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Information about Gamilaraay Language

Gamilaraay ()
Spoken in:
Region:Central northern New South Wales
Total speakers:3 (1997)
Ranking:
Genetic classification:
Official status
Official language of:
Regulated by:
Language codes
ISO 639-1
ISO 639-2aus
SIL
See also: Language – List of languages


The Gamilaraay or Kamilaroi (see below for other spellings) language is a Pama-Nyungan language of the Wiradhuric subgroup found mostly in South East Australia. It was the traditional language of the Kamilaroi people, but is now moribund—according to Ethnologue, there were only 3 speakers left in 1997. However, there are thousands of people of mixed descent both within the native populations as well as immigrant populations, who identify themselves as Kamilaroi. Kamilaroi is also taught in some Australian schools.

Classification

Name

The name Gamilaraay means gamil-having, gamil being the word for "no". Other dialects and languages are similarly named after their respective words for "no". (Compare the division between Langues d'oïl and Langue d'oc in France, distinguished by their respective words for "yes".)

Spellings of the name, pronounced [ɡ̊aˌmilaˈɻaːj] (listen) in the language itself , include:
  • Camilaroi
  • Kamalarai
  • Kamilaroi
  • Gamilaraay
  • Gamilaroi

Geographic distribution

Enlarge picture
A map of the tribes of New South Wales, published in 1892. Gamilaraay is marked I.

Dialects

  • Yuwaalaraay
  • Yuwaaliyaay (Euahlayi)
  • Gunjbaraay
  • Gawambaraay
  • Wirayaraay (Wiriwiri)
  • Walaraay

History

Southern Aboriginal guides led the surveyor John Howe to the upper Hunter River above present-day Singleton in 1819. They told him that the country there was "Coomery Roy [=Gamilaraay] and more further a great way", meaning to the north-west, over the Liverpool Range (see O'Rourke 1997: 29). This is probably the first record of the name.

A basic wordlist collected by Major Thomas Mitchell in February, 1832 is the earliest written record of Gamilaraay.

The Presbyterian missionary William Ridley studied the language from 1852 to 1856.

Phonology

Vowel

Front Back
High i, iːu, uː
Low a, aː
/wa/ is realized as [wo].

Consonants

Peripheral Laminal Apical
Bilabial Velar Palatal Dental Alveolar Post-
alveolar
Stop bɡɟd̪d
Nasal mŋɲn̪n
Laterall
Rhoticrɻ
Semivowel wj
Initially, /wu/ and /ji/ may be simplified to [u] and [i].

Stress

All long vowels in a word get equal stress. If there are no long vowels, stress falls on the first syllable.

Secondary stress falls on short vowels which are two syllables to the right or to the left of a stressed syllable.

Grammar

Gamilaraay words in English

Several loanwords have entered Australian English from Gamilaraay, including:
Common nouns
Anglicised formGamilaraayMeaning
bindi-eye, bindii, bindiesbindayaaThe burrs of several plant species that stick in one's feet.
brolgaburralgaA bird species, Grus rubicunda.
possibly budgerigargidjirrigaaA bird species, Melopsittacus undulatus.
Proper nouns
Anglicised formGamilaraayMeaning
KamilaroigamilaraayThe Gamilaraay people or language.
Placenames
Anglicised formGamilaraayMeaning
Boggabribagaaybaraayhaving creeks
Boggabillabagaaybilafull of creeks
Collarenebrigalariinbaraayhaving acacia blossoms

References

External links

New South Wales

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The Pama-Nyungan languages are the most widespread family of Australian languages.

The Pama-Nyungan family was identified and named by Kenneth Hale, in his work on the classification of Native Australian languages.
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Wiradhuric languages or Central inland New South Wales subgroup form one of the subgroups of the Pama-Nyungan family of Australian Aboriginal languages. They consist of three languages:
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General

The Kamilaroi or Gamilaraay are an Indigenous Australian people who are from the area between Tamworth and Goondiwindi, and west to Narrabri, Walgett and Lightning Ridge, in northern New South Wales.
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A language is usually considered moribund (literally, 'dying') when it is no longer the language of the community, and is no longer learned by children, so that without massive intervention it will likely become extinct when the last of its current speakers die.
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Ethnologue: Languages of the World is a web and print publication of SIL International (formerly known as the Summer Institute of Linguistics), a Christian linguistic service organization which studies lesser-known languages primarily to provide the speakers with Bibles in
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Year 1997 (MCMXCVII
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The Pama-Nyungan languages are the most widespread family of Australian languages.

The Pama-Nyungan family was identified and named by Kenneth Hale, in his work on the classification of Native Australian languages.
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The Central New South Wales languages form a subgroup of Australian Aboriginal languages within the Pama-Nyungan family.
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Wiradhuric languages or Central inland New South Wales subgroup form one of the subgroups of the Pama-Nyungan family of Australian Aboriginal languages. They consist of three languages:
  • Wiradhuri, after which the family is named,
  • Ngiyambaa,

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Wiradjuri (many other spellings; see Wiradjuri) is a Pama-Nyungan language of the Wiradhuric subgroup. It was the traditional language of the Wiradhuri people of Australia, but is no longer in general use.
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The Ngiyambaa language is a Pama-Nyungan language of the Wiradhuric subgroup. It was the traditional language of the Wangaaybuwan and Wayilwan peoples of New South Wales, Australia, but is now moribund; according to Donaldson by the 1970's there were only about ten people
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Thomas Livingston Mitchell (June 16, 1792-1855), surveyor and explorer of south-eastern Australia, was born at Grangemouth in Stirlingshire, Scotland. He was educated at the University of Edinburgh, but the poverty of his family following his father's death led him to join the Army
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William Ridley (14 September 1819 – 26 September 1878[1]) was an English Presbyterian missionary who studied Australian Aboriginal languages, particularly Gamilaraay.

Ridley was born in Hartford End, Essex, England.
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