Dhirranbaya

Shake yourself.

Video dhirrabuu. Singing: 8 year old Kelsey Walford-Barker, Loren Ryan; Dancing: Renee and Jaliyah Stanford; Musical production: Ross McGregor; Video and challenge: Hilary Smith.

Dhirrabuu Hilary and Winanga-Li. Below Hilary’s introduction, and after that some grammatical discussion.

Yaama maliyaa (hello friends)

Here is an action song for the whole family – Bamba Yulu-gi-la-ya (Dance hard “Hokey Pokey”). There are three verses in the Yuwaalaraay version (sung by Kelsey Strasek-Barker), and four in the Gamilaraay version (sung by Loren Ryan). Great actions were provided for the video by Renee and Jaliyah Stanford in lockdown at Qurindi.

Attached is the info in jpg for Facebook etc, and also pdf.

The challenge with the words is on the Winanga-Li website: http://winanga-li.org.au/index.php/yaama-gamilaraay/gamilaraay-language-challenge/

And here are the direct links to the YouTube videos:

Gamilaraay https://youtu.be/RxAOMpD4uZ0
Yuwaalaraay https://youtu.be/OD2QGQD9_EM

Hope you and your communities enjoy it!

Yaluu
Hilary
Dr Hilary Smith
Honorary Affiliate, College of Arts and Social Sciences
Australian National University

And a bit of how the languages work:

Those looking at the words of the song carefully might wonder why it uses wa-y ‘put in’, dhuwima-y/dhuma-y ‘take out’ and dhirranba-y ‘shake’, when the dictionary has them all ending in -li: wa-li, dhuwima-li/dhuma-li, dhirranba-li.

First, an example from the Yuwaalaraay tapes, and then what seems to be the ‘rule’.

Fred Reece, in tape 1851A, is asked to translate: ‘Wash your face.’

He first says: wagirrma-la ngulu (ngulu ‘face’; wagirrma-li from ‘wash’)
but then changes it, corrects himself and says: ngulu wagirrma-ya
and then, showing there are different forms, bayagaa wagirrma-la (bayagaa ‘clothes’).

There are other similar examples.
The rule seems to be: When you do something to yourself, the verb changes, from the future ending in -li to -y (L class to Y class).

So, if you put an apple in a bag you wa-li it,
but if you put your hand in, you wa-y it.

For more information see Yaluu p 295 ‘Reflexive use of middle verbs’ (available at http://hdl.handle.net/1885/132639)

John Giacon