A name for an Indigenous Ranger group/course.

2024-01-10

Yaama John Giacon-di

[the text below can also be found in a document here]

Today I had a request for suggestions for a name for something like: Indigenous ranger.

There are 3 ideas below:

maarumadhaay

maarumaldayan

dhawunmamal

maarumadhaay maarumaldayan could be used with dhawun.gu ‘for country’ or as single words.

I often have a number of starting points with such requests.

• What does the phrase/word mean in this context
• What does the word mean generally, what is its history, association;

[Below are some results from online searchers.]

Leaving aside ‘Indigenous’ for now, I think of a ‘ranger’, in this context, as someone who looks after country, works with country, has a feeling for country.

One suggestion is to begin with the idea of ‘caring for’;

Maaruma-li is ‘will heal, make better’.

From that can be formed maarumadhaay ‘person who heals, makes better’

Another option is to use the continuous form of the verb:

Maarumalda-y ‘will keep healing, making better’.

From that can be formed maarumaldayan ‘person who keeps healing, making better’.

Whichever work is chosen, it would not be a good translation for English ‘ranger’ in some contexts.

            The -an ending is used because maarumalda-y is a Y class verb.

fairy martin (Hirundo ariel). The nest is made from mud, often under bridges or eaves. From bidjaay (mud) and mama-li (stick).

There are generally many other words that could be developed for this use. The dictionary has:

bidjaaymamal (YY) noun

The dictionary also has:

mamal (YR, YY) noun

friend, mate. This is a rare word, the common word is maliyaa.

Using the ‘friend’ meaning, you could form; dhawunmamal ‘friend of the country’; [I checked that GY can have the sounds n and m side by side; this occurs often, including miinma-li ‘pull’]

Brainstorming, searching;

About ranger generally:

My generation might jump to the TV show Texas Rangers; so sort of police.

An online search gives the meanings;

·  1. a keeper of a park, forest, or area of countryside.

“park rangers”

·  2. a member of a body of armed men.

The word has other uses:

City or Council rangers patrol parking areas and other similar jobs.

What about the history of the word:

In Middle English, it was “renger,” derived from the Old French word “rangeor,” which referred to a forest keeper or gamekeeper. Over time, the term evolved to refer to someone who ranges or roams over a particular area, such as a park ranger or forest ranger.

Which is related to ‘range’ https://www.etymonline.com/word/range

range (n.)

c. 1200, renge, “row or line of persons” (especially hunters or soldiers), from Old French reng, renge “a row, line, rank,” from Frankish *hring or some other Germanic source, from Proto-Germanic *hringaz “circle, ring, something curved” (from nasalized form of PIE root *sker- (2) “to turn, bend”). In some cases the Middle English word is from Old French range “range, rank,” a variant of reng.

And, as ever, corrections and comments welcome.