Dhauwurd Wurrung is a term used for a group of languages spoken by various groups of the

Gunditjmara The Gunditjmara or Gunditjamara, also known as Dhauwurd Wurrung, are an Aboriginal Australian people of southwestern Victoria. They are the traditional owners of the areas now encompassing Warrnambool, Port Fairy, Woolsthorpe and Portland. Th ...

people of the Western District of Victoria, Australia. Keerray Woorroong (also spelt Girai Wurrung and variants) is regarded by some as a separate language, by others as a dialect. The

dialect continuum A dialect continuum or dialect chain is a series of language varieties spoken across some geographical area such that neighboring varieties are mutually intelligible, but the differences accumulate over distance so that widely separated varie ...

consisted of various

lect In sociolinguistics, a variety, also called an isolect or lect, is a specific form of a language or language cluster. This may include languages, dialects, registers, styles, or other forms of language, as well as a standard variety.Meecham ...

s such as Kuurn Kopan Noot, Big Wurrung, Gai Wurrung, and others (each with variant spellings). There was no traditional name for the entire dialect continuum and it has been classified and labelled differently by different

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...

s and researchers. The group of languages is also referred to as Gunditjmara language and the Warrnambool language. Efforts to revive the language(s) are ongoing.

Country

The language in its several varieties, was spoken from Glenelg to the Gellibrand and through to roughly inland. The effects of the colonisation of Victoria, which included the

Eumeralla Wars The Eumeralla Wars were the violent encounters over the possession of land between British colonists and Gunditjmara Aboriginal people in what is now called the Western District area of south west Victoria. The wars are named after the region ...

, along with later government policies leading to the stolen generation, had a drastic and ongoing negative effect on the languages. Today the descendants of the speakers of these lects commonly refer to themselves as Gunditjmara, a term derived from an affix used to denote membership with a specific group of locality.

Dialects and alternative names

AIATSIS ( AUSTLANG) uses the name and spelling "Dhauwurd Wurrung" for the main grouping, following the

Victorian Aboriginal Corporation for Languages Aboriginal Victorians, the Aboriginal Australians of Victoria, Australia, occupied the land for tens of thousands of years prior to European settlement. Aboriginal people have lived a semi-nomadic existence of fishing, hunting and gathering, a ...

and Ian Clark, and gives also detail on alternative groupings and names suggested by various other linguists. Alternative spellings include Djargurd Wurrung, Thaguwurung, Tyaupurt wurung, Dauwert woorong, Dhauhwurru, Dhau-urt-wuru, Tourahonong, and many others, and the language group is also referred to as the Warrnambool language or the Gunditjmara language. Gunditj Wurrung, meaning "Gunditj language" is used by a contemporary teacher of the language, Gunditjmara musician Corey Theatre. Keerray Woorroong (Girai Wurrung, Kirrae wuurong, Kiriwurrung, etc.) is regarded by the Victorian Aboriginal Corporation for Languages (following Clark) as a separate language; it is of the

Girai wurrung The Girai wurrung, also spelt Kirrae Wuurong and Kirrae Whurrung, are an Aboriginal Australian people who traditionally occupied the territory between Mount Emu Creek and the Hopkins River up to Mount Hamilton, and the Western Otways from the ...

people Gadubanud ( Tindale Katubanut), also Yarro waetch, "Cape Otway tribe", was spoken by a group known as the

Gadubanud The Gadubanud (Katubanut), also known as the Pallidurgbarran, Yarro waetch or Cape Otway tribe ( Tindale), are an Aboriginal Australian people of the state of Victoria. Their territory encompasses the rainforest plateau and rugged coastline of ...

, of the

Cape Otway Cape Otway is a cape and a bounded locality of the Colac Otway Shire in southern Victoria, Australia on the Great Ocean Road; much of the area is enclosed in the Great Otway National Park. History Cape Otway was originally inhabited by the Gadu ...

area.

Barry Blake Barry Blake, born 1937, is an Australian linguist, specializing in the description of Australian Aboriginal languages. He is a professor emeritus at La Trobe University Melbourne. Career Blake was born in the northern Melbourne suburb of Ascot V ...

regards this as a dialect of the Warrnambool language, but Krishna-Pillay does not. Djargurd Wurrong (Warn tallin, Warn thalayn, Tjarcote, Dhautgart/Keerray (wurru)) was the language of the

Djargurd Wurrong The Djargurd Wurrong (also spelt Djargurd Wurrung) are Aboriginal Australian people of the Western district of the State of Victoria, and traditionally occupied the territory between Mount Emu Creek and Lake Corangamite. Language The Djargur ...

people. Other dialects or alternative names include: *Koornkopanoot (Kuurn Kopan Noot also spelt Kurnkupanut by Blake) *Bi:gwurrung (Peek-Whurrung and variants, "the

Port Fairy Port Fairy (historically known as Belfast) is a coastal town in south-western Victoria, Australia. It lies on the Princes Highway in the Shire of Moyne, west of Warrnambool and west of Melbourne, at the point where the Moyne River enters the ...

tribe") *Gaiwurrung (Kii wuurong,Kayiwurrung) *Wulluwurrung (Wuluwurrung, Woolwoowurrong) *Wirngilgnad dhalinanong (Wirngill gnat tallinanong) (regarded as a sub-dialect of Giraiwurrung by Clark) *Koort-Kirrup? Only recorded by Dixon; Clark says that Koort-Kirrup is the name of a person who spoke Wulluwurung

Characteristics and significant words

Speakers of these languages had a form of

avoidance speech Avoidance speech is a group of sociolinguistic phenomena in which a special restricted speech style must be used in the presence of or in reference to certain relatives. Avoidance speech is found in many Australian Aboriginal languages and Aust ...

called ''gnee wee banott'' (turn tongue) which required special terms and grammar in conversations when a man and mother-in-law were speaking in each other's company. Thus, if one asked: "Where are you going just now?", this would be phrased in normal speech as: * ''Wuunda gnin kitneean?'' In Gunditjmara avoidance speech the same sentiment would be articulated quite differently: * ''Wuun gni gnin gninkeewan?''

''Ngamadjidj''

The term ''ngamadjidj'' was used to denote

white people White is a racialized classification of people and a skin color specifier, generally used for people of European origin, although the definition can vary depending on context, nationality, and point of view. Description of populations as ...

by the Gunditjmara, with the same word used in the Wergaia dialect of the

Wemba Wemba language The Wemba Wemba language is an extinct Aboriginal Australian language once spoken along the Murray River and its tributaries in North Western Victoria and South Central New South Wales. Nari Nari, a dialect of Wemba Wemba, is part of a langu ...

. The word is also used to refer to ghosts, as people with pale skins were thought to be the spirits of ancestors. The first known use is to refer to William Buckley, an escaped convict who lived with the

Wathaurong The Wathaurong nation, also called the Wathaurung, Wadawurrung and Wadda Wurrung, are an Aboriginal Australian people living in the area near Melbourne, Geelong and the Bellarine Peninsula in the state of Victoria. They are part of the Kulin al ...

people near Geelong from 1803 until 1856. The term was also applied to John Green, manager at

Coranderrk Coranderrk was an Aboriginal reserve run by the Victorian government between 1863 and 1924, located around north-east of Melbourne. The residents were mainly of the Woiwurrung, Bunurong and Taungurong peoples, and the first inhabitants chose ...

, an

Aboriginal reserve An Aboriginal reserve, also called simply reserve, was a government-sanctioned settlement for Aboriginal Australians, created under various state and federal legislation. Along with missions and other institutions, they were used from the 19th c ...

north-east of Melbourne between 1863 and 1924. It was also recorded as being used to describe other missionaries such as William Watson in

Wellington, New South Wales Wellington is a city in the Central Western Slopes region of New South Wales, Australia, located at the junction of the Wambuul Macquarie and Bell Rivers. It is within the local government area of Dubbo Regional Council. The city is northwest o ...

, by the local

Wiradjuri The Wiradjuri people (; ) are a group of Aboriginal Australian people from central New South Wales, united by common descent through kinship and shared traditions. They survived as skilled hunter-fisher-gatherers, in family groups or clans, a ...

people. The term was a compliment, as it meant that the local people thought that they had been an Aboriginal person once - based largely on the fact that they could speak the local language. Ngamadjidj is also the name given to a rock art site in a shelter in the

Grampians National Park The Grampians National Park commonly referred to as The Grampians, is a national park located in the Grampians region of Victoria, Australia. The Jardwadjali name for the mountain range itself is Gariwerd. The national park is situated betw ...

, sometimes translated as the "Cave of Ghosts".

Status and language revival

Only three speakers were known to speak the language still by 1880, with another four still fluent in the Bi:gwurrung (Peek-Whurrung) dialect. No fluent speakers have been recorded between 1975 and the 2016 Australian census. There are several ongoing efforts to revive the Gunditjmara language. These include the Gunditj Wurrung online lesson series on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

and the Laka Gunditj Language Program. Proponents of the revival of the language include Vicki Couzens and Corey Theatre, who uses music as a medium for language revival.

In popular culture

Gunditjmara composer, singer and guitarist, Corey Theatre in collaboration with Australian composer and music director

Iain Grandage Iain Grandage is an Australian composer and music director, best known for his compositions for theatre, dance and concert. In May 2018, the Perth Festival appointed Grandage as Artistic Director. Early life Grandage initially lived in Brisbane ...

created the Gunditjmara Six Seasons. The piece is sung entirely in the Gunditjmara language and was performed in collaboration with Aboriginal (Gunditjmara and Bundjalung) Australian musician

Archie Roach Archibald William Roach (8 January 1956 – 30 July 2022) was an Australian singer, songwriter and Aboriginal activist. Often referred to as "Uncle Archie", Roach was a Gunditjmara and Bundjalung elder who campaigned for the rights of Abori ...

at the 2016 Port Fairy Spring Music Festival. Australian composer and soprano,

Deborah Cheetham Deborah Joy Cheetham (born 24 November 1964), is an Aboriginal Australian soprano, actor, composer and playwright. Early life and education Cheetham is a member of the Stolen Generations; she was taken from her mother when she was three weeks o ...

, wrote Australia's first requiem based on the frontier wars between

Aboriginal Australian Aboriginal Australians are the various Indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, such as Tasmania, Fraser Island, Hinchinbrook Island, the Tiwi Islands, and Groote Eylandt, but excluding the Torres Strait Isl ...

people in South Western

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

and settlers which is sung entirely in the Gunditjmara language. The first performance of the requiem, "Eumeralla, a war requiem for peace" on 15 June 2019 in Melbourne featured Cheetham with the

Melbourne Symphony Orchestra The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (MSO) is an Australian orchestra based in Melbourne. The MSO is resident at Hamer Hall. The MSO has its own choir, the MSO Chorus, following integration with the Melbourne Chorale in 2008. The MSO relies on f ...

, the MSO Chorus and the Dhungala Children's Choir.

Phonology

A likely phonemic inventory for the Warrnambool language is shown below. Rhotic consonants were not distinguished in older sources. It is unclear to determine whether the retroflex consonant was a glide or a flap. Both were written as r. Although most Australian Aboriginal languages use three vowels /a/, /i/, and /u/, the amount of vowels are not clearly distinguished within the other sources for the Warrnambool language. There is some fluctuation between /i/ and /e/, and /u/ and /o/. In the orthography adopted by Blake, 'where there was a back vowel occurring before a syllable-final palatal, /o/ was used instead of /u/, to give a better idea of the more likely pronunciation (i.e. ''puroyn'' "night")'.