a native tongue

Kaurna, the language spoken by Aborigines native to the Adelaide Plains in South Australia, died with the last native speaker, Ivaritji (a.k.a. Amelia Taylor) in 1929 (or 1931, depending on which source you use). Amazingly, in the first part of the 19th century two German priests, Reverends Teichelmann and Schürmann, recorded essentially the language of the Kaurna people for the English speaking colonists to read, publishing their work, Outlines of a Grammar, Vocabulary, and Phraseology of the Aboriginal Language of South Australia, in 1840. Here are some words of the Kaurna people.


> pinggaintyero : tradition, Aboriginal dreamtime

> me ngarramarti : quote, "May your eyes be pushed out by a stick"

> wa nqaityo tando wa? : question, "Where is my bag, where?"

> kuranye : noun, rainbow

> pulyonna meyu : noun, black man

> wilyakundarti : ritual, beaten with young branches; the first stage of initiation with the male Kaurna peoples

> karka : s, sunset

> mukartutanna : adj, stupid; blunt simpleton

> putyilyulo : s, drizzling rain; fog

> kurkukurkurra : s, the constellation of Orion

> maiingga maiendi : s, vegetarian diet; to live on vegetables

> ngarrakuinyo : s, a man carrying in both his hands a piece of burnt wood at a Kaurna funeral: he holds it close to his ears, walking in a stooping posture. Perhaps it means the piece of wood itself

> gadlapulyo wandet ai : quote, "I shall sleep without fire"

> parna : s, one of the two men placed at either side of the line which the Aboriginal men form when about to perform circumcision

> mengki : s, laughter

> yayikka : s, loud laughter

> kartinye : s, menstruation; period of menstrual bleeding during which time women live in separate huts

> nanwe? : question, "How many?"

> tirkallirkalla : s, an intelligent, wise person

> paitys : noun, eastern brown snake

> ngarri willo : s, brother of a person being hung

> kudmoburka : noun, father of the 3rd born child

> yurakauwe : s, the dark spots in the Milky Way thought to be large ponds in the wodlipari and the residence of the aquatic monster Yura

> bukkiana meyu : noun, an ancestor

> ngadlaato : name, name of ninth child, if female

> tambawodli : place name, Victoria Square area, Adelaide City. This place has been set aside for many millennia as a tribal meeting place to conduct trade between other tribes, for the gathering of people for the palti and other outlets for social interaction

> ai itti tatti : phrase, "I came first"

[s = substantive]

%new_line = For more words of the Kaurna people, visit Kaurna Warra

{ From Todd's living room. Market St, San Francisco, CA, USA }