Ngunnawal language

Ngunnawal
Onerwal
Spoken in	New South Wales & ACT, Australia
Ethnicity	Ngunnawal people
Native speakers	?  (date missing)
Language family	Pama–Nyungan Yuin–Kuric Yuin Ngarigo Ngunnawal
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Linguist List	08t

Ngunnawal or Ngunawal is an Australian Aboriginal language, the traditional language of the Ngunawal people.

Classification

Ngunawal is currently classified as a sub-tribe of the larger Ngarigu/Ngarigo dialect area that covers the limestone plains of Monaro/Maneroo in NSW to ACT across the Monaro tableland through to the Australian Alps of NSW/VIC Snowy Mountains. It falls within the Yuin–Kuric group of the Pama–Nyungan family.^[1]

Prominent place names

Some meanings for Ngunawal words:

• Kamberra - where the name Canberra may have come from, said to mean 'meeting place' for big Bogong moths
• Tuggeranong, a district of Canberra, comes from the Ngarigo/Ngarigu word
• Ginninderra - is also a Ngarigo
• Yeal-am-bid-gie is the name for the Molonglo River, recorded by C. THROSBY in 1820 [1]
• Murrumbidgee means "big river" (See Murrumbidgee River )

Other Ngarigo/Ngarigu words

• Mura Gadi means 'pathways for searching' [2]. Gadi by itself means 'searching for', [3] the Gadi Research Centre at the University of Canberra with this name.

• Bimbi - Bird
• Nengi Bamir - See far (View)
• Dulwa - Casuarina trees
• Bargang - Melliodora trees
• Yerra - swim
• Gummiuk - bulrushes
• Ngadyung - water
• Nguru - camp
• Mundang - canoe [4] [5] (pdf format)

• Weereewa - Lake George [6]

• Several Ngunawal sub-tribe words of Ngarigo/Ngarigu were used as street names in the suburb of Ngunnawal area [7] such as:
  • Gadali - to hunt
  • Guginya - kookaburra
  • Gula - koala
  • Mura - pathway (Also used here [8])
  • Burin - stringybark [9]

• Other explanations for street names in Ngunawal sub-tribe Ngarigo language listed by the ACT planning and land authority [10]:
  • Bargang - yellow box
  • Bimbiang - shield
  • Birrigai - to laugh
  • Budyan - birds
  • Bunburung - small lizard
  • Burin - stringy bark
  • Burrai - quick
  • Bunduluk - rosella
  • Berra - boomerang
  • Bamir - long
  • Balbo - kangaroo rat
  • Bural - day
  • Gamburra - flowers
  • Giliruk - pee wee
  • Gunyan - slow
  • Gurubun - koala
  • Karrugang - magpie
  • Kudyera - fighting club
  • Mirrabei - the name for tribal elder Matilda Sissy Williams (died 1973)
  • Mulleun - eagle
  • Murrung - lizard
  • Mundawari - bandicoot
  • Nangi - see or look
  • Walga - hawk
  • Warabin - curlew
  • Warrumbul - youth
  • Wirria - tree goanna
  • Yerra - to fly like a bird
  • Yerrabi - to walk
  • Yumba - eel

• Narragunnawali - means 'alive/well-being/ coming together' as used in the Peace Park near the National Library. [11]

• winyu - sun [12]

• umbagong - axe [13] Umbagong district park in Belconnen was named after this.

Possible Ngunawal words

The Gang-gang Cockatoo is possibly named after a Ngunawal word

• gang-gang - name for a 'small black cockatoo' (possibly the only non-locality Ngunawal word in current use - for the Gang-gang Cockatoo, although the word is claimed as being of Wiradhuri origin by another source.) [14]

• Gungahlin - name for a district in Canberra, which gets its name from the homestead built in 1862 by Edward Crace called 'Goongarline' , which is said to be an aboriginal word for 'white man's house', or mean 'wonderful' or 'beautiful'. [15]

• Yhar - running water (town of Yass named after this, where many Ngunawal people had camped.) [16]

References

1. ^ AIATSIS Language and Peoples Thesaurus, accessed 23 Jan 2010.

• Mathews, R. H. (Jul.–Dec. 1904). "The Wiradyuri and other languages of New South Wales". The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland (Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland) 34: 284–305. doi:10.2307/2843103. JSTOR 2843103.