Word of the week.
Dhirrabuu Marli, Hilary, Winanga-li.
Gibu nhalay, sentence-bula nguwalay.
This week there is also a sentence here.
[There is currently no GY word for ‘sentence’. Garay [gaay in Yuwaalaraay] is used for word, phrase, sentence, story and language.]
Dhalaa bandaarr? Where is the kangaroo.
What does bandaarr mean? These days we tend to use it like the English word ‘kangaroo’, but traditionally it meant ‘Eastern Grey Kangaroo’. In other nearby languages it may have meant Red Kangaroo, or even Male Red Kangaroo. That sort of variation in meaning is common.
Dhalaan – pronunciation.
English speakers often have difficulty with long vowels [written aa, ii or uu] near the end of a word. They tend to shorten them. While Arthur Dodd and Fred Reece said gunii for ‘mum’, with the final sound like the end of ‘knee’, many now say guni. Similarly with bandaarr. The aa is traditionally said like the sound in the town name, Bundarra, but now is commonly said as a short sound, as in ‘dud’. RR at the end of a GY word can be trilled, but when said casually it sounds like English ‘d’ or ‘t’.
Dhalaa: dh – tongue on bottom teeth, or between teeth, a short, aa long and stressed.
Gamilaraay Yuwaalaraay Guladha 