The Yaygir, Yuraygir, or Yaegl, are an
Australian Aboriginal tribe who traditionally live and lived in and around
Yamba and
Maclean
MacLean, also spelt Maclean and McLean, is a Gaelic surname Mac Gille Eathain, or, Mac Giolla Eóin in Irish Gaelic), Eóin being a Gaelic form of Johannes (John). The clan surname is an Anglicisation of the Scottish Gaelic "Mac Gille Eathain" ...
,
New South Wales.
Language
Yaygir was one of the two
Gumbaynggiric languages
Gumbaynggiric is a pair of related Australian Aboriginal languages
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 ...
, closely related to
Gumbaynggir, both of which split from the same proto-language, though in developing their differences, their lexical
cognate
In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words in different languages that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymology, etymological ancestor in a proto-language, common parent language. Because language c ...
count was reduced to half, 46%. It is considered by
Terry Crowley to be the most 'aberrant' of New South Wales languages for its phonology and acceptance of initial vowels, as opposed to the standard formation of words, which normatively begin with consonants, the latter feature something it shares with
Nganjaywana. The last speaker was Sandy Cameron of
Yamba (d.1973). It had a
voiceless trill unique to Australian languages.
Country
Yaygir country stretched from
Coffs Harbour
Coffs Harbour is a city on the Mid North Coast of New South Wales, Australia, north of Sydney, and south of Brisbane. It is one of the largest urban centres on the North Coast, with a population of 78,759 as per 2021 census. The Gumbaynggirr ...
northwards to
Evans Head
Evans Head is a town in Richmond Valley Council of the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales, Australia. At the 2016 census, Evans Head had a population of 2,843 people. It is 726 kilometres north of Sydney, and 11 kilometres east off the ...
, and inland to Cowper on the
Clarence River. They were and are a coastal people. Some reports state that the tribe or
horde
Horde may refer to:
History
* Orda (organization), a historic sociopolitical and military structure in steppe nomad cultures such as the Turks and Mongols
** Golden Horde, a Turkic-Mongol state established in the 1240s
** Wings of the Golden Hord ...
local to Coffs Harbour itself was called 'Womboyneralah', meaning 'where the kangaroos camped.'
People
The Yaygir were bounded by the
Bandjalang to the north, and the
Gumbaynggirr to the south.
Alternative names
* ''Jeigir''
* ''Jungai''
* ''Yaegl''
* ''Yagir''
* ''Yegera''
* ''Yegera''
* ''Yegir''
* ''Yiegera''
* ''Youngai''
Source:
Some words
* ''abl'' (wallaby)
* ''dalga'' (sing)
* ''dulbay'' (language)
* ''duwo'' (boomerang)
* ''ngaluunggirr (clever-man)''
Source:
Notes
Citations
Sources
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{{authority control
Aboriginal peoples of New South Wales