AWABAKAL Words

THOSE WERE THE DAYS

A generation after the upheaval of 1788 and the arrival of the First Fleet, and around 150 km north of Sydney, Lancelot Edward Threlkeld was superintending the outpost he had set up at what is now Belmont on Lake Macquarie on behalf of the London Missionary Society. The purpose was to make contact with the local indigenous people and to undertake all that missionaries normally hope to do. Threlkeld believed that he would better achieve this objective if he could communicate, if he himself learnt the language of the area. And he assiduously applied himself to doing this, and recorded his language acquisition in publications spanning over thirty years from 1825 until his death in 1859. These included a grammar, sample sentences, and translations of two of the Gospels as well as various prayers. His was a major achievement, and opened up the study of Australian indigenous languages.

Threlkeld was helped in particular by one man, Biraban, also known as McGill, who was fluent in English having been a servant at the Military Barracks in Sydney in his boyhood. His name meant ‘eaglehawk’, or ‘wedge-tailed eagle’. Or perhaps this word really signified any big bird, as the same word meant ‘emu’ in languages south of Sydney:

"birribain" biriban = "emu" emu  : KAOL Ridley [WODI] [:111:31] [Wodi]

"Birre.bine" biriban = "Emu" emu  : Larmer (RSNSW) BBay [:225.4:34] [DYRGN]

"Birriban" biriban = "Emu " emu  : Russell: Recollections [:25:2] [Gga]

Biraban had a wife, Patty. Her name might have been purely an English name, or perhaps an English spelling of an indigenous word. Some translation possibilities include ‘bite’, ‘more’ and ‘snake’, as the following references suggest:

"puttilliko" badi-li-gu = "to bite." bite  : Tkld AWA Aust Voc  [:61:51] [Awa]

"buttikaġ" badi-gang = "any animal; ass, ox" bite-thing  animal: Tkld AWA Lex [:206:9] [Awa]

"butti" badi = "more; to do more ; to continue the action" keep on  -badi = more: Tkld AWA Lex [:206:7] [Awa]

"buttêr" badir = "Carpet snake" snake  carpet: Mathews DARK 1903 [:281.1:10.2] [Dark]

"Poteer" badiya = "Snake" snake  : King, C.M. [:3:2] [BPI]

Amongst the mass of Threlkeld material there are revealing insights. One is provided in the following series of sample sentences. There was no commentary on the circumstances under which they were collected, but they follow one after the other, as if descriptive of a particular event or moment. 

Minnahring tin be kah-kah-lah buk-kah? 

minaring-din bi gagala baga

What is from thou wast furious.?

On what account was't thou so furious?

Ngukung tin bahng kahkahlah bukkah.

ngugang-din bang gagala baga

Wife from I was furious.

On account of Wife I was furious.

Minnahring tin ngahtohng. (an Idiom.) 

minaring-din ngadang

What is from no one. 

From no cause.

Minnabring ko be noun torah? 

minaring-gu bi-nun durá

What is for thou her pierced?

What didst thou pierce her with?

Kotah ro, Wahre ko, Bibi to.

gadaru warayi-gu bibi-du

Waddy with, Spear for, Axe has. 

With a Waddy; Spear The Axe has.

Minnahring tin be noun torah?

minaring-din bi-nun durá

What is from thou her pierced?

From what cause didst thou spear her?

New-wahrah kahn to bahng turah bounnoun.

nyuwara-gan-du bang durá bunun

Anger being have I pierced her.

Through anger, I speared her.

These are unchanged from the original, apart from the re-spelt second line in each group.

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The following book on Egyptian hieroglyphs:

Budge, Ernest Alfred, Sir. 1958. Egyptian language: easy lessons in Egyptian hieroglyphics with sign list. London: Routhledge & Kegan Paul., page 114,

provides a glimpse at much the same subject.:

åu-f h·er Xat.bu taif h·emt

He slew his wife, 

åu-f h·er Xaa - set na en åu

he threw her [to] the dogs’.

What can one say, other than what the French have done:

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.

Jeremy Steele

Monday 24 January 2011

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NSW Words

Tracing the Bokhara and other NSW rivers

In a press report in the Sydney Morning Herald for the last day of 2010, there was the following entry:

“Moderate to major flooding is expected along the Culgoa, Bokhara, Birrie and Narran rivers over the coming weeks.’

And a little further on in the article:

“... floodwater from west-flowing NSW rivers is still causing minor to moderate flowing along the Barwon River.”

Perhaps this was a clue to a puzzle of ‘bagara’ in the Minyung language, on the far north NSW coastal region, found in the following two examples:

[1] "bukkora goa" bagara-ga-wa = "’go past’" past  -go: Livingstone [:19:31.1] [Mnyg]

[2] "kunde bukkora" gandi bagara = "’over there.’" there xxx  : Livingstone [:26:8] [Mnyg]

There was also the further question as to the meaning in this language of ‘goa’ (gawa).

In the second example, ‘kunde’ probably did mean ‘there’, it having been spelt out in:

[3] "kundy" gandi = "it there; it. (n.)" there  : Livingstone [:7:36.1] [Mnyg]

Investigation of ‘bagara’ through searches conducted in the NORTH Bayala Database bayaladatabases.blogspot.com proceeded along the following lines:

BAGA

Could ‘baga’ mean ‘river’? Or some aspect of water?:

[4] " bokatoġ" baga-dang = "the surf of the sea; a wave" foam  : Tkld AWA Lex [:203:31] [Awa]

GAWA (’goa’)

[5] "goagwoin" gawagwan = "water" water  : G. Bass (Cowagary) [:111.5:29] [NrN]

[6] "Ko-guin" gugwin = "Water" water  : Tkld KRE c.1835 [:131:37.1] [Kre]

BAGA red herrings

[7] "bukka" baga = "anger; ferociousness" anger  : Tkld AWA Lex [:204:19] [Awa]

[8] "Buk´-a Buk-â" baga baga = "savage" anger  very: Enright GDG 1900 [:110:9] [Gdg]

[9] "bukka-kei" baga-ga-yi = "ferocious, savage" angry person/actor : Tkld AWA (Fraser) 1892 [:14:6.2] [Awa]

[10] "Bukker" baga = "knee" knee  : SofM 1898 05 21 [p.88: Brown] [:88.24:52] [Bpi]

[11] "Buk-â" baga = "the knee" knee  : Enright GDG 1900 [:109:11] [Gdg]

[12] "Bukkar" baga = "Knee" knee  : Tkld GDG Aust Voc  [:125.1:36] [Gdg?]

[Explanation of some of the source abbreviations for languages:

AWA (Awabakal); KRE (Karree, near the Hawkesbury R; GDG (Gadang, central coast); BPI (Biripi)]

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BUT, perhaps ‘knee’ might not be a red herring, if ‘bagara ga-wa‘  were a stream. It might be a STREAM (ga-wa?) with a knee-bend (bagara) in it.

Likewise, ‘baga-dang’ cited above might be a ‘knee-bend’ effect in the SEA: i.e. ‘a wave’.

And the ‘go past’ gloss in the first example [1] might be a reference to the water FLOWING past.

And in the second example [2], the gloss ‘over there’ might have reflected an informant’s pointing to the river ‘over there’ (this tenuous conjecture could apply to practically any unknown example).

The INLAND database

Although Minyung was a coastal language, the rivers ran inland, so it seemed appropriate to see what the INLAND database might suggest. Thus:

[13] "bogarru" bagaru = "Grass, collectively" grass  : Mathews WIRA 1904 [:300:85] [WIRA]

‘Grass’ is a possibility for ‘bagara’, given that there might have been grass near the river Bokhara.

The INLAND database suggested many other directions in which the trail might be pursued but nothing definitive. So at this point investigation into the meaning of the Bokhara River petered out.

THE OTHER RIVERS

But what about the Culgoa River? ‘Culgoa’ features the same ‘goa’ element found in the first example [1] given. Two main cataloguers of Australian placenames provide the following:

[14] "Culgoa" gulgawa = "Running through or returning" returning  : McCarthy [:10:2] [Kamilaroi]

[15] "Culgoa" gulgawa = "River running through" returning  : Tyrrell [:17:14] [Kamilaroi]

The second of these examples [15] specifically mentions a ‘river’. Could ‘Culgoa’ be a gul (or gal) river? The COASTAL database offered no clues, with nothing akin to ‘running through or returning’ for gul/gal. But the INLAND database—and these are inland rivers—offered a useful possibility:

[16] "kulli" gali = "Rain " rain  : Mathews KML/Dwl [:276.4:1] [Kamilaroi]

[17] "kolli" gali = "Water" water  : AL&T Greenway (Ridley) [KML] [:236:24] [Kamilaroi]

A further thought is that the suffix ‘-wa’ (forming part of ‘goa’ (ga-wa) suffix) often denotes MOVEMENT, as noted by Threlkeld:

[18] "wa" wa = "Actuality of motion, has changed place, moved, &c." move  : Tkld AWA Key 1850 [Key:28:13] [Awa]

So Culgoa (galgawa) might be about ‘water-moving’.

Finally, consider the other rivers mentioned: Birrie, Narran and Barwon.

Birrie. 

The Birrie River is in the Brewarrina local government area. And Brewarrina itself means ‘tree standing’:

[19] "burree" bari = "tree" tree  : AL&T Greenway (Ridley) [KML] [:239:13.1] [Kamilaroi]

[20] "boree" bari = "hard heavy timber tree" tree  hard: Mitchell, J.F.H 9CY reel 681 [:85:] [Wiradhuri]

[21] "Warranna" warana = "to stand" stand  : Günther WIRA (Fraser) [:105:8] [WIRA]

[22]  "warrana" warana = "Stand" stand  : Mathews NYMBA 1904 [:230.3:53] [NYMBA]

and this ‘tree’ meaning is confirmed by records for the spelling ‘biri’:

[23] "Birri" biri = "the box-tree" box  : Günther WIRA (Fraser) [:74:70] [WIRA]

[24] "birri" biri = "box (tree)" box  : KAOL Ridley [KML] [:23:10.2] [Kamilaroi]

There are often trees along river banks, so the recorded name might have arisen from an informant’s pointing to the riverside trees.

Narran

There are several possibilities for the ‘narran’ name. McCarthy gives:

[25] "Narran" naran = "Hungry place" hungry  : McCarthy [:14:51] [Ngwl / Wira]

Others meaning possibilities are:

[26] "nhurrin" narin = "Flank" flank  : Mathews KML/Dwl [:276.1:31] [Kamilaroi]

[27] "nhurran" naran = "Jew- lizard " lizard  jew: Mathews WIRA 1904 [:301:31] [WIRA]

[28] "[Narang, Narra]" narang = "slowly" slow  : SofM 1897 02 27 [HP WIRA] [:16.5:36.1] [WIRA]

[29] "ŋurruŋ" narang = "night" night  : KAOL Ridley [WIRA] [:126:4.2] [WIRA]

[30] "Nurroong" narung = "Dark" night  : SofM 1900 05 21 [Tibbetts] [:63:66] [WIRA]

Of these, ‘flank’ might refer to the ‘bank’ of the river; ‘lizard’, and ‘slow’ might be the same concept if the lizard were moving ‘slowly’; and ‘night’ and ‘dark’ are the same idea’, and such words can be used for ‘black’.

These examples confuse rather than clarify what the name of the Narran River might have meant in reality.

Barwon

An apparently convincing meaning for ‘Barwon’ is given by the following:

[31] "Barwon" bawan = "Barwon (river), great, wide, awful." big  : AL&T Greenway (Ridley) [KML] [:239:11] [KML]

As is often the case, further enquiry muddies the picture:

[32] "Báwan!" bawan = "no, no! by no means!" no  : Günther WIRA (Fraser) [:73:22] [WIRA]

which might have been said in light of the next entry:

[33] "Boin Boin" bawin bawin = "Mosquitoes" mosquito  : Tyrrell [:9:6] []

[34] "Ba-wen" bawin = "Wallaroo" wallaroo  : Mathews 8006/3/7/ - CRITERION [:28.1:18.1] [Wira-secret]

[35] "bouan" buwan = "Thigh" thigh  : Curr, E.M.: 3 [:381.1:10] [WIRA]

[36] "Báwán" bawan = "a white stone...." stone  white: Günther WIRA (Fraser) [:73:21] [WIRA]

Collectively, these leave the meaning of ‘Barwon’ in doubt.

And after all that, we are very little the wiser about what these several river names might have meant.

Jeremy Steele

Friday 31 December 2010

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