The Gungorogone are an
indigenous Australian
Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples o ...
people of the
Northern Territory
The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory shares its borders with Western Au ...
.
Name
The tribal
autonym
Autonym may refer to:
* Autonym, the name used by a person to refer to themselves or their language; see Exonym and endonym
* Autonym (botany), an automatically created infrageneric or infraspecific name
See also
* Nominotypical subspecies, in zo ...
is formed by an apparent suffix ''gurr-'' and ''-goni'', their word for 'this'.
Language
Guragone is a
non-Pama-Nyungan language belonging to the
Gunwinyguan family of languages, and has been described by Rebecca Green. It is one of the four
Maningrida languages
Maningrida, also known as Burarran, is a small family of Australian Aboriginal languages spoken in northern Australia. It includes four languages, none closely related:
* Burarra
* Gurr-goni
* Ndjébbana
* Na'kara
Green established the fam ...
, the others being
Ndjebbana,
Nakkara and
Burarra. Despite their genetic similarity, shared vocabulary rates are low, with 22% between Gurr-goni and Ndjebbana, and 24% between Gurr-goni and Nakkara. It has two dialects, associated with the two moieties, respectively ''gun-dakangurrngu Gurrgoni,'' or 'hard Gurr-goni' and ''gunnjalkitj'' or 'soft' Gurrgoni.
Country
The Gungorogone were inlanders living south of
Maningrida
Maningrida, also known as Manayingkarírra and Manawukan, is an Aboriginal community in the heart of the Arnhem Land region of Australia's Northern Territory. Maningrida is east of Darwin, and north east of Jabiru. It is on the North Central A ...
, who dwelt in the area to the southeast of the headwaters of th
Tomkinson River on and to the west of the
Cadell River.
Neighbouring tribes were the
Dangkolo and
Manengkererrbe clans to their west,
Gunavidji and
Nakkara on their northern frontier. Running clockwise, the
Burarra and Gun-nartpa, Ngulinj clan, and finally, the Kardbam clan on their southern flank.
Social organization
The Gungorogone were composed of 5 clans in recent memory.
* The ''Boburerre'' (Yirrtjinga dialect)
* The ''Andirrdjalaba.''(Yirrtjinga dialect)
* The ''Gulumarrarra'' (Djowunga dialect)
Extinct clans:
* The ''Atbimingi'' (Djowunga dialect)
* The ''Marrarditj'' (Yirrtjinga dialect).
In terms of social structure, they comprise two
moieties, differentiated linguistically by distinct dialects:-
* The ''Yirrtjinga'' moiety
* The ''Djowunga'' moiety.
Alternative names
* ''Gungoragone''
* ''Gungoro:lgo:ngi''
* ''Gungarawoni''
* ''Gungurulgungi''
Notes
Citations
Sources
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{{authority control
Aboriginal peoples of the Northern Territory