Ngaanyatjarra Word List

(Revised edition)

Ngaanyatjarra Word List (Revised Edition)

Compiled by
Amee Glass

with meaning & spelling assistance from
Bernard Newberry

Ngaanyatjarra Bible Project
Alice Springs

2005

Ngaanyatjarra Word List

INTRODUCTION

The Ngaanyatjarra Word List is designed to be a simple reference book for people having contact with the Ngaanyatjarra language. Ngaanyatjarra, and its closely related dialect, Ngaatjatjarra are spoken by approximately 1,000 people living at Warburton, Jameson (Mantamaru), Blackstone (Papulankutja), Giles (Warakurna), Tjukurla, Tjirrkarli, and Laverton in Western Australia. A few speakers also live at Docker River in the Northern Territory.

The first edition of the Ngaanyatjarra Word List (1975) was particularly designed for the use of teachers involved in bilingual programmes using the Ngaanyatjarra language. For this reason it contained additional listings of words grouped together according to the sounds within them. These lists have been deleted from the current edition. However an English to Ngaanyatjarra section has been added. Also because of the more general purpose of this edition about 700 words have been added giving a total of approximately 1600 words.

Since this volume is only a word list and not a full-scale dictionary (which hopefully will be produced in a few years time) it does not attempt to list every word. Often there will be three related words such as the following series:

• karli-karli crooked
• karli-karlirringu became crooked
• karli-karlirnu made crooked

In such instances usually only one word is listed as it is believed that the reader will be able to recognise and understand the related form.

As you use the English to Ngaanyatjarra section, you may notice a large number of Ngaanyatjarra entries for any one word. Many of these will be exact synonyms. This is largely due to the custom of not using the name of any deceased person. In addition any word that sounds like his name will not be used and another word will be substituted. These substitute words often come from the neighbouring languages of Pintupi and Pitjanytjatjarra and sometimes even from English. Only time will tell whether these words will become a lasting part of the language or whether their usage will lapse after a time.

Ngaanyatjarra Word List

Acknowledgements

I wish to thank my colleague Dorothy Hackett for comments and untiring assistance in the preparation of this word list. Especial thanks also to Bernard Newbery, a Ngaanyatjarra speaker of Warakurna W.A. for his careful checking of the meaning and spelling of each entry. I also wish to thank John Fletcher, of the computer department of the Australian Aborigines and Islander Branch of the Summer Institute of Linguistics for help with the layout of this book. Thanks also to Greg Leach of the Arid Zone Research Institute, Alice Springs and Arpad Kalotas of the W.A. Museum for assistance with the identification of plants and trees.

The Ngaanyatjarra Alphabet

There are 23 meaningful sounds (phonemes) in Ngaanyatjarra. These sounds are symbolized consistently - thus making it easy to read. Because some of these sounds don't occur in English, it has been necessary to symbolize them by double letters (digraphs). Eleven of the 23 sounds are symbolized by double letters. The alphabet is as follows:

a,aa,i,ii,k,l,ly,m,n,ng, ny, p, r,rl,rn, rr, rt, t, tj,u,uu, w,y.

A number of sounds do not occur at the beginning of words. Therefore the alphabetical listing occurs under the following letters:

k, l, m, n, ng, ny, p, r, t, tj, w, y.

The user of this word list may hear words beginning with a, i, or u and may wonder where to find them in this list. These would be Pitjanytjatjarra words and would usually be found under 'y' in the Ngaanyatjarra Word List. In Ngaanyatjarra no words begin with vowels, while this is quite common in Pitjanytjatjarra.

"e.g. Pitjanytjatjarra anu 'went' Ngaanyatjarra yanu
uwa 'yes' yuwa
ilkari 'sky' yilkari

You may also be puzzled by the fact that you cannot hear the 'rr' in words such as lurrtju or wirrtjarnu. It is in fact inaudible in Ngaanyatjarra although pronounced in other closely related languages. Since it is a pronunciation rule in Ngaanyatjarra that interdentals are palatalized after ' ', 'n', and 'rr', it is necessary to write the 'rr' in words such as these to indicate that purrtju is pronounced differently from putjurrpa.

Ngaanyatjarra Word List

PRONUNCIATION GUIDE

Sounds Having English Equivalents

a

as in 'about'

W

as in 'wet'

i

as in 'radio'

y

as in 'yet'

u

as in 'put'

p

as in 'spike' not 'pike'

m

as in 'mat'

t

as in 'stake' not 'take'

n

as in 'nut'

k

as in 'skate' not 'Kate'

1

as in 'let'

ng

as in 'singer'

r

as in 'rake'

rr

as in Scottish 'run' (alveolar)

aa

as 'ar' in 'cart'

ii

as 'ee' in 'seen'

uu

as 'or' in 'corner'

Sounds not Having English Equivalents

Dentals (Tongue between or against teeth)

tj

as in katja 'son'

ny

as in nyangu 'saw'

ly

as in palya 'all right'

Retroflex (Tongue turned up to roof of mouth)

rt

as in warta 'tree'

rn

as in parna 'ground'

rl

as in marlu 'kangaroo'

The stress falls on the first syllable of each word. vii

Ngaanyatjarra Word List

Section 1

K

1

Ngaanyatjarra Word List

2

Ngaanyatjarra Word List

3

Ngaanyatjarra Word List

4

Section 1

Ngaanyatjarra Word List

5

6

Ngaanyatjarra Word List Section 1

L

7

M

8

Ngaanyatjarra Word List

Section 1

M

9

Ngaanyatjarra Word List

Section 1

M

10

Ngaanyatjarra Word List

Section 1

M

11

Ngaanyatjarra Word List

Section 1

M

N

12