PACIFIC LINGUISTICS Series C - No.108 THE MURUW ARI LANGUAGE Lynette F. Oates Department of Linguistics Research School of Pacific Studies THE AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY Oates, L.F. The Muruwari Language. C-108, xxiv + 439 pages. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1988. DOI:10.15144/PL-C108.cover ©1988 Pacific Linguistics and/or the author(s). Online edition licensed 2015 CC BY-SA 4.0, with permission of PL. A sealang.net/CRCL initiative. PACIFIC LINGUISTICS is issued through the Linguistic Circle of Canberra and consists of four series: SERIES A: Occasional Papers SERIES C: Books SERIES B: Monographs SERIES D: Special Publications FOUNDING EDITOR: S.A. Wurm EDITORIAL BOARD: T.E. Dutton, D.C. Laycock, M.D. Ross, D.T. Tryon EDITORIAL ADVISERS: B.W.Bender H.P. McKaughan University of Hawaii University of Hawaii David Bradley P. Miihlhausler LaTrobe University Bond University Michael G. Clyne G.N. O'Grady Monash University University of Victoria, B.C. S.H. Elbert A.K. Pawley University of Hawaii University of Auckland KJ. Franklin K.L. Pike Summer Institute of Linguistics Summer Institute of Linguistics W.W. Glover E.C. Polome Summer Institute of Linguistics University of Texas G.W.Grace Gillian Sankoff University of Hawaii University of Pennsylvania M.A.K. Halliday W.A.L. Stokhof University of Sydney University of Leiden E. Haugen B.K. T'sou HarvardUniversity City Polytechnic of Hong Kong A. Healey E.M. Uhlenbeck Summer Institute of Linguistics University of Leiden L.A. Hercus J.W.M. Verhaar Australian National University Divine Word Institute, Madang John Lynch C.L. Voorhoeve University of Papua New Guinea University of Leiden K.A. McElhanon Summer Institute of Linguistics All correspondence concerning PACIFIC LINGUISTICS, including orders and subscriptions, should be addressed to: PACIFIC LINGUISTICS Department of Linguistics Research School of Pacific Studies The Australian National University Canberra, A.C.T. 2601 Australia Copyright © The Author First Published 1988 Typeset by Anne Rees Printed by A.N.U. Printing Service Bound by Adriatic Bookbinders Pty Ltd The editors are indebted to the Australian National University for assistance in the production of this series This pUblication was made possible by an initial grant from the Hunter Douglas Fund ISSN 0078-7558 ISBN 0 85883 384 0 Dedicated to the Muruwari people of north-western New South Wales and southern Queensland, past and present, and to my children: Howard, Marcus, Elizabeth and especially Andrew, and their families. Without their help and enthusiastic support I could not have completed this project. TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Vl1 PREFACE viii ABBREVIAnONS xi PHOTOGRAPHS xv-xxiii MAP OF MURUWARI TERRITORY xxiv CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 Scope of this study 1 1.2 Muruwari territory and its neighbours 1 1.3 Sociolinguistic infonnation 3 1.4 Previous publications on Muruwari 4 1.5 Language name 5 1.6 Linguistic features 6 1.7 Field techniques 7 CHAPTER 2: PHONOLOGY 9 2.1 Segmental phonemes 9 2.2 Consonants 10 2.3 Phonetic variationsof consonant phonemes 24 2.4 Vowels 30 2.5 Syllabic structure 37 2.6 Stress and intonation 39 2.7 Morphophonemic changes 44 CHAPTER 3: MORPHOLOGY: NOMINALS 48 3.1 Nouns 49 3.2 Case system: nuclear cases 53 3.3 Case system: peripheral cases 69 3.4 Stem-fonning suffIxes 72 3.5 Other nominal suffIxes 80 3.6 Adjectives 82 3.7 Demonstratives 84 3.8 Types of noun phrases 86 v vi CHAPTER 4: MORPHOLOOY: PRONOUNS 89 4. 1 Regular free pronouns 89 4.2 Irregularfree pronouns 100 4.3 Regular bound pronouns 106 4.4 Irregular bound pronouns 113 4.5 Concord in pronouns 115 4.6 Person and number 118 4.7 Interrogative pronouns 120 CHAPTERS: MORPHOLOOY: VERBS 126 5.1 Overview 126 5.2 Structure of verb stems 127 5.3 Realis 138 5.4 Voice 146 5.5 Tense/aspect 153 5.6 Pronoun suffixes 174 5.7 Other aspects 174 5.8 Imperative mood 182 5.9 Clause-marking suffIxes 187 5.10 Affix transference 190 5.11 The verb phrase 192 CHAPTER 6: ADVERBS, PARTICLES AND CLIDCS 195 6. 1 Adverbs 195 6.2 Particles 204 6.3 Clitics 209 CHAPTER 7: SYNTAX 217 7. 1 Verbless sentences 217 7.2 Simple sentences 218 7.3 Sentences containing subordinate clauses 222 CHAPTER 8: TEXT MATERIAL: SONGS AND LEGENDS 227 8.1 Songs 227 8.2 Legends 233 CHAPTER 9: DICTIONARY 285 9. 1 Introduction 285 9.2 Muruwari-English dictionary - nouns in domains 286 9.3 Muruwari-English dictionary - other grammatical classes 334 9.4 English-Muruwari vocabulary 368 APPENDIX A: Comparative word list 400 APPENDIX B: Voice quality 409 BIBLIOGRAPHY 411 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Besides the major contribution made by speakers of Muruwari detailed in the preface, I wish to acknowledge the work of Judy Trefry in transcribing Jimmie Barker's tapes, and her own material collected from Bill Campbell in the Lidcombe Hospital. I also acknowledge access to Ian Sim's hand-written comparative word lists ofYuwaliyay, Guwamu and Muruwari, collected at Goodooga in 1955. I have included any of Sim's material that complements mine. I have transcribed and used Janet Mathews' field tapes of Ruby Shillingsworth at Weilmoringle, and Mrs Horneville (Ornable) at Goodooga, as well as all the Barker linguistic tapes. I am also indebted to Janet Mathews for general information relating to the R.H. Mathews' material and the Muruwari area in general, and for some photographs. I am grateful to many linguist friends, who have shared knowledge and given advice, particularly to Barbara Sayers and Robert Young of the Summer Institute of Linguistics, and to Joan and Murray Rule, for their perceptive insights and editorial help in the final stages of the write-up. I am also appreciative of the constructive comments and suggestions of Drs Peter Austin and Graham Scott (LaTrobe University), and Dr Luise Hercus (Australian National University) who read an early draft of the manuscript. Finally, I am deeply indebted to Drs Alan and Phyllis Healey (Summer Institute of Linguistics) for their painstaking editing of the fmal version of the manuscript. Funding for this work has come from the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies. The Institute initiated the Muruwari project in 1973, funded field trips and financed research 1973-1976, and gave two further grants-in-aid in 1986 and 1987 to help finalise the writing of the grammar. In describing the new Jerusalem, the book of Revelation says that 'the glory and honour of the nations' is to be an essential part of it. This book seeks to enshrine some little part of what was once 'the glory and the honour' of the Muruwari. It is my prayer that this halting attempt to capture the essence of the Muruwari language and culture may endure as a continuing memorial to them. Lynette F. Oates, Barnawartha. 1988. vii PREFACE Fifteen years ago the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies commissioned me to write a grammar of the Muruwari language from the tapes recorded by Jimmie Barker, Janet Mathews and Judy Trefry. Although these recordings have been used, the outline description of the Muruwari language here presented is largely based on the material I gathered personally from Mrs Emily Horneville (Ornable), MrRobin Campbell and others. Work on the language was suspended ten years ago, when the description was partially completed. It became possible in 1987-1988 to pick up the threads and to seek to complete an outline of the chief features of the language, even though there are many areas where insufficient data did not permit a conclusion. In 1973 it was still possible to gather some material firsthand from the handful of old people who remembered the language they spoke in their youth. Today all these people are gone. But, ironically, now that the language is dead and the chance to hear it spoken is lost, the climate has changed. There is an interest in the language on the part of both some white people and some Muruwari people. Because of the interest by some members of the Aboriginal community who are keen to understand their past, this description seeks to minimise the use of technical terms and the discussion of matters of purely academic interest, so that it can be of use to people other than linguists. It contains a large number of examples for the interest of both scholars and laymen. Comparative data, of neighbouring languages, has beenincluded in an appendix. This book could not have been written without the cooperation and sheer hard work of the last speakers of the dialect, fromwhom it was possible to record the language before it was lost forever. Foremost among these speakers was Jimmie Barker of Brewarrina. Janet Mathews met Jimmie in Brewarrina in 1968 when she was seeking to record any language remembered by Aboriginal speakers. Jimmie had learnt Muruwarifrom his mother and some of the old men when he was a little boy. But from the age of twelve to his old age he rarely spoke his mother tongue; not even his children were aware he knew it. After meeting Janet Mathews, however, Jimmie's imagination was fired to record as much as he could remember of his loved language and traditions before they disappeared forever. Janet arranged for the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies to provide him with a tape recorder and tapes, and she and he worked together in closest harmony, Janet making suggestions as to what he should record, Jimmie working hard to remember back all those years. In one tape he talks of how, often in the dead of night, he recorded tapes of the language and of his memories of 'the old days' (having carefully recalled the material beforehand).