Wadawurrung, also rendered as Wathawurrung, Wathaurong or Wada wurrung, and formerly sometimes Barrabool, is the

Aboriginal Australian 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 Wadawurrung people of the Kulin Nation of Central

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India * Victoria (state), a state of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital * Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...

. It was spoken by 15 clans south of the

Werribee River The Werribee River is a perennial river of the Port Phillip catchment that is located on the expansive lowland plain southwest of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The headwaters of a tributary, the Lerderderg River, are north of Ballan near ...

and the

Bellarine Peninsula The Bellarine Peninsula (Wadawurrung language, Wadawurrung: ''Balla-wein'' or ''Biteyong'') is a peninsula located south-west of Melbourne in Victoria, Australia, surrounded by Port Phillip, Corio Bay and Bass Strait. The peninsula, together wi ...

Streatham Streatham ( ) is a district in south London, England. Centred south of Charing Cross, it lies mostly within the London Borough of Lambeth, with some parts extending into the neighbouring London Borough of Wandsworth. Streatham was in Surrey ...

. Various regional programs and initiatives promote the usage and revitalisation of Wadawurrung language.

Phonology

Consonants

Blake reconstructs Wadawurrung consonants as such; Due to the varied nature of attestations of the language, Blake reconstructs Wadawurrung consonants in complacence to the standard features of the Australian Languages. It is presumed that Wadawurrung did not distinguish between voiced and unvoiced consonants ('Parrwong ~ Barwon' -

Magpie Magpies are birds of various species of the family Corvidae. Like other members of their family, they are widely considered to be intelligent creatures. The Eurasian magpie, for instance, is thought to rank among the world's most intelligent c ...

). What Blake attributes as a distinction between 'alveolar' and 'laminal' consonants is better described as a distinction between dental and post-alveolar pronunciation on nasal and stop consonants. This is a distinction in indigenous language families of the Australian south-east such as Yuin-Kuric (incl.

Ngunnawal The Ngunnawal people, also spelt Ngunawal, are an Aboriginal Australians, Aboriginal people of southern New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory in Australia. Language Ngunnawal–Gundungurra language, Ngunnawal and Gundungurr ...

and

Dharug The Dharug or Darug people, are a nation of Aboriginal Australian clans, who share ties of kinship, country and culture. In pre-colonial times, they lived as hunters in the region of current day Sydney. The Darug speak one of two dialects o ...

) and the

Gippsland languages The Gippsland languages are a family of Pama–Nyungan languages of Australia.Bowern, Claire. 2011.How Many Languages Were Spoken in Australia?, ''Anggarrgoon: Australian languages on the web'', December 23, 2011correctedFebruary 6, 2012) They w ...

(Incl.

Dhudhuroa The Dhudhuroa people (or Duduroa) are an Indigenous Australian people of North-eastern Victoria, in the state of Victoria, Australia. About 2,000 descendants exist in Australia in the early 21st century. Name The endonym Dhudhuroa has been analys ...

). It is presumed there was no distinction between post-alveolar and palatal ('Nhita' - to steal, fluctuates with 'nyita'). It is assumed that a similar correspondence occurs with the post-alveolar stop, thus mixed attestation between 'th', 'tj' & 'ty'. The post-alveolar consonants in word final position are rendered as 'yl', 'yt' & 'yn', respectively. E.g. 'Gowayn' -

Eel Eels are ray-finned fish belonging to the order Anguilliformes (), which consists of eight suborders, 20 families, 164 genera, and about 1000 species. Eels undergo considerable development from the early larval stage to the eventual adult stage ...

. The word final nasal after /a/ is always cited as 'ayn' due to its fluctuation with 'ng' in sources Blake asserts that sources do not differentiate between alveolar and retroflex and the distinction is thus presumed from comparison to other Victorian Aboriginal Languages. Blake represents every rhotic as 'rr' unless drawing from modern sources such as Hercus.

Vowels

Blake does not specify the number of vowels present in Wadawurrung. The standard set of and are used, however Blake notes a consistent correspondence between 'a', 'u' and 'o' in various sources ('Djinang' - foot, variously attested as 'jinnung', 'genong'). There is also fluctuation between 'a' and 'e' as the last vowel in a word ('walart' - possum, compared to 'wollert'), however Blake maintains that they are distinct vowels

Vocabulary

Place names

Select placenames with attested origin in Wathawurrung language terms are;

Animal Names

Wadawurrung vocabulary pertaining to local wildlife; * 'Djirnap' -

Cockatoo A cockatoo is any of the 21 species of parrots belonging to the family Cacatuidae, the only family in the superfamily Cacatuoidea. Along with the Psittacoidea ( true parrots) and the Strigopoidea (large New Zealand parrots), they make up t ...

* 'Duwan' -

Brush-tailed phascogale The brush-tailed phascogale (''Phascogale tapoatafa''), also known by its Australian native name tuan, the common wambenger, the black-tailed mousesack or the black-tailed phascogale, is a rat-sized arboreal carnivorous marsupial of the family ...

, ''tuan''. * 'Goim', 'Kuyim' -

Kangaroo Kangaroos are 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 ...

* 'Ngurr-ngurr' - Wombat, ''

Vombatus ursinus The common wombat (''Vombatus ursinus''), also known as the bare-nosed wombat, is a marsupial, one of three extant species of wombats and the only one in the genus ''Vombatus''. It has three subspecies: ''Vombatus ursinus hirsutus'', found on the ...

'' * 'Ngambulmum' -

Koala The koala (''Phascolarctos cinereus''), sometimes inaccurately called the koala bear, is an arboreal herbivorous marsupial native to Australia. It is the only Extant taxon, extant representative of the Family (biology), family ''Phascolar ...

, lit. 'bottom of a tree fork' * 'Mon.garrk', 'Mon.ngarrk' -

Echidna Echidnas (), sometimes known as spiny anteaters, are quill-covered monotremes (egg-laying mammals) belonging to the Family (biology), family Tachyglossidae , living in Australia and New Guinea. The four Extant taxon, extant species of echidnas ...

* 'Perridak' -

Platypus The platypus (''Ornithorhynchus anatinus''), sometimes referred to as the duck-billed platypus, is a semiaquatic, egg-laying mammal endemic to eastern Australia, including Tasmania. The platypus is the sole living representative or monotypi ...

* 'Walart' -

Possum Possum may refer to: Animals * Didelphimorphia, or (o)possums, an order of marsupials native to the Americas ** Didelphis, a genus of marsupials within Didelphimorphia *** Common opossum, native to Central and South America *** Virginia opossum ...

. The term 'Walart-walart' refers to a possum skin cloak (Blake also lists 'Barnong' as a word pertaining to the Ringtail Possum specifically)

References

{{Pama–Nyungan languages, South Kulin languages Extinct languages of Victoria (state)