Nganbal

Translation

Rhonda-gu Smith-u dhayay/asked:

I need help with a translation for people at the Catholic Church Narrabundah-ga.

1.Help us to be messengers of the Good News to all the world so that we may recognise our responsibility to those whose lives we touch.
2. As we seek the ability to value diversity, may our search lead us to you.
Rhonda

Below is a ‘translation’ – not really a translation, because we don’t know enough Gamilaraay Yuwaalaraay to do that, but something relatively close, using what we do know of GY. Line a) is the Gamilaraay, line b) close to the meaning of the Gamilaraay. At the end a few notes, but time does not permit a full discussion.

1.Help us to be messengers of the Good News to all the world so that we may recognise our responsibility to those whose lives we touch.

a) Banmalawadhaay ngiyaninya, garay ngiyani gababan.gaan gaagigu ganungundawu. Warraaliylaya ngiyani ganungunda, ngiyaningunda ganunga milanda warraylandaay.
b) Help us to take the good news/word/message to all. May we stand with them, those who are near us.

2. As we seek the ability to value diversity, may our search lead us to you.

a) Murrunbaagalgaa ngiyani maarubaldandaay, Nginundayaa ngiyani dhurralaay.
b) Help us to take the good news/word/message to all. May we stand with them, those who are near us.

Notes (just a few)

=wadhaay (=badhaay in Yuwaalaraay): The meaning is not fully understood, but is probably something like: you (the one spoken to) have a choice about doing this.

There is no word for ‘news’ but garay is used for ‘word’, ‘story’, ‘language’ and more, so is used here for ‘news’.  

Warraaliylaya (Warra-ali-yla-ya) ‘May we stand’ has a few suffixes:
warra- ‘stand’; -ali- ‘something or someone else involved; yla indicates the action is ongoing; -ya ‘lets’

There is no word recorded for diversity or even ‘different’. Murrunbaa ‘other’ is probably the closest we have. –galgaa is the plural suffix, mostly used when referring to people, so Murranbaagalgaa is close to ‘other people’.

John