Except that in 2011 it wasn't spoken any more. In fact, no one had spoken it since the 1960s, when the Australian Government took away all the Barngala children, put them in orphanages or foster homes, and forced them to speak English.
But that wasn't the end of Barngala, because an Israeli professor at Adelaide University, Ghil'ad Zuckermann, found some records written by two missionaries, the Revd Clamor Wilhelm SchΓΌrmann and Christian Teichelmann, in the mid 1800s, which provided enough information to reconstruct the language.
But who would want to learn it? Why, the Barngala community of the Eyre Peninsula, of course. They were thrilled and happy to be able to learn their own language, and workshops began in 2012.
Most marvellously, a 3000 word dictionary has now been released as a mobile app.
The Barngala phrase of the week is nina yoowa?
It means Are you good? Or, in other words, How are you?
The answer (I trust) is Ngai yoowa (I am good).
Not a lot of people knew that until recently.
Words To Use Today: Ngaidya midyi means My name is...So, in my case, Ngaidya midyi Sally.
So now you can answer the question Noongoo wandyi midyi?
How clever is that?
No comments:
Post a Comment
All comments are very welcome, but please make them suitable for The Word Den's family audience.