The Consonants
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Palii Awabakalkoba Ngarabangaliingeyn Understanding Awabakal Language By Alex Arposio i ii © 2017 Miromaa Aboriginal Language and Technology Centre Newcastle, NSW Australia First Printed 2010 Reprinted 2014 Reprinted 2017 Reprinted 2019 This book is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of private study, research, criticism or review as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without prior written permission. Inquiries are to be made to Arwarbukarl Cultural Resource Association Incorporated. Miromaa Aboriginal Language & Technology Centre is funded by the Australian Federal Government under Indigenous Language and Arts. (ILA). Miromaa Aboriginal Language & Technology Centre is the trading name for Arwarbukarl Cultural Resource Association Inc. Miromaa Aboriginal Language & Technology Centre 57 James St, Hamilton, NSW 2303 Postal address as above Phone +61 02 4940 9100 Fax +61 02 4940 9123 email [email protected] web www.miromaa.org.au iii iv Traditional Ownership of the Awabakal Language The Arwarbukarl Cultural Resource Association Inc., does not claim “ownership” or “copyright” of the Awabakal language itself. The Awabakal language belongs to the traditional Awabakal people and any of its descendents. The Awabakal language also belongs to Awabakal country, and in the understanding of Arwarbukarl Cultural Resource Association, it is the Aboriginal language that is most appropriate to be spoken within the boundaries of traditional Awabakal country. We at the Arwarbukarl Cultural Resource Association ask you all to honour this language, and, should you study it, that you use it in a respectful manner and that you do not exploit the language—its words, phrases, sentences, grammar or idioms—for the purposes of a commercial gimmick alone. We ask any of you, who may wish to name any object, place or organisation including amateur groups such as sporting, theatre or other community groups and non-profit organisational events such as charity drives and whatever else, that you observe protocols and first contact the Arwarbukarl Cultural Resource Association for advice on whether it is fitting do so, and also to ensure that the Awabakal expression desired is the most grammatically, lexically and idiomatically suitable expression insofar as can be reasonably determined at the time of the proposed naming. The Arwarbukarl Cultural Resource Association invites all Aboriginal people living in Awabakal country to become familiar with and attempt to learn or at least use some fragments of the Awabakal language to preserve its unique culture and reanimate its rhythm and melody to ring through Awabakal country (Parai Awabakalkoba) once again. It may interest the reader to explain why the language, its people and culture is written ‘Awabakal’ but the organisation spells the word ‘Arwarbukarl’. The spelling in the corporate name derives from an early attempt to standardise a spelling system for the language, which was subsequently superseded by the one used herein. Nonetheless, it seemed appropriate to distinguish the name for the language, its people and culture and the corporate name for the organisation. v CONTENTS 1. Introduction ........................................................................................................... 1 A Note Regarding Threlkeld’s Recorded Sentences .................................................. 1 Word Structures in Awabakal .................................................................................... 2 Lay-Out of Sentence Examples .................................................................................. 3 2. The Sounds Of Awabakal Language ....................................................................... 7 The Consonants.......................................................................................................... 7 Lip Sounds .............................................................................................................. 7 Tongue Sounds ....................................................................................................... 8 Back Sounds ........................................................................................................... 9 The Vowels ............................................................................................................... 10 The Altered Vowel e in the Pair ey ...................................................................... 10 Diphthongs ............................................................................................................... 11 Rhythm and Stress ................................................................................................... 11 Non-Verbs ............................................................................................................ 11 Dual Vowels.......................................................................................................... 11 Verbs .................................................................................................................... 11 Notes on Allowable Syllables; and Some Spelling Conventions .............................. 12 Disallowed Onsets and Tags ................................................................................ 13 Spelling Convention N.O 1 ...................................................................................... 13 Spelling Convention N.O 2 ...................................................................................... 14 Qualifying Note regarding the vowels E, O, and the Diphthongs ............................ 14 Phonetic, Phonemic, Phonotactic and Allophonic................................................... 15 Phonetics.............................................................................................................. 15 Phonotactics (or Phonotaxis) ............................................................................... 15 Allophones ........................................................................................................... 16 Phonemes ............................................................................................................ 16 3. Nominal Grammar ............................................................................................... 18 4. The Grammar of Nouns........................................................................................ 20 Class 1: Common Nouns .......................................................................................... 20 The doer-Case ...................................................................................................... 21 The belong-Case and the for-Case ....................................................................... 24 The towards-Case (going towards) ...................................................................... 25 vi The away:from-Case (going away from; or being made out of).......................... 27 The at-Case (being at or being with so-and-so) ................................................... 29 The joining-Case (Joining in Activity with Another) ............................................. 31 The because-Case (BeingThus Because of Such and Such)................................. 34 Class 2: Placenames ................................................................................................. 36 Doer-Case for Class 2 Stems ................................................................................ 37 The belong-Case for Class 2 Stems ...................................................................... 38 The linger-Case for Class 2 Stems ........................................................................ 39 The towards-Case for Class 2 Stems .................................................................... 40 The away:from-Case for Class 2 Stems ................................................................ 41 The at-Case for Class 2 Stems .............................................................................. 41 The joining-Case and because-Case for Class 2 Stems ........................................ 42 The joining-Case: Class 2 ...................................................................................... 42 The because-Case: Class 2 ................................................................................... 43 Class 3: Persons’ Names........................................................................................... 44 Examples: Plain Stem beside the definite and done:to-Case ............................. 45 Doer-Case for Class 3 Stems ................................................................................ 46 The belong-Case and for-Cases in Class 3 ............................................................ 47 Class 3 Cases of Relative Position and Movement .............................................. 48 The Class 3 because-Case, joining-Case and Topic .............................................. 48 Summary .................................................................................................................. 49 5. Overview of Nominal Grammar ........................................................................... 50 6. Free Pronouns and Pronominal Suffixes.............................................................. 51 Grammatical Person and Number ........................................................................... 51 Free Pronouns