Guugu Yimithirr, also rendered Guugu Yimidhirr, Guguyimidjir, and many other spellings, 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 ...
, the traditional language of the
Guugu Yimithirr people
The Guugu Yimithirr, also spelt Gugu Yimithirr and also known as Kokoimudji, are an Aboriginal Australian people of Far North Queensland, many of whom today live at Hopevale, which is the administrative centre of Hopevale Shire. At the , Hopeva ...
of
Far North Queensland
Far North Queensland (FNQ) is the northernmost part of the Australian state of Queensland. Its largest city is Cairns and it is dominated geographically by Cape York Peninsula, which stretches north to the Torres Strait, and west to the Gulf C ...
. It belongs to the
Pama-Nyungan language family.
Most of the speakers today live at the community of
Hope Vale
Hope Vale (also known as Hopevale) is a town within the Aboriginal Shire of Hope Vale and a coastal locality split between the Aboriginal Shire of Hope Vale and the Shire of Cook, both in Queensland, Australia. It is an Aboriginal community. I ...
, about from
Cooktown
Cooktown is a coastal town and locality in the Shire of Cook, Queensland, Australia. Cooktown is at the mouth of the Endeavour River, on Cape York Peninsula in Far North Queensland where James Cook beached his ship, the Endeavour, for repairs ...
. However, only about half of the Guugu Yimithirr nation speak the language. As such, efforts are being made to teach it to children. Guugu Yimithirr is the source language of the word ''
kangaroo
Kangaroos are four marsupials from the family Macropodidae (macropods, meaning "large foot"). In common use the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, the red kangaroo, as well as the antilopine kangaroo, eastern gre ...
'' (from
aŋuru.
Name
The word means 'speech, language', while (or ) means -having, being the word for 'this'. The use of the word , rather than some other word for "this", was seen as a distinctive feature of Guugu Yimithirr. The element and the practice of naming based on some distinctive word is found in many other languages.
The name has many spelling variants, including Gogo-Yimidjir, Gugu-Yimidhirr, Gugu Yimithirr, Guugu Yimidhirr, Guguyimidjir (used by
Ethnologue
''Ethnologue: Languages of the World'' (stylized as ''Ethnoloɠue'') is an annual reference publication in print and online that provides statistics and other information on the living languages of the world. It is the world's most comprehensiv ...
), Gugu Yimijir, Kukuyimidir, Koko Imudji, Koko Yimidir, Kuku Jimidir, Kuku Yimithirr, and Kuku Yimidhirr.
Geographic distribution
The original territory of the
Guugu Yimithirr tribe
The Guugu Yimithirr, also spelt Gugu Yimithirr and also known as Kokoimudji, are an Aboriginal Australian people of Far North Queensland, many of whom today live at Hopevale, which is the administrative centre of Hopevale Shire. At the , Hopeva ...
extended northwards to the mouth of the
Jeannie River
The Jeannie River is a river located in Far North Queensland, Australia.
The headwaters of the river rise in the Great Dividing Range in the northern portion of the Cape York Peninsula in Kalpowar Aboriginal Land northwest of and west of St ...
, where it was bordered by speakers of
Guugu Nyiguudji; southwards to the
Annan River
The Annan River ( Kuku Nyungkal: ''Yuku Baja'') is a river located in the Wet Tropics of Far North Queensland, Australia.
Course and features
The river rises in the Yorkey Range below Mount Romeo near , north-northwest of . The river flows g ...
, where it was bordered by speakers of
Guugu Yalandji; to the west, it was bordered by speakers of a language called
Guugu Warra (literally 'bad talk') or
Lama-Lama. The modern town of
Cooktown
Cooktown is a coastal town and locality in the Shire of Cook, Queensland, Australia. Cooktown is at the mouth of the Endeavour River, on Cape York Peninsula in Far North Queensland where James Cook beached his ship, the Endeavour, for repairs ...
is located within Guugu Yimithirr territory.
As of the early 21st century, however, most Guugu Yimithirr speakers live at the
mission
Mission (from Latin ''missio'' "the act of sending out") may refer to:
Organised activities Religion
*Christian mission, an organized effort to spread Christianity
*Mission (LDS Church), an administrative area of The Church of Jesus Christ of ...
at
Hopevale
Hope Vale (also known as Hopevale) is a town within the Aboriginal Shire of Hope Vale and a coastal locality split between the Aboriginal Shire of Hope Vale and the Shire of Cook, both in Queensland, Australia. It is an Aboriginal community. I ...
.
Dialects
Guugu Yimithirr originally consisted of several dialects, although even the names of most have now been forgotten. Today two main dialects are distinguished: the coastal dialect, called 'with the sea', and the inland dialect, called 'of the outside'.
Missionaries
A missionary is a member of a religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thomas Hale 'On Being a Mi ...
used the coastal dialect to translate
hymn
A hymn is a type of song, and partially synonymous with devotional song, specifically written for the purpose of adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent figure or personification. The word ''hymn'' ...
s and
Bible stories
The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...
, so some of its words now have religious associations that the inland equivalents lack. There was once also a ''Ngegudi'' or ''Gugu Nyiguudyi'' dialect.
History
In 1770, Guugu Yimithirr became the first Australian Aboriginal language to be written down when
Lieutenant
A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations.
The meaning of lieutenant differs in different militaries (see comparative military ranks), but it is often sub ...
(later
Captain
Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...
)
James Cook
James Cook (7 November 1728 Old Style date: 27 October – 14 February 1779) was a British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the British Royal Navy, famous for his three voyages between 1768 and 1779 in the Pacific Ocean an ...
and his crew recorded words while their ship, the
HM Bark ''Endeavour'', was being repaired after having run aground on a shoal of the
Great Barrier Reef
The Great Barrier Reef is the world's largest coral reef system composed of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands stretching for over over an area of approximately . The reef is located in the Coral Sea, off the coast of Queensland, ...
.
Joseph Banks
Sir Joseph Banks, 1st Baronet, (19 June 1820) was an English naturalist, botanist, and patron of the natural sciences.
Banks made his name on the 1766 natural-history expedition to Newfoundland and Labrador. He took part in Captain James ...
described the language as "totally different from that of the Islanders; it sounded more like English in its degree of harshness though it could not be
icharsh neither".
Among the words recorded were ' or ' (
IPA
IPA commonly refers to:
* India pale ale, a style of beer
* International Phonetic Alphabet, a system of phonetic notation
* Isopropyl alcohol, a chemical compound
IPA may also refer to:
Organizations International
* Insolvency Practitioners ...
: ), meaning a large black or grey
kangaroo
Kangaroos are four marsupials from the family Macropodidae (macropods, meaning "large foot"). In common use the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, the red kangaroo, as well as the antilopine kangaroo, eastern gre ...
, which would become the general English term for all kangaroos, and (transcribed by Banks as ''Je-Quoll''), the name of the
quoll
Quolls (; genus ''Dasyurus'') are carnivorous marsupials native to Australia and New Guinea. They are primarily nocturnal and spend most of the day in a den. Of the six species of quoll, four are found in Australia and two in New Guinea. Anoth ...
.
Sydney Parkinson
Sydney Parkinson (c. 1745 – 26 January 1771) was a Scottish botanical illustrator and natural history artist. He was the first European artist to visit Australia, New Zealand and Tahiti. Parkinson was the first Quaker to visit New Zealand.
...
, who accompanied Cook, gave a useful word list in his posthumously published journal.
Phonology
Vowels
Short may be realized as unrounded , and unstressed may be reduced to .
Consonants
The stops are usually voiceless and unaspirated initially and after short vowels, and voiced after consonants and long vowels.
The retroflexes may not be single phonemes, but clusters of . However, there is at least one word which, for older speakers, is pronounced with a word-initial retroflex: ''run'', which is or .
The rhotic is normally a
flap
Flap may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* ''Flap'' (film), a 1970 American film
* Flap, a boss character in the arcade game ''Gaiapolis''
* Flap, a minor character in the film '' Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland''
Biology and he ...
, but may be a
trill
TRILL (Transparent Interconnection of Lots of Links) is an Internet Standard implemented by devices called TRILL switches. TRILL combines techniques from bridging and routing, and is the application of link-state routing to the VLAN-aware cus ...
in emphatic speech.
Phonotactics
All words, with the exception of a couple of
interjection
An interjection is a word or expression that occurs as an utterance on its own and expresses a spontaneous feeling or reaction. It is a diverse category, encompassing many different parts of speech, such as exclamations ''(ouch!'', ''wow!''), curse ...
s, begin with one consonant. The consonant can be a stop, nasal, or semivowel (that is, do not occur initially).
Words can end in either a vowel or a consonant. The allowed word-final consonants are .
Within words, any consonant can occur, as well as clusters of up to three consonants, which cannot occur initially or finally.
Grammar
Like many Australian languages, Guugu Yimithirr
pronoun
In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun (abbreviated ) is a word or a group of words that one may substitute for a noun or noun phrase.
Pronouns have traditionally been regarded as one of the parts of speech, but some modern theorists would not co ...
s have
accusative
The accusative case (abbreviated ) of a noun is the grammatical case used to mark the direct object of a transitive verb.
In the English language, the only words that occur in the accusative case are pronouns: 'me,' 'him,' 'her,' 'us,' and ‘the ...
morphology while nouns have
ergative morphology. That is, the
subject of an
intransitive verb
In grammar, an intransitive verb is a verb whose context does not entail a direct object. That lack of transitivity distinguishes intransitive verbs from transitive verbs, which entail one or more objects. Additionally, intransitive verbs are ...
has the same form as the subject of a
transitive verb
A transitive verb is a verb that accepts one or more objects, for example, 'cleaned' in ''Donald cleaned the window''. This contrasts with intransitive verbs, which do not have objects, for example, 'panicked' in ''Donald panicked''.
Transitiv ...
if the subject is a pronoun, but the same form as the
object
Object may refer to:
General meanings
* Object (philosophy), a thing, being, or concept
** Object (abstract), an object which does not exist at any particular time or place
** Physical object, an identifiable collection of matter
* Goal, an ...
of a transitive verb otherwise.
Regardless of whether nouns or pronouns are used, the usual sentence order is
subject–object–verb
Subject ( la, subiectus "lying beneath") may refer to:
Philosophy
*'' Hypokeimenon'', or ''subiectum'', in metaphysics, the "internal", non-objective being of a thing
**Subject (philosophy), a being that has subjective experiences, subjective con ...
, although other word orders are possible.
The language is notable for its use of pure
geographic direction
The four cardinal directions, or cardinal points, are the four main compass directions: north, east, south, and west, commonly denoted by their initials N, E, S, and W respectively. Relative to north, the directions east, south, and west are a ...
s (north, south, east, west) rather than
egocentric direction
Body relative directions (also known as egocentric coordinates) are orientation (geometry), geometrical orientations relative to a body such as a human person's.
The most common ones are: left and right; forward(s) and backward(s); up and down ...
s (left, right, forward, backward),
though such "purity" is disputed.
Still, it has given its speakers a remarkable sense of direction.
Preservation
, only about half of the 1,400 Guugu Yimithirr people speak the language, with mostly only grandparents being fluent speakers. Hope Vale
elders are helping to create video tutorials on teaching Guugu Yimithirr, which are being uploaded to
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, 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 ...
, while the local school, Hope Vale Cape York Aboriginal Australian Academy, has a language program in its curriculum. With the schools closed and learning being done in the home, using the online videos, during the
COVID-19 pandemic in Australia
The COVID-19 pandemic in Australia is part of the ongoing worldwide pandemic of the coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). The first confirmed case in Australia was identified on 25 Januar ...
, adults as well as younger siblings have been learning the language alongside the schoolchildren.
[
]
Vocabulary
Some words from the Guugu Yimithirr language, as spelt and written by Guugu Yimithirr authors include:
* ''Balingga'': echidna
* ''Birri'': river
* ''Bubu'': land
* ''Buurraay'': water
* ''Gangurru'': kangaroo
* ''Gulaan'': possum
* ''Guuju'': fish
* ''Jijirr'': bird
* ''Munhu'': grass
* ''Nanggurr'': home/camp
* ''Ngalan'': sun
* ''Thaarba'': snake
* ''Wantharra nyundu?'' How are you?
References
General references
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
External links
Guugu Yimithirr exercises (page 2)
Bibliography of Guugu Yimidhirr people and language resources
at the
{{Pama–Nyungan languages, Paman
Yalanjic languages