The development of the Gamilaraay, Yuwaalaraay & Yuwaalayaay Dictionary

The Gamilaraay, Yuwaalaraay & Yuwaalayaay Dictionary was published in 2003, one of a series of publications produced as part of Gamilaraay–Yuwaalaraay language revival. This paper outlines the context in which the Dictionary was developed, beginning with the Gamilaraay–Yuwaalaraay area and the decline and current situation of the languages. Then it considers the revival programs beginning around 1990 and the production of the Dictionary, with a major discussion on the range and quality of the sources of information. A number of principles of dictionary development are considered. It concludes with some thoughts on the role of the Dictionary as one resource in the evolution and revival of the languages. Gamilaraay, Yuwaalaraay and Yuwaalayaay country and languages Gamilaraay, Yuwaalaraay and Yuwaalayaay2 are languages from the inland north of New South Wales (NSW). The Gamilaraay area includes towns such as Tamworth, Gunnedah, Coonabarabran, Narrabri, Moree, Pilliga, Toomelah–Boggabilla and Collarenebri. The Yuwaalaraay area is further west including Goodooga, Lightning Ridge, and Walgett. These languages are closely related and also share many features with other Central NSW languages (Austin, Williams & Wurm, 1980) – Wangaaybuwan and Wayilwan (these two are also known as Ngiyambaa) and Wiradjuri. Their use declined rapidly after colonisation.3 The Gamilaraay language declined much more 1 Australian National University. 2 In the rest of this article Yuwaalaraay will be used to refer to both Yuwaalaraay and Yuwaalayaay since there is very little difference between these dialects. 3 See Buckhorn (1997) for details of the early contact history. Language documentation 403 rapidly than Yuwaalaraay further west. So, the Gamilaraay records begin earlier, but there are few records of fluent Gamilaraay on tape or recorded by experienced linguists, whereas there are around 60 hours of Yuwaalaraay tapes held at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) which have provided most of the information for revival. Peter Austin has worked extensively on Gamilaraay and his recent article (2008) provides further background to that language and an extensive bibliography. More information about the Gamilaraay area can be found in O’Rourke (1997) and the Gamilaraay, Yuwaalaraay & Yuwaalayaay Dictionary (GYYD) (Ash et al. 2003) has information on the whole area.4 Gamilaraay-Yuwaalaraay language revival The GYYD was produced as part of the increased revival work on Gamilaraay– Yuwaalaraay (GY) that began around 1990. Peter Austin, a native of Tamworth and, at that time professor of linguistics at La Trobe University, published short Gamilaraay dictionaries (1992, 1994) and with David Nathan produced an online Gamilaraay dictionary (1996). It is difficult to find information about community language activity in those years. Uncle Ted Fields in Walgett and Auntie Rose Fernando in Collarenebri had also been working on language and I worked with Uncle Ted from 1994. In 1996, after consultation with Aboriginal people at the school, a Yuwaalaraay language program began at St Joseph’s Primary, supported by the school and the Catholic Schools Office with funding initially from the Department of Employment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs and later from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) (Cavanagh 2005). After further community meetings the NSW Department of Education and Training (DET) funded resource production and training as part of setting up a Year 7 GY program at Walgett High School. A language program also began in Goodooga around 1998. The model employed in the school programs included a linguist (myself) with Uncle Ted generally teaching the teachers. I used Williams (1980) as my basic grammar source and the Yuwaalaraay tapes from AIATSIS for other information, particularly pronunciation. It was clear that there was a hunger for language among many GY people. Most knew a few words but few knew many. And no-one knew how to put words into sentences and to string sentences together as people like Arthur Dodd and Fred Reece had been known to in the 1970s. Between 1999 and 2001 there were a number of language meetings around the GY area, with GY people and others coming from many towns. Largely because of the 4 The website www.yuwaalaraay.org provides information on developments in GY. It lists resources, including the Gaay Garay Dhadhin (Picture Dictionary) (Yuwaalaraay and Gamilaraay Language Program, 2006) and has a link to Gayarragi, Winangali, a GY multimedia language resource launched in March 2009. This includes a searchable dictionary with sound, many Yuwaalaraay sentences, stories, songs and games. 404 Re-awakening languages existence of the tapes there is much more Yuwaalaraay information than Gamilaraay. There are some 1600 Yuwaalaraay words (more than double the Gamilaraay recorded) and considerable grammatical information. Over 70% of the words and much of the grammar are the same (Austin, Williams & Wurm 1980, p. 170). The meetings recognised that Gamilaraay revival would be severely limited by this lack of information and decided that, where one language lacked a word or grammatical information, it would use what was known from the other language. Earlier publications 1998 saw a flurry of language work in Walgett. DET provided funding for development of resources and inservicing of prospective language teachers, specifically Aboriginal education workers from Walgett and nearby towns. Marianne Betts (a teacher at Walgett High School) and I prepared a 100-hour high school GY course, with Marianne designing the program and going through the time-consuming process of getting Board of Studies approval for the course. One result was Yaama Maliyaa5 (Giacon & Betts 1999), a text for the Walgett High School program. Yuwaalayaay – Language of the Narran River (Giacon 1998) contains material collected by Ian Sim at Goodooga in the 1950s and edited by me. In 1999, I produced a Yuwaalaraay–Gamilaraay wordlist based on the Austin dictionaries and the wordlist in Williams (Giacon 1999). This, like its sources, generally gave a one word equivalent to the headword. It included the source for each word (Williams [CW] or Austin [PA]), the part of speech and whether each verb was transitive or intransitive. It included an introductory section and three lists of words; GY to English, English to GY, and semantic fields (word groups like fish, and so on). A sample is given below. bundaa-ng V-INT fall CW, PA bundaama-l V-TR knock down CW bundabunda N poison CW The spelling system was largely borrowed from Austin’s earlier dictionaries. There were also some minor changes to entries based mainly on information from the tapes. Users of the list need to know that N means noun and need to know how nouns are used in GY – it is not the same as English. Similarly the ng in bundaa-ng tells you which group of verbs it belongs to, but you then need to know how to use the verb. There is no word bundaang in GY but there are bundaagi (will fall), bundaanhi 5 For a brief introduction to pronunciation of the Gamilaraay–Yuwaalaraay words see yuwaalaraay.org/pronunciation.html, and for a longer explanation, yuwaalaraay.org/lessons/ pron.html Language documentation 405 (fell) and many others formed by adding suffixes to bundaa-. The difference between transitive verbs (TR) and intransitive verbs (INT) is crucial to GY and Aboriginal languages in general. A dictionary requires prior knowledge on the part of the reader if it is to be properly used.6 The first publication that included sound appeared in 2001. Gaay Yuwaalaraay (Giacon 2001) included a CD of Yuwaalaraay words and phrases which had been extracted from the tapes and, for the first time, it was possible for people to learn directly from the pronunciation of the older traditional speakers. Originally the publications were distributed by the Walgett language program, but it became clear that commercial distribution had many advantages. It was also clear that there was a need for a more complete dictionary and a grammar. The latter is still in progress.7 Production of the Gamilaraay, Yuwaalaraay & Yuwaalayaay Dictionary By 1998 the need for a comprehensive dictionary to provide a firm basis for the revival work was clear. There was also new information available from the tape transcripts. There was some funding available – part of a NSW DET grant and contributions from local clubs. Anna Ash had linguistic qualifications and experience and was available, and I was able to work on the project part time. However it was also something very new we were taking on and we knew that more funding would be needed, so it was with some trepidation that work began. Fortunately more funding was provided by ATSIC and the overall expenditure was something over $150 000. Anna Ash gathered material from the old sources and tapes to include in the database, Amanda Lissarrague worked on verbs, and we all worked on the final entries, mostly in telephone meetings. As well there was ongoing consultation with members of the Walgett, Goodooga and Toomelah–Boggabilla programs and others. This covered many areas – layout, wording, design, readability, sale price and more. The final consultation concerned words that might be excluded. There were strong and differing opinions among the Elders and a number of words were excluded from the published dictionary. The final stage included production of the grammar section, proof-reading by the authors and friends, and negotiations with the publishers. What is a dictionary? Typically a dictionary includes many sections. Generally there is an introduction then a list of words and their meanings. Often there is other information for each word; perhaps part of speech, pronunciation, where the word came from and if there are any special rules for its use. There will often be example sentences.