:

TABLE 3

"Yangadĭóu-ĭ"	yanga-dya-wi =	"They did"	copulate did they-all:	Dawes (a) [a:34:1] [BB]
"Kóinyérăna yanga Bigúna"	Ganyirana yanga Bayiguna =	"Bigun ....... s Kóinyera"	Bayigun copulates with Ganyíra  :	Dawes (b) [b:32:3] [BB]

There are nearly forty untranslated entries in Dawes’s notebooks. Some of these are from modesty, such as:

TABLE 4

"Wå´wi bowanára wå ngóra"

wawi bawanara wangara =

"NO TRANSLATION"

pubic hair woman /  stare / boy  :

Dawes (b) [b:33:21] [BB]

the translation of which was assisted by Dawes himself with the entry:

TABLE 5

"Wóe"

wuwi =

"The hair of the dyin"

hair  pubic female:

Dawes (b) [b:24:10] [BB]

It took a while to realise that “wå ngóra” was a single word and not two, meaning:

TABLE 6

"Wongera"

wungara =

"Male child"

boy  :

Anon (c) [c:23:4] [BB]

... ‘boy’.

And …

TABLE 7

"Bolwara"	balwara =	"To stare, or open the eyes"	stare  :	King in Hunter [:407.2:22] [BB]
"[Mi mi ga. Mīm bowanára mi ga]"	bawa-nara =	"[What are you looking for, what]"	stare PURP :	Dawes (b) [b:17:11.4] [BB]

... made possible the deducing that “bowanára” probably meant ‘stare’. So a boy was presumably looking where decorum indicated that he should not, even — or especially — in those days when clothing was not regarded as required.

One of the NO TRANSLATION lines was given by Dawes in two versions:

TABLE 8: THE MYSTERY

"Kanamarál kariadyémi"	ganamaral garayadyimi =	"[NO TRANSLATION]"	:	Dawes (b) [b:18:11.1] [BB]
"Kanamarálmi kariyi´"	ganamaralmi gariyayi =	"[NO TRANSLATION]"	:	Dawes (b) [b:18:11.3] [BB]

And this is what the present short essay is all about.

It is likely that in many of the instances Dawes genuinely did not know what certain words meant that he clearly heard, and recorded. But there is the possibility that prudery was the reason for the absence of meaning given, and with that thought in mind this immediately above mystery pair can be contemplated.

Perhaps Table 2 line 3  gives a clue as to the meaning of the first mystery word:

TABLE 9

"[Kanamarál kariadyémi]"	gana-ma-ra-l =	"[NO TRANSLATION]"	xxx  :	Dawes (b) [b:18:11.11] [BB]
"[Kanamarálmi kariyi´]"	gana-ma-ra-l-mi =	"[NO TRANSLATION]"	xxx  thou:	Dawes (b) [b:18:11.31] [BB]

The normal meaning for gana is ‘burn’ or ‘cook’. There are many possible examples but the following will suffice as evidence:

TABLE 10

"Cannadinga"	gana-di-nga =	"To burn"	burn  :	King MS [:401:18] [BB]
"kunnama"	gana-ma =	"Cook, as food"	cook  :	Mathews DG 1901 [:160.2:13] [DG]

For whatever reason gana appears to have been linked in some way to copulation. Making an intuitive leap here, we might assume that ‘copulation’ is its meaning in the mystery examples being considered. In which case the following word reproduced in the next table would plausibly be related to this idea. If so, this unfortunately takes us into the realm of unseemly speculation, for which apologies are offered. Be that as it may, let us press on.

The alternatives of the word are:

TABLE 11

"[Kanamarál kariadyémi]"	gara-ya-dyi-mi =	"[NO TRANSLATION]"	xxx did thou:	Dawes (b) [b:18:11.12] [BB]
"[Kanamarálmi kariyi´]"	gari-ya-yi =	"[NO TRANSLATION]"	xxx did :	Dawes (b) [b:18:11.32] [BB]

We know these are verbs in the past tense, and in the first example that the -mi at the end is the second person singular pronoun ‘thou’ (or ‘you’ in modern English). Which leaves us to speculate over gara / gari.

There are some words in the Sydney (and other) Aboriginal language(s) that have a multiplicity of meanings, and these include bara / gara / wara, which can also be bura / gura / wura or bari / gari / wari. This is not to say that the speakers in those times necessarily were imprecise, for the variations could have carried subtleties of meaning that are not yet understood. Perhaps instead the recorders of the words varied the writings for the reason that two people will often give different renderings for words they hear that are unknown to them.

In the case of gara, here are some interpretational possibilities. There were many other examples that could also have been included in Table 12.

TABLE 12

HARD
"Karü´ngül"	gara-ngal =	"Hard. Difficult to break."	hard  :	Dawes (b) [b:12:1] [BB]
"Cah-rah-ne"	gara-ni =	"Biscuit"	hard  :	Anon (c) [c:9:14] [BB]
NAIL
"Kă-rung-ān"	gara-ngan =	"Finger Nail"	nail  :	Southwell [:147.3:28] [BB]
"garranan"	gara-nan =	"the nail"	nail  :	Fulton AONSW [:7:12] [BB]
STONE
"Karrah"	gara =	"Stones"	stone  :	Lang: NSW Vocab [:7:204.2] [DG]
"Gur-go"	gura-gu =	"A meteor, or shooting star"	meteor  :	King in Hunter [:409.1:14] [BB]
HAIL
"Coura"	gura =	"Hail"	hail  :	Bowman: Camden [:22:137] [DG]
"Go-ra"	gura =	"Hail"	hail  :	Collins 1 [:513:6.1] [BB]
"go-ri-ba"	guri-ba =	"Hail"	hail  :	Collins 1 [:513:6.2] [BB]
MORE
"Gōre gōre"	guri guri =	"More more"	more  :	Dawes (b) [b:8:8] [BB]
"Go-ray"	gura =	"More"	more:	Anon (c) [c:17:9] [BB]
"Curra"	gura =	"More"	more:	Southwell [148.1:19] [BB]

Your researcher has found it helpful, when faced with a perplexing variety of this sort, to try to hit on an underlying fundamental idea. And in the above list there are two competing such ideas. They are ‘hard’ and ‘grow’. Thus fingernails, stones (including meteors) and hail are all ‘hard’ things; while more and fingernail (again) suggest ‘grow’.

Two further examples may be considered, one from the Wiradhuri ‘inland’ language, introducing yet another interpretation: ‘grow’.

TABLE 13

GROW
"[Brúwi kar˙adyuwi ngábüng]"	gara-dyu-wi =	"[(All) three have large breasts—that is. They are all three women grown]"	more did they-all:	Dawes (b) [b:35:3.21] [BB]
"Groongal-kooroongal"	garungal =	"grown up"	grown up  :	SofM 18960912 [12.2 JJB-Narrandera] [:12.21:53] [Wira]

The full translation of the first example in Table 13 is:

TABLE 14

"Brúwi kar˙adyuwi ngábüng"

buruwi garadyuwi ngabang =

"(All) three have large breasts—that is. They are all three women grown"

three grow did they-all breast  :

Dawes (b) [b:35:3] [BB]

And in this translation it is suggested that gara more probably means ‘grow’ than ‘more’ — although ‘growing’, and becoming ‘more’ or ‘bigger’, are really the same idea. The Wiradhuri example, the second of the two in Table 13, featuring garungal (grown up), confirms this notion.

TIME FOR YOU TO BE THE DETECTIVE

The above has set out some basic data for one possible solution to the mystery posed by Dawes. However, your researcher aligns himself with William Dawes in being reluctant to state the obvious or unseemly. Nevertheless, if the first word in each example in Mystery Table 8 is to do with copulation, then the second word, possibly meaning grow, increase, hard may have a meaning rhyming with ‘detection’.

JEREMY STEELE

Sunday 15 December 2013