A Dictionary of Malakmalak

A Dictionary of MalakMalak Biddy Yungguny Lindsay, Rita Pirak, Francis Mijat and Dorothea Ho↵mann October 17, 2017 Thanks to the ladies of Woolianna. i Acknowledgments This work would not have been possible without the patience and determination of my language consultants for MalakMalak and Matngele who so generously shared their knowledge with me: Biddy Yungguny Lindsay, Frances Mijat, Rita Pirak, the late Kitty Waliwarra, Rita McGregor, Rosie Mary Magdalene Kabat, the late Barbara Tenblin, Michael Kunbuk, Don White, and the late Edward Andrews. I would also like to thank Rob Lindsey and the late Joye Maddison for supporting my work with the MalakMalak people in every respect. This work was financially supported by the Franklin Research Grant from the American Philosophical Society (2012); the Endangered Languages Documentation Programme (ELDP) under Grant Number IPF0189 (2012-2014); and the National Science Foundation and National Endowment of the Humanities: Documentation of Endangered Languages under Grant number BCS 1360800 (2014-2017). Finally, I would like to thank the Brisbane Family at the Daly River Barra Resort on Woolianna Road for being a family away from home for me during my field trips, supporting and helping me in countless ways, and for always bringing a smile to my face. THANK YOU! ii Notes on Orthography and Pronunciation This orthography was developed using existing spelling conventions from other Daly Languages as guide- lines. It di↵ers from the conventions used in (Birk, 1976) for ease of writing purposes. e Like the e in English lend or the ie in English friend nen ‘thing, person’, ede ‘I go’ a/aa Like the u in pun, or sometimes a bit longer like the au in laugh and naman ‘say/do’, kaa then spelled as aa. NEVER like the a in ham. ‘come’ au Like the ow in English owl (very rare) aul ‘dreaming’ i/ii Like the i in English bit, or sometimes a bit longer like the ea in bean algitjbi ‘child’, or the ee in been and then spelled as ii. NEVER like the i in bite. pii ‘move’ ai Like the y in English type,theie in lie or the i in bite baiga ‘come out’ u/uu Like the u in English put. It is often used interchangeably with ue.It tjung ‘tree’, can sometimes sound like the oo in moon, then spelled as uu. wuu ‘barramundi’ ue There is no equivalent in English for this sound often used interchange- nuendueny ‘she’ ably with u. It occurs in German words such as über ‘over/above’ or füttern ‘feed’ ui Like the oui in St. Louis. NEVER like ui in fruit duidui ‘nod’ b/p Similar to p or b in English buy or pie; p. pak ‘sit’, balbal ‘fly’ d/t Similar to d or t in English dot. dat ‘see’, tap ‘touch’ rd Similar to t or d but with the tip of the tongue turned back tardil ‘blunt piercing’ tj Similar to ch in English chuck or dg in fudge. tjalk ‘fall’, tatj ‘hit k/g Similar to k and ck in English kick, or g in giggle; k and g kubuk ‘swim’, aag ‘adam’s apple’ l Similar to the English l in long langgalangga ‘butterfly’ rl Similar to l but with the tip of the tongue turned back. mundurl ‘shoulder ly Similar to the lli of million, even at the end of a word. NEVER as the nilynily ‘skin’ ly in billy) iii m Same as m in English moon mawuny ‘clothes’ ng Similar to ng in English sing or ringer (not like the ng of finger). nga ‘I, me’, angundu ‘behind’ ngg This letter combination is used to indicate that the sound written as ng kinangga ‘on this side’ and the one written as g directly follow each other like the ng of finger ngk This letter combination is used to indicate that the sound written as ng pungkul ‘knee’ and and the one written as k directly follow each other. kangki ‘come here’ n Similar to n in English noon niyeriny ‘fruit bat’ ny Similar to ni in English onion, even at the end of a word. NEVER like mariny ‘story, mes- the ny in bunny. sage’ rr Similar to the r in English run or the rr in English barrel. Never occurs darrdarr ‘be on one at the beginning of a word or syllable. leg’ r Produced by rolling the tip of the tongue, sounds like the rolled r of numuru ‘eye’ Scottish English or Spanish; never at the beginning or end of a word or syllable w Usually pronounced as the w of water or Darwin. May also be pro- walk ‘stone, money’ nounced as a glottal stop similar to the British pronunciation of k in and yawug ‘other’ kettle y Usually pronounced as the y of yes yii ‘leave’ iv Abbreviations Example adj Adjective yintjerik ‘short (of male)’ adv Adverb numbang ‘maybe’ ben Benefactive Enclitic ‘for’ =nue bprn Bound Pronoun a- ‘1sg-’ bprn-iv Bound Pronoun and Inflecting Verb ede ‘I go, I am’ card.num Cardinal Numeral werena ‘two’ case Case Marker -many ‘abl comp. Compound contr. Contraction coord.con Coordinating Connective aniny ‘then cov Coverb kaa ‘come’ cov-iv CoverbandInflectingVerb penungga ‘I will go towards there ’ dem Demonstrative nguny ‘there’ distr.num Distributive Numeral mutjurr ‘many’ fr. var. Free Variant infl. Inflection interj Interjection akana no! inter.prn Interrogative Pronoun/Question Words agun ‘where’ iv Inflecting Verb -ya ‘-do.punct like Resemblance Marker -many loc Locative Case ‘at, on, in’ -yinnga multip.num Multiplicative Numeral wuruyanak ‘once’ nom.prt Nominal Particle =nue ‘because of’ n Noun wak ‘water’ n.clf Nominal Classifier de- ‘animal/meat’ n.prop Proper Noun WaliWali ‘Daly River’ ord.num Ordinal Numeral elimirimany ‘first’ prn Free Pronoun yuendueny ‘he’ prt Particle awat ‘do not’ sem.m Semantic Marker ngatj ‘emphatic marker’ sem. var of Semantic Variant of verb.prt Verbal Particle endi= ‘reciprocal proclitic’ var. variant Introduction 0.1 Data Sources, Fieldwork and Consultants The data assembled in this grammar comes from a variety of sources. The majority was collected by the author during over 15 months of fieldwork in the Daly River area of Northern Australia between 2012 and 2017. The Franklin Research Grant of the American Philosophical Society provided the means for a six-week pilot study field trip in 2012. A postdoctoral fellowship by the Endangered Languages Documentation Programme (IPF 0189) between 2012 and 2014 and the Documenting Endangered Lan- guages Program of the National Science Foundation and the National Endowment of the Humanities (BCS 1360800) between 2014 and 2018 allowed for intensive long-term fieldwork and research based at the University of Chicago and the University of Queensland in Brisbane. The data is currently archived as 164 bundles with ELAR (The Endangered Languages Archive at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, UK) (Ho↵mann, 2016). Additional sources are audio data generously made available for this project by David Birk and Mark Crocombe and transcribed by the author (Birk, 1974) (Crocombe, 2010). Other published MalakMalak material include (Birk, 1976, 1975), (Tryon, 1974) (Cahir, 2006), (Stanner, 1933b,a), (Lindsay et al., 2001). Fieldwork was carried out mainly in Woolianna, a small settlement near Nauiyu by the Daly River with a group of three sisters, Biddy Yungguny Lindsay, Rita Pirak and Francis Miljat. Additional input and information came from Albert Mayang and the late Kitty Waliwarra. Other consultants live in Belyuen (Michael Kunbuk), Bagot (Don White), and Five-Mile (Rita McGregor and the late Barbara Tenblin) near Darwin as well as Peppimenarti (Rosie Mary-Magdalene Kabat). 0.2 Location and Contact History MalakMalak is traditionally spoken in the Daly River region of northern Australia. Other known names and spelling variations include Djiramo, Nguluk Wanggar, Valli-valli (the MalakMalak name for the Daly v vi River), and Mulluk-Mulluk. It is a highly endangered language with only eight identified remaining speakers. Five live today around Woolianna, and one in Belyuen, Peppimenarti and Five-Mile near Darwin respectively. The earliest outside influence of the MalakMalak territory is documented as circumstantial evidence for Maccassan trade at the Daly River mouth (Stanley, 1985). Even though there has been European contact since the 17th century, no permanent white farming settlement was established until the 1860s. In 1884, four white miners were killed by Aboriginals at the local copper mine and retribution massacres wiped out nearly all members of the local Woolwonga tribe thought responsible in addition to members of the MalakMalak and other tribes (Toohey, 1982). Map 1: MalakMalak, Matngele and Kamu Missionary e↵orts began in 1887 with Jesuits establishing three, ultimately unsuccessful, missions. They were abandoned in 1899. In 1955, the Mission of the Sacred Heart at the Daly River Community, called Nauiyu since 1975, was founded. In addition to white farming settlers and the missionaries, many Abo- riginals of neighbouring tribes started settling the area majorly disrupting traditional lifestyle of the MalakMalak. Children started to be educated in boarding schools of the mission, where ‘good’ Aborigi- nal customs, such as marriage, dancing and art, were encouraged, and ‘bad’ ones, such as polygamy and punishment practices discouraged Toohey (1982); Stanley (1985).The Daly River/Port Keats Aboriginal Land Trust was established in 1999 based on a Native Title Claim detailed in a number of reports giving accounts on traditional ownership and land use (Toohey, 1982; Sutton and Palmer, 1980). Throughout these historical developments, the MalakMalak retained close cultural and linguistic connec- tions to the neighbouring tribes Matngele and Kamu Toohey (1982); Stanner (1933b,a); Harvey (1989) with which they share dreaming stories and places of significance.

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