Ngunnawal language

Ngunnawal or Ngunawal is an Australian Aboriginal language, the traditional language of the Ngunnawal people.

Classification

Ngunnawal is currently classified as a member of the Yuin-Kuric subgroup of the large Pama-Nyungan language family.

Prominent place names

Some meanings for Ngunnawal words:

• Kambera - where the name Canberra may have come from, said to mean 'meeting place'

• Tuggeranong, a district of Canberra, comes from the Ngunnawal word for 'cold place' [1]

• Ginninderra - sparkling or 'throwing out little rays of light'. [2] (pdf) Lake Ginninderra and Ginninderra creek in Belconnen has this name.

• Yeal-am-bid-gie is the name for the Molonglo River, recorded by C. THROSBY in 1820 [3]

• Murrumbidgee means "big river" (See Murrumbidgee River )

Other Ngunnawal words

• Mura Gadi means 'pathways for searching' [4]. Gadi by itself means 'searching for', [5] the Gadi Research Centre at the University of Canberra with this name.

• Bimbi - Bird
• Nengi Bamir - See far (View)
• Dulwa - Casurina trees
• Bargang - Melliodora trees
• Yerra - swim
• Gummiuk - bulrushes
• Ngadyung - water
• Nguru - camp
• Mundang - canoe

[6] [7] (pdf format)

• Weereewa - Lake George [8]

• Several Ngunnawal words were used as street names in the suburb of Ngunnawal [9] such as:
  • Gadali - to hunt
  • Guginya - kookaburra
  • Gula - koala
  • Mura - pathway (Also used here [10]
  • Burin - stringybark [11]

• Other explanations for street names in Ngunnawal language listed by the ACT planning and land authority [12]:
  • Bargang - yellow box
  • Bimbiang - shield
  • Birrigai - to laugh
  • Budyan - birds
  • Bunburung - small lizard
  • Burin - stringy bark
  • Burrai - quick
  • Bunduluk - rosella
  • Berra - boomerang
  • Bamir - long
  • Balbo - kangaroo rat
  • Bural - day
  • Gamburra - flowers
  • Giliruk - pee wee
  • Gunyan - slow
  • Gurubun - koala
  • Karrugang - magpie
  • Kudyera - fighting club
  • Mirrabei - the name for tribal elder Matilda Sissy Williams (died 1973)
  • Mulleun - eagle
  • Murrung - lizard
  • Mundawari - bandicoot
  • Nangi - see or look
  • Walga - hawk
  • Warabin - curlew
  • Warrumbul - youth
  • Wirria - tree goanna
  • Yerra - to fly like a bird
  • Yerrabi - to walk
  • Yumba - eel

• Narragunnawali - means 'alive/well-being/ coming together' as used in the Peace Park near the National Library. [13]

• winyu - sun [14]

• umbagong - axe [15] Umbagong district park in Belconnen was named after this.

Possible Ngunnawal words

The Gang-gang Cockatoo is possibly named after a Ngunnawal word

• gang-gang - name for a 'small black cockatoo' (possibly the only non-locality Ngunnawal word in current use - for the Gang-gang Cockatoo, although the word is claimed as being of Wiradhuri origin by another source.) [16]

• Gungahlin - name for a district in Canberra, which gets its name from the homestead built in 1862 by Edward Crace called 'Goongarline' , which is said to be an aboriginal word for 'white man's house', or mean 'wonderful' or 'beautiful'. [17]

• Yhar - running water (town of Yass named after this, where many Ngunnawal people had camped.) [18]

References

Primary sources

Secondary sources

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