This week I got rather excited upon hearing that the ABC is trialling an Indigenous language news service in two NT languages: Warlpiri and Yolngu Matha. It’s such a great initiative and got a bit of attention when it started, which made me think that it’d be nice to offer a beginner’s guide to the languages and a closer look at what reports in the languages actually look like, as I guess most people who heard about the service know little about the languages involved. It’s also slightly unfortunate that despite the launch of the Indigenous language news service getting some great attention some of the communications failed to make a distinction between separate Indigenous languages.
This is a minor problem in that it may perpetuate common misconceptions that Indigenous languages are just closely related dialects. Some people still think there’s only one Indigenous language. So I thought I’d start off this guide with a closer look at the actual news reports, to give a sense of how distinct the two languages are.
If you listen to the reports below and jump to 2:19 on each of them, you’ll hear a tennis update from when young Aussie Nick Kyrgios unexpectedly defeated world #1 Rafael Nadal at this year’s Wimbledon. Those of you who know me know that I’m tennis mad and that I get just as passionate about tennis as I do about Aboriginal languages. Yet they are two worlds that very rarely collide… until last week, that is. I nearly fell off my chair, grinning ear-to-ear, when I heard tennis news reported in Warlpiri and Yol?u Matha. It was like a dream come true! Here are the recordings and below is a transcript of the tennis reports. See if you can follow them – the sprinkling of familiar words should help.
[02:19] Nyampu jaru, jintakari yikarnanyarra yimi-ngarrirni, 19-year-old wati, Australia-wardingki, yirdiji Nick Kyrgios Wimbledon-rla kuja beat-i-manu Rafael Nadal, Wimbledon tennis championship-rla. Nyampu, Rafael Nadal, number one, World number one, kujaka nyina, nyampuku tennis player, world- world-rla wirijarlurla. Kuja play-jarrija, mungangka kutukari, mungangka kuja – manyu-karrija Nick Kyrgios, fourth round-rla, Nick Kyrgios beat-i-manu, Rafael Nadal 7-6 5-7 7-6 6-3. Nick Kyrgios ngulaju ka(rla) manyu-karri jintakarikilki, quarter-final-rlalku. Nyampuju ABC News, Warlpirirli ABC News and Aboriginal Interpreter Service kujalu jinta-jarrija, jintaku ngurrjumaninjaku.
Wednesday 02 July 2014 Yolgnu Matha
[02:19] Dhuwanydja dhäwu’, nineteenmirr dhungarramirr dirramu dhipungur Australianur, yäku Nick Kyrgiosn nunhal Wimbledonlil nayi djulkmaram Rafael Nadalnha, nunhal Wimbledon tennis championshin?ur. Rafael Nadaldja dhuwal world number one. Dayi murrninydja mirithirr tennis player dhiyal worldngur, yurru barpuruny nayi bul’yun Nick Kyrgiosnha, fourth round matchngur. Nick Kyrgiosdhu djulkmaram Rafael Nadalnha, 7-6 5-7 7-6 6-3, ga Nick Kyrgiosdhu ngunhalyun(??) bul’yun, quarter finalsthun. Dhuwanydja ABC News, Yolngu Mathakurr
Big thanks to David Nash and Bree Blakeman for providing the transcripts and also to Claire Bowern for further help with the Yolgnu Matha. Good stuff hey? And also great work by the interpreters and news readers too!
Now that you’ve heard some of the two languages and seen it transcribed, what follows is some basic information about the two languages. Now, I’m not an expert on these languages but I’ve had the pleasure of knowing and working with people who speak them as a first language and with linguists who’ve studied these languages. The info below gives some basic details on the languages and plenty of links for you to learn more.
Warlpiri
How many speakers? According to the last census 2,553 people spoke Warlpiri at home. But the actual figure would be higher – say 3,000-5,000 – if you include those who speak it as a 2nd or 3rd language.
Where is it spoken? Central Australia. Traditionally across a large area north-west of Alice Springs and in the Tanami Desert. Now, it’s the primary language of four remote communities: Yuendumu (or more accurately: Yurntumu), Nyirrpi, Willowra (aka Wirliyajarrayi) and Lajamanu. You’ll also hear it around Alice Springs, Tennant Creek, Katherine and several other places.
Is it a written language? Yes. Although Indigenous languages like Warlpiri weren’t written before Europeans came along, big languages like Warlpiri now have a literacy tradition spanning decades. Check out some of the books they used in schools when Warlpiri communities had bilingual programs and kids were taught to read and write in Warlpiri: http://laal.cdu.edu.au/browse/language/450808/
What alphabet is used for Warlpiri? It uses the Roman alphabet but uses it more cleverly than English does. Each unique sound in Warlpiri has a one-to-one correspondence with a letter or digraph (two-letter combination). The Warlpiri alphabet, and hence all the unique sounds in Warlpiri, is: a i j k l ly m n ng ny p r rd rl rr rt u w y
Handy words and phrases? yapa (YAH-pah) means Warlpiri person or Aboriginal person. Non-Indigenous people are called kardiya (GAR-dee-yah). ‘See you later’ is ngakarnangku nyanyi. Junga (TJOONG-ah) means ‘really?’ or ‘true’. And you can find a bunch more helpful words and phrases here.
What are some interesting things about the language itself?
- All Warlpiri words start with a consonant and end in a vowel.
- Some Warlpiri words undergo a process called vowel harmony where the letter u sometimes changes to i to match other i-s in the word. For example: kurdu means child and when you add -ku and say kurdu-ku it means ‘for the child’. But to say ‘for the man’, you say wati-ki. Notice that the -ku changes to -ki because of the i in wati.
- Other suffixes change depending on how many syllables are in the word it attaches to. There are two suffixes that mean the same thing: ‘at’ or ‘on’. If the main word has two syllables, you use the suffix -ngka, as in pirli-ngka ‘on the rock’. If the main word has three or more syllables, then you use a different suffix -rla, as in Wimbledon-rla heard above, meaning ‘at Wimbledon’
Who are some well-known Warlpiri speakers? A couple of ex-AFL players speak Warlpiri – Liam Jurrah and Liam Patrick. Bess Price is a member of the NT Parliament and her first language is Warlpiri. And then there’s the Bush Mechanics!
Where can I learn more? Nothing beats finding out more about Warlpiri language, people and culture from Warlpiri people themselves, but these resources are very useful too:
- Online Warlpiri Dictionary: http://ausil.org/Dictionary/Warlpiri/index.htm
- This neat little set of resources: http://brdu.weebly.com/
- Warlpiri Learner’s Guide book and tape set is great but hard to find
- Warlpiri Picture Dictionary (2012) is great and available from IAD Press
- It’s worth hunting around the PAW media site for great stuff like video, audio and animation.
- And for a complete bibiliography of everything Warlpiri, David Nash does an awesome job at maintaining a thorough list of resources: http://www.anu.edu.au/linguistics/nash/aust/wlp/
Yolngu Matha
What’s that funny looking n? I like to call it ‘n-with-a-tail’. It stands for the sound ‘ng’, like the ‘ng’ in ‘ringing‘. If the word ‘ringing’ was written in Yolngu Matha, it’d look like this: ri?i?. Conversely, when the word Yol?u is written in English, it’s written with the ‘ng’: Yolngu.
But what’s the point of ng? Firstly, it makes the written version of the language stand out a bit more which helps with strengthening identity through language. The other reason is a practical one: it helps you read the language better. So a word like wä?a (home) you know sounds something like ‘WAAHNG-ah’ but the word gunga (pandanus) doesn’t use that letter, so you know it should sound like ‘GOON-gah’
How many people speak Yolgnu Matha? The short answer is several thousand. The long answer is that Yolgnu Matha is actually a cover-term for a whole bunch of different languages spoken by people who all call themselves Yolgnu. So we should really be considering each language individually. At the last census 2,971 people said they spoke Djambarrpuyngu at home. Another 2,447 said they spoke Yolngu Matha. Other Yol?u languages mentioned include Gumatj (183), Gupapuyngu (158) and Gälpu (146) but this is where the Census starts to become unreliable because it struggles to capture the complexity of the language situation in Arnhem Land. I’ve heard others mention that the ABC reports are in Djambarrpuyngu, but I don’t know enough about the subtle differences to be able to tell myself.
Where is it spoken? Arnhem Land. In particular, the communities of Yirrkala, Galiwin’ku, Gapuwiyak, Ramingining and Milingimbi plus lots of other outstations and other communities in the area, plus you’ll find plenty of Yolngu Matha speakers in Darwin, Nhulunbuy and elsewhere (including Katherine and Ngukurr).
It’s a written language too then I guess… Of course! The spelling system was refined over 50 years ago most notably by the missionary Beulah Lowe who did great things for language development while at Milingimbi. It’s since been used to write bible chapters, deliver bilingual education and in the liner notes of Gurrumul’s CDs, among other places.
What alphabet is used for Yolngu Matha? Like Warlpiri, it uses the Roman alphabet but it uses different letters because the language has different sounds to Warlpiri. I’ve already mentioned the most distinctive letter: ng. The full alphabet is: a ä b d d dh dj e g i k l l m n n nh ny ng o p r rr t t th tj u w y where each letter or letter-combination represents a unique sound occuring in the language.
Handy words and phrases? Nhämirri nhe (NAAH-midi nee) means ‘how are you?’ to which the usual answer is manymak (MUNN-muck). Yolgnu don’t call white people ‘kardiya’ like Warlpiri people do, but rather balanda (BAHL-ahn-dah) or ngäpaki (NGAAH-pah-ghee). I already mentioned the word wänga (WAAHNG-ah) which means home, camp, place, homeland etc. but don’t confuse it with wanga (WAHNG-ah) which means talk.
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| Murr?iny (shovel spear) |
What are some interesting things about the language itself?
- Yolngu languages are actually more closely related to Warlpiri than to the other languages spoken around it in Arnhem Land. It’s just one of those things I suppose, like how Hungarian is related to Finnish but not any languages neighbouring Hungary.
- Like any language, Yolngu Matha has lots of great idioms and metaphors and there’s one in the tennis report given above. They used the term murr?inydja mirithirr tennis player dhiyal world?ur to describe Rafael Nadal. Murrnginy is literally a shovel spear, or more specifically, the blade of the rather dangerous shovel spear (see pic). I was told that murrnginy also means sharp as in deadly, awesome and also has an element of danger. So the phrase murrnginydja mirithirr tennis player dhiyal worldngur isn’t about a spear, but rather means ‘one of the world’s most dangerous/awesome tennis players’.
Who are some well-known Yolngu Matha speakers? That list could go on quite a while, starting with two former Australians of the Year, Galarrwuy Yunupingu (1978) and Dr. M Yunupingu (1992). Fellow educator Dr R. Marika. Actors like David Gulipilil. Musicians like Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu and the band Yothu Yindi. AFL player Nathan Djerrkura. Even a non-Indigenous Yolngu Matha speaker, Michael Christie, was named NT’s Australian of the Year a few years back.
Where can I learn more? There aren’t many formal Indigenous language courses available but for Yolngu Matha students, you’ve got it good. You can enrol in tertiary courses to study Yolngu Language and Culture through Charles Darwin University or Open Universities Australia. Other places to learn and listen more:
- ARDS has fantastic resources for sale plus you can access the Gupapuyngu dictionary online
- They also run Yolngu Radio which you can stream live from anywhere!
- Get a hold of the feature film Ten Canoes. It’s all in Yolngu Matha. Or the great Twelve Canoes website that accompanies the film.
So that’s my little beginner’s guide to the ABCs new Indigenous language news service. Hopefully you found some of this interesting and useful. Please support the news service too. It’s only a 12-month trial but the significance of it shouldn’t be underestimated in terms of ensuring the long-term health of the few viable Indigenous languages we have left. As I wrote in my last blogpost:
For a language to have a good chance of survival, more needs to happen than just having it spoken at home and learned by kids as a mother tongue. Healthy languages are found in many more domains than that. They’re used in the marketplace and in commerce. They’re used in artistic expression. They’re used in schools as a tool of education. … Another crucial domain is media.
- This article originally appears at:
- http://munanga.blogspot.com.au/2014/07/a-closer-look-at-abcs-indigenous.html?showComment=1404696519253
- Article taken from the following publication:
- That Munanga Linguist
- Article submitted by:
- Author:
- nginarra
