Yugambeh (or ''Mibanah'', from , 'language of men' or 'sound of eagles'),
also known as Tweed-Albert 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
Yugambeh living in
South-East Queensland
South East Queensland (SEQ) is a bio-geographical, metropolitan, political and administrative region of the state of Queensland in Australia, with a population of approximately 3.8 million people out of the state's population of 5.1 million. Th ...
between and within the
Logan River
The Logan River ( Yugambeh: ''Dugulumba'') is a perennial river located in the Scenic Rim, Logan and Gold Coast local government areas of the South East region of Queensland, Australia. The -long river is one of the dominant waterways in South ...
basin and the
Tweed River basin, bounded to the east by the Pacific Ocean (including
South Stradbroke Island
The South Stradbroke Island (Indigenous: ''Minjerribah''), colloquially ''South Straddie'', is an island that lies within Moreton Bay in the Australian state of Queensland, south of Brisbane and forms the northern end of Gold Coast. The island ...
) and in the west by the
Teviot Range
Teviot Range is a mountain range in the Scenic Rim Region, Queensland, Australia.
Geography
The principal peaks in the Teviot Range are:
* Mount Moon (Indigenous name: ''Kibbobum''): ()
* Mount Alford
Mount Alford () is a flat-topped, ice- ...
s and
Teviot Brook
Teviot Brook is a waterway in South East Queensland, Australia. It rises in the Main Range at Carneys Creek and joins the Logan River
The Logan River ( Yugambeh: ''Dugulumba'') is a perennial river located in the Scenic Rim, Logan and Gol ...
basin.
Yugambeh is
dialect cluster
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 ...
of four dialects, one of four
such clusters of the
Bandjalangic branch of the
Pama–Nyungan language family. A poorly attested variety called ''Ngarahgwal'' may belong to Yugambeh or to one of the other Bandjalang clusters.
Nomenclature
In the Yugambeh language, the word means an emphatic 'no', 'never' i.e. 'very much no' and is a common
exonym
An endonym (from Greek: , 'inner' + , 'name'; also known as autonym) is a common, ''native'' name for a geographical place, group of people, individual person, language or dialect, meaning that it is used inside that particular place, group, ...
for the people and their language. Language speakers use the word which means 'man', 'human', '
wedge-tailed eagle
The wedge-tailed eagle (''Aquila audax'') is the largest bird of prey in the continent of Australia. It is also found in southern New Guinea to the north and is distributed as far south as the state of Tasmania. Adults of this species have lon ...
' and is the preferred
endonym
An endonym (from Greek: , 'inner' + , 'name'; also known as autonym) is a common, ''native'' name for a geographical place, group of people, individual person, language or dialect, meaning that it is used inside that particular place, group, ...
for the people; they call their language meaning 'of man', 'of human', 'of eagle' (the suffix forming the
genitive
In grammar, the genitive case (abbreviated ) is the grammatical case that marks a word, usually a noun, as modifying another word, also usually a noun—thus indicating an attributive relationship of one noun to the other noun. A genitive can al ...
of the word ).
''Yugambeh'' may also be referred to as:
*''Yugambir, Yugambeh'' (
Yugambal/Yugumbal was evidently a separate language located further west)
*''Yubumbee''
*''Jugumbir, Jukamba''
*Tweed-Albert language
*Nganduwal
*Ngarangwal
*''Manaldjali'' (a variant of ''Mununjali'', the name of a Yugambeh-speaking clan)
*''Minjanbal'' (probably from ''Minjungbal'', an alternate language term)
Geographic distribution
![Satellite of Danggan Balun](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/67/Satellite_of_Danggan_Balun.png)
Yugambeh is spoken within the
Logan,
Albert
Albert may refer to:
Companies
* Albert (supermarket), a supermarket chain in the Czech Republic
* Albert Heijn, a supermarket chain in the Netherlands
* Albert Market, a street market in The Gambia
* Albert Productions, a record label
* Alber ...
,
Coomera
Coomera is a town and Suburbs and localities (Australia), suburb in the City of Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. In the , Coomera had a population of 13,305 people.
Geography
Located next to the Pacific Motorway (Brisbane–Brunswick Heads), ...
,
Nerang
Nerang is a town and suburb in the City of Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. In the , Nerang had a population of 16,864 people.
Geography
The Nerang River flows through the locality from south to east, passing through the town. The river u ...
, and
Tweed
Tweed is a rough, woollen fabric, of a soft, open, flexible texture, resembling cheviot or homespun, but more closely woven. It is usually woven with a plain weave, twill or herringbone structure. Colour effects in the yarn may be obtained ...
River basins.
Phonology
Vowels
Yugambeh has a vowel system of four vowels that also contrast in length, resulting in eight
phonemic
In phonology and linguistics, a phoneme () is a unit of sound that can distinguish one word from another in a particular language.
For example, in most dialects of English, with the notable exception of the West Midlands and the north-west o ...
vowels in total. The letter "h" is used after the vowel to indicate a long vowel.
Allophones
The low central vowel is fronted and raised between palatal consonants and a lateral/rhotic consonant.
Consonants
Compared to other Pama-Nyungan languages, Yugambeh has a smaller inventory of consonants. There are four places of articulation, with the consonants consisting of four obstruents, four nasals, two liquids, and two semivowels.
Obstruents
Obstruents do not have a voicing contrast, and can appear as fricative allophones. Obstruents are phonetically voiceless, except when following a homorganic consonant.
Grammar
The grammar of the Yugambeh language is highly agglutinative, making use of over 50 suffixes on nouns, verbs, adjectives and demonstratives.
Syntax
Syntax in the Yugambeh language is fairly free ordered, with a tendency towards SOV (
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 ...
) structures. Adjectives and demonstratives part of noun phrases e.g. that man, a red car, stay adjacent to the noun they qualify.
Noun morphology
Nouns take a number of suffixes to decline for grammatical case.
Suffixes
Noun suffixes are placed into ten orders. A noun may not take more than one suffix from any order, and if more than one suffix is attached they must always be in the set order of the suffix orders, e.g. an order 7 suffix must always come after an order 5 suffix.
'X' stands for a homorganic obstruent.
'N' stands for a homorganic nasals.
#The comitative, purposive, desiderative, ablative and aversive suffixes are preceded by -bah on animate nouns.
1st order suffixes
-''gali'' (typified by) – used to indicate an association or link
Examples:
'shoe' lit. 'typified by foot'
'womaniser' lit. 'typified by women'
2nd order suffixes
''-gan'' (feminine) – used to form feminine nouns and some astrological terms
Examples:
'female singer'
3rd order suffixes
''-bur'' (diminutive) – used to form the diminutive of a noun, referring to a smaller version
Examples:
'toy boomerang'
4th order suffixes
''-Nah'' (possessive) – indicates current possession
Examples:
'our'
'of the moon/moon's'
''-Nahjil'' (past possessive) – indicates past possession
Examples:
'was of the parrot' (
Billinudgel
Billinudgel is a town in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales, Australia, and is part of Byron Shire. It used to be a railway town
A railway town, or railroad town, is a settlement that originated or was greatly developed because of ...
)
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 most Western languages. Yugambeh 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 Yugambeh verbs, with only a small number of combinations possible. Yugambeh verb stems are commonly two syllables in length and always in a vowel.
Adjective morphology
Adjectives can be marked with a suffix to indicate the gender of the noun they qualify.
Suffixes
*N stands for a homorganic nasal.
Demonstratives
Yugambeh 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 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
App
The Yugambeh Museum in
Beenleigh
Beenleigh is a town and suburb in the City of Logan, Queensland, Australia. In the , the suburb of Beenleigh had a population of 8,252 people.
A government survey for the new town was conducted in 1866. The town is the terminus for the Beenl ...
currently maintains a free dictionary
app for the Yugambeh language, available on
Android,
iOS
iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also includes ...
and a desktop version.
Place names
Modern place names with roots in the Yugambeh language include:
*
Billinudgel
Billinudgel is a town in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales, Australia, and is part of Byron Shire. It used to be a railway town
A railway town, or railroad town, is a settlement that originated or was greatly developed because of ...
– from , 'was of the parrot'
*
Canungra
Canungra is a rural town and locality in the Scenic Rim Region, Queensland, Australia. In the , the locality of Canungra had a population of 1,229 people.
Geography
Located in South East Queensland, Canungra is situated in the Gold Coast hint ...
– from , 'a long flat or clearing'
*
Coomera
Coomera is a town and Suburbs and localities (Australia), suburb in the City of Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. In the , Coomera had a population of 13,305 people.
Geography
Located next to the Pacific Motorway (Brisbane–Brunswick Heads), ...
/
Upper Coomera
Upper Coomera is a suburb in the City of Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. In the , Upper Coomera had a population of 25,276 people.
Geography
Upper Coomera is located on the northern side of the Gold Coast on the western side of the M1 Pa ...
– from , a species of
wattle
*
Jumpinpi –
Pandanus
''Pandanus'' is a genus of monocots with some 750 accepted species. They are palm-like, dioecious trees and shrubs native to the Old World tropics and subtropics. The greatest number of species are found in Madagascar and Malaysia. Common names ...
root
*
Mundoolun – from , the local name for the
Common death adder
The common death adder (''Acanthophis antarcticus'') is a species of death adder native to Australia. It is one of the most venomous land snakes in Australia and globally. While it remains widespread (unlike related species), it is facing increa ...
*
Nindooinbah – from , 'the remains of a fire'
*
Pimpama
Pimpama is a northern suburb in the City of Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. In the , Pimpama had a population of 9,396 people. The name is of Aboriginal origin. The suburb contains numerous schools with the first opening in the 1870s.
A s ...
– from , 'a place of
soldier birds'
*
Tabragalba – from , 'a place of
clubs
Club may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* ''Club'' (magazine)
* Club, a ''Yie Ar Kung-Fu'' character
* Clubs (suit), a suit of playing cards
* Club music
* "Club", by Kelsea Ballerini from the album ''kelsea''
Brands and enterprises
...
'
*
Tallebudgera
Tallebudgera is a suburb in the City of Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. In the , Tallebudgera had a population of 3,667 people.
Geography
The Tallebudgera Creek forms a part of the western and eastern border of Tallebudgera.
History
Th ...
– rotten or decayed logs
*
Wongawallan – from the words ('pigeon') and ('water')
References
Further reading
* ''Dictionary of Yugambeh Including Neighbouring Dialects'', compiled by Margaret Sharpe, Pacific Linguistics:
Australian National University
The Australian National University (ANU) is a public research university located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton encompasses seven teaching and research colleges, in addition to several national academies and ...
, 1998.
External links
''Borobi and His Friends'' virtual book, read in Yugambeh language by Axel Best. From the
State Library of Queensland
The State Library of Queensland is the main reference and research library provided to the people of the State of Queensland, Australia, by the state government. Its legislative basis is provided by the Queensland Libraries Act 1988. It contai ...
virtual book collection. (requires
Adobe Flash
Adobe Flash (formerly Macromedia Flash and FutureSplash) is a multimedia Computing platform, software platform used for production of Flash animation, animations, rich web applications, application software, desktop applications, mobile apps, mo ...
)
Linguist List (2005) Synopsis of ''Grammar and Texts of the Yugambeh-Bundjalung Dialect Chain in Eastern AustraliaAccessed 20 May 2008
{{Pama–Nyungan languages, East
Yugambeh–Bundjalung languages
South East Queensland