Battle of Honey Springs

The Southern Daly languages are a proposed family of two distantly related Australian aboriginal languages. They are:

Classification

Southern Daly is a distant and problematic relationship. Murrinh-Patha was once thought to be an isolate, due to lexical data: It has, at most, an 11-percent shared vocabulary with any other language against which it has been compared.[1] However, Murrinh-patha and Ngan’gityemerri correspond closely in their verbal inflections. Green (2003) makes a case that the formal correspondences in core morphological sequences of their finite verbs are too similar (in their complexities and their irregularities) to have come about through anything other than a shared genetic legacy from a common parent language.[2] Nonetheless, lexically they have almost nothing in common, other than cognates in their words for 'thou' (nhinhi and nyinyi) and 'this' (kanhi and kinyi),[3] and it is not clear what could explain this discrepancy.

Vocabulary

The following basic vocabulary items are from Tryon (1968).[4]

no. gloss Tyemeri Ngengomeri
1 head dæpe dæpe
2 hair wičæ wuǰa
3 eyes dæmoy damoy
4 nose dæši dæče
5 ear dæčære dæčære
6 tooth dædir dædir
7 tongue dæčæn ŋalŋijiak
8 shoulder tamæmbɛr dada
9 elbow mïnmïrpïr dličiwuwul
10 hand dæmæ dæmæ
11 breasts če čiye
12 back dædære dædære
13 belly dægæ damarde
14 navel dæčɛre dæčɛre
15 heart kækulkul kækulgul
16 urine waga waga
17 excrete ŋækïn nïkïnmœr
18 thigh dæbe dæbe
19 leg dagare dagare
20 knee dænïnǰe dærɛnǰe
21 foot dæᵽïr dæbir
22 skin agarᵽure agaraburo
23 fat aleye adæwe
24 blood ᵽæčæn pučæn
25 bone ame ame
26 man yæde mipuR
27 woman ᵽalme palme
28 father ŋača ŋača
29 mother kala ala
30 grandmother mæŋgæ mæŋgæ
31 policeman wamumur wamɔmɔ
32 spear yawul yawul
33 woomera yagama yagama
34 boomerang kuɲuŋuɲ kuɲuŋuɲ
35 nullanulla magulbe magulbɔ
36 hair-belt woyčær wuǰa
37 canoe yænïŋgïǰe kænægïǰe
38 axe bi bi
39 dilly bag waRgaRde waRguduʔ
40 fire yæŋge yæŋge
41 smoke tawan dawan
42 water kure kurɔ
43 cloud
44 rainbow aŋemuŋge aŋamuŋgi
45 barramundi ætælmær awalaŋir
46 sea kuruŋgur kuričæwæ
47 river diRpædær kuripædæR
48 stone ᵽæpe pæpe
49 ground ŋičir ŋičïr
50 track mumba mumba
51 dust baᵽun pabun
52 sun mire mïre
53 moon diwin diwiɳ
54 star ŋanimæ ŋanimær
55 night kulče nïmbe ŋaniŋeye
56 tomorrow ŋuɲananïŋge wadænige
57 today dæčaŋe čawɔrɔ
58 big kæRæ yɛrmïnbade
59 possum awuye awuye
60 dog wowo wowo
61 tail akïme dapuR
62 meat kagɔ kagɔ
63 snake æƀæŋgo abæŋgo
64 red kangaroo amače amače
65 porcupine aŋaneƀiɲe aŋaneƀiɲi
66 emu ŋuRp kɔmɔɛnǰil
67 crow awaŋge awak
68 goanna æmængïɲ mængiɲ
69 blue tongue lizard æƀære æbære
70 mosquito aƀuŋe aƀuŋe
71 sugar-bag pïŋgïlǰa puŋgudluʔ
72 camp dædæ dædær
73 black čipma čipma
74 white bwimaŋgare boymæm
75 red ᵽïlᵽïlŋïne pïlbïlŋïne
76 one wokumæ wuŋguwæ
77 two fagare wagare
78 when? æčæ æčæ
79 what? čagane čagane
80 who? kænæ kænæ
81 I ŋaie ŋaie
82 you ɲiɲi ɲiɲi
83 he næm næm
84 grass wurɔ wuR
85 vegetable food meye miye
86 tree yæwɛR yawuR
87 leaf merïŋge mirïŋge
88 pandanus yærïge yærge
89 ironwood mawuɲ mawuɲ
90 ripe mibin mibin
91 good yubɔ yubɔ
92 bad wulæk wulæk
93 blind palakɲim tarawɔrɔ
94 deaf ŋamama waŋamama
95 saliva čarawɔ čæræwul

See also

References

  1. ^ Reid, N.J. Ngan’gityemerri. Unpublished PhD thesis, Australian National University, Canberra, 1990.
  2. ^ Green, I. "The Genetic Status of Murrinh-patha" in Evans, N., ed. "The Non-Pama-Nyungan Languages of Northern Australia: comparative studies of the continent’s most linguistically complex region". Studies in Language Change, 552. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics, 2003.
  3. ^ Note that Ngan’gityemerri has no nh, and so one would expect it to have ny where its relatives have nh.
  4. ^ Tryon, Darrell T. "The Daly River Languages: A Survey". In Aguas, E.F. and Tryon, D. editors, Papers in Australian Linguistics No. 3. A-14:21-49. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1968. doi:10.15144/PL-A14.21
  • Tryon, D. T. (1968). "The Daly River languages: a survey". Papers in Australian Linguistics. 3: 21–36.
  • Tryon, D. T. (1974). Daly family languages, Australia. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.