Githabul, also known as Galibal, Dinggabal, and Condamine – Upper Clarence Bandjalang, is an

Australian Aboriginal language The Indigenous languages of Australia number in the hundreds, the precise number being quite uncertain, although there is a range of estimates from a minimum of around 250 (using the technical definition of 'language' as non-mutually intellig ...

spoken by the

Githabul The Gidabal, also known as ''Kitabal'' and ''Githabul'', are an indigenous Australian tribe of southern Queensland, who inhabited an area in south-east Queensland and north-east New South Wales, now within the Southern Downs Region, Southern Downs, ...

living in South Queensland and North-East New South Wales.

Nomenclature

Dialect groups as described by githabal prople

In the Githabul language, the word means 'those who say '; means 'that's right' and is a common exonym and endonym for the people and their language. specifically refers to the language as spoken around

Woodenbong Woodenbong is a rural village in the Kyogle Shire of northern New South Wales. It is situated 10 km south of the Queensland border and five kilometres south of the junction of the Summerland Way and the Mount Lindesay Road, which leads to ...

, while the southern variety spoken near

Drake Drake may refer to: Animals * A male duck People and fictional characters * Drake (surname), a list of people and fictional characters with the family name * Drake (given name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * ...

was known as Dingabal which means 'those who say ', with meaning 'that's right'. The eastern variety spoken near

Kyogle Kyogle () is a town in the Northern Rivers region of northern New South Wales, Australia. It falls within the local government area of Kyogle Council. At the 2016 census, Kyogle had a population of 2,751 people. Kyogle is known as a "gateway" ...

on the

Richmond river The Richmond River is a river situated in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales, Australia. Course and features The river rises at the northern end of the Richmond Range, near its junction with the McPherson Range, on the Queensla ...

used the term which meant 'those who say '; means 'this' and contrasts with ''Githabul'' and ''Dinggabal'' which used .

Grammar

Verb morphology

Verbs are conjugated with the use of suffixes. It is an

aspect Aspect or Aspects may refer to: Entertainment * ''Aspect magazine'', a biannual DVD magazine showcasing new media art * Aspect Co., a Japanese video game company * Aspects (band), a hip hop group from Bristol, England * ''Aspects'' (Benny Carter ...

-dominant language, as opposed to tense-dominant like English. Githabul suffixes mostly conjugate for aspect and mood.

Suffixes

Verb suffixes are placed in six orders. A verb may not take more than one suffix from an order, and similar to nouns, suffixes are attached in a set order. Combinations of these suffixes express all possible conjugations of Githabul verbs, with only a small number of combinations possible. Githabul verb stems are commonly two syllables in length and always end in a vowel.

Adjective Morphology

Adjectives can be marked with a suffix to indicate the gender of the noun they qualify. Githabul has one of the most extensive gender systems of all the Bandjalangic languages.

Suffixes

*N stands for a homorganic nasal.

Demonstratives

Githabul possesses a complicated set of demonstratives that make a three-way distinction, with proximal, medial, and distal sets. There is a further distinguishing of demonstrative adjectives and location demonstratives. The adjective set can be additionally suffixed to create demonstrative pronouns. The adjective set has three forms for "things in sight", "things hidden or not in sight" and "things not there anymore", while the location set has forms to indicate the general area and definite area, whether in sight or not in sight, and past and present forms.

Adjective set

* The Galibal dialect uses the forms Gali, Mali and Gili. The above set can be suffixed with order 7 noun suffixes to form demonstrative pronouns that function like ordinary independent nouns. e.g. 'Take this with you! The 'not in sight' and 'not here anymore' forms can take the order 2 noun suffix -gan to form time words. E.g 'recently'.

Location set

{, class="wikitable" !Demonstratives !Proximal (here) !Medial (there) !Distal (over there) , - , In sight (definite area) , , , , - , In sight (general area) , , , , - , Not in sight (present) , , , , - , Not in sight (past) , , , {{lang, gih, gahye

References

Yugambeh–Bundjalung languages