Country and Maps  |  Language

Kaya koorda. Wandju wandju nichia Noongar Boodjah. 'Hello friend. Welcome to our country'

 

Noongar is the official language of the Aboriginal people of the south-west of Westen Australia. The word Noongar means 'person of the south-west'. Listen to Joe Northover at Minningup pool on the Collie River talk and sing Noongar language.

 

For nearly two centuries Noongar language has adapted to the impacts of colonisation and survived government reserves and missions, where it was forbidden for us to speak our language. Noongar language has been adapted into the local English vocabulary, notably with places, plants and animals. Consisting of 14 different dialects, Noongar is an oral language and the spelling of it is variable. Non-verbal methods of communication like hand gestures and the avoidance of eye contact are also important components of Noongar communication, particularly when the spoken word may not be used.

 

Dialects

In the late 1930's, anthropologist Norman Tindale identified 14 language groups within Noongar country: Amangu, Yuat, Whadjuk, Binjareb, Wardandi, Balardong, Nyakinyaki, Wilman, Ganeang, Bibulman, Mineng, Goreng, Wudjari and Njunga [i] see Noongar explained. More current is Horton's map of 'Aboriginal Language Boundaries' shown below. It differs slightly from Tindale's in that Horton removed the boundary between Wudjari and Njunja on the south coast near Esperance and named the group Wudjari.

The main difference between the Noongar language groups is pronunciation, but also since the groups are geographically and ecologically distinct, there are regional vocabularies. Some words may only be known in one region of Noongar country, particularly plants which are unique to the local climate and soil type. Overall there are many common words in Noongar, for example: Kaya = hello, Moort = family, Budjar = country and Yonga = kangaroo. These words are used everyday but they sound slightly different from region to region.

 

 

This map is based on adaption of the AIATSIS Aboriginal Australian map (Horton ed.), copyright 1994.[ii]

 

Identity

Speaking Noongar immediately lets everyone know where we come from. It reinforces our group identity that binds land and people. Noongar language is not only a way of communicating; it is a statement to the world of who we are. Although Noongar language is different to that of bordering Aboriginal groups, there are many similar words. The similarities between neighbouring Aboriginal groups to the north and east of Noongar country enable us to cooperate and trade.

 

Language and Trade

While Noongar is identified as a single language, there are several ways of pronouncing it, which is reflected in the spelling: Noongar, Nyungar, Nyoongar, Nyoongah, Nyungah, Nyugah, Yungar and Noonga. The diversity and multiplicity of Noongar language enables us to communicate within groups, as well as with neighbouring Aboriginal people. This is necessary for exchange and particularly useful for trading items made from material unavailable from within our own country. Noongars have been trading in this way for thousands of years. For example, sharp edge tools used by Noongar people were made from hard and sharp sedimentary rock (fossiliferous chert: see below) that was traded up to 500 miles away [iii]. In special Noongar ceremonies, we use shell from northern coastal country, as well as ochre from inland Australia. In recent times, Noongars have used the English language to secure glass and metals to be used as tools.

 

Worked fossiliferous chert. Photograph B. Moore. Courtesy of SWALSC.

 

Place Names

Many places in the south-west have been named by Europeans or after European towns and people, such as Rottnest, Perth and Albany. Yet, there are nearly as many places that have been given Noongar names. The reason for this can be found in an early document from Governor Hutt. In a dispatch of British Parliamentary papers from Western Australia in 1840, Hutt wrote "...it is only an act of fair justice to the first inhabitants or discoverers of any spot, to retain the name that they may have conferred upon it."[iv]

 

Knowing the Noongar language can open up a new world into our culture and also give a sense of place. In Noongar, Rottnest, Perth and Albany are known as Wadjemup, Gabbi Darbal and Kinjarling. Noongar names provide significant information about that place: Wadjemup is the place 'where the spirits go'; Gabbi Darbal means estuary [v], 'the place where salt and freshwaters mix' and Kinjarling is 'place where it rains a lot'. About 20 per cent of Perth suburbs are named after Noongar words, like Balga, Beeliar, Willagee and Mirrabooka. See suburb names. The names of many south-west towns are Noongar in origin: Gidgegannup (place to make spears), Ongerup (place of the male kangaroo) and Goomalling (place to find possum).

 

Watch Noongar of the Beeliar for a sense of place around the Swan River.

 

Plant and Animal Names

Adopted into the local English language are also many Noongar plant and animal names: Marri, Karri, Jarrah, Quenda (Bandicoot), Quokka and Jilgie. Early explorers had no English names for many of the species that only occur in the south-west of WA. Much of the biodiversity in Noongar country is endemic or found nowhere else in the world [vi]. In this way, names, knowledge and the habitat of south-west plants and animals share an identity with, and are locally understood by Noongar people.

 

Noongar Language Studies

Early attempts to develop Noongar word lists were done by explorers and colonists like Flinders, King and Nind at Albany. Since European settlement in 1829, there have been further studies of Noongar language. In 1833, Lyon published articles on Noongar customs manners and dialects [vii]. George Fletcher Moore published 'A Descriptive Vocabulary of the Language in Common Use Amongst the Aborigines of Western Australia' in 1842 and included the descriptive vocabulary in his 'Diary of Ten years of an Early Settler in Western Australia' (1884) [viii].

 

In 1840, George Grey published 'A Vocabulary of the Dialects of South West Australia' in London [ix]. Notes from Grey's Journals of Two Expeditions of Discovery in North West and Western Australia, Vol. 2, (of 2) published in 1841, identify a common language between Perth and King George's Sound (Albany) [x]. The memoirs of Bishop Rosendo Salvado from New Norcia were published in 1851. They contain a word list of local Noongar people from the Victoria Plains [xi]. The efforts of others who were conversant, and in some cases, fluent in local Noongar language, such as Brady, Hutt, Armstrong, Symmons and Bussell of Vasse, were acknowledged in many of the published works.

 

In 1992, the Western Australian Museum published a basic word list by Bindon and Chadwick which contains an assemblage of word lists described above, as well as work from Curr, Bates and Hassell [xii]. While this work is not a conventional dictionary, it does provide two lists in alphabetical order - the first consisting of Noongar words, and the second of English equivalent words or phrases. The list also provides a reference to the original source from where the word was recorded but it does not place them into any grammatical context.  A Noongar dictionary was compiled by Rosemary Whitehurst for the 'Noongar Language and Cultural Centre'[xiii].

 

Noongar Grammar

In Noongar language, words are ordered differently to those in English. The subject comes before the verb in English and the object follows, but in Noongar, the word order is subject - object - verb. To explain that men are hunting kangaroo, in Noongar we say, 'yonga maam ngardanginy'. Translated into English this would be yonga = kangaroo, maam = men and ngardanginy = hunting.

 

Impact of English and Settlement on Noongar Language

Through the 1800's and up to the mid-20th century, Noongar children weren't allowed to speak their language in schools and missions. While missions set out to break the chain of learning, grouping Noongars together allowed parents and Elders to continue to pass language onto the younger generation. In this way, Noongar language has been kept alive.

 

If a Noongar wanted to become a citizen, he or she had to renounce their Noongar identity and were not permitted to speak their language or communicate with family or friends. This was orchestrated by the government of the day to abolish Noongar language and identity.

 

Doolan Leisha Eatts talks about Badjaling reserve and how the missionaries stopped the children from speaking Noongar. 'And that was only one thing, the other thing was to teach 'em not to talk in their language, to teach 'em to talk in the English'.

 

Language Living On

Noongar language has survived despite the impact of settlement and dominance of English. The custom of teaching Noongar continues to be handed down from Elders to children. In the past, a fly lizard was put on a child's tongue for them to learn how to pronounce Noongar language (personal comment, Kevin Fitzgerald). Today, there are many Noongar language classes in schools and TAFE. Noongar people are often invited to speak our language at opening ceremonies and at places which have long been sacred to us.

 

There are several projects which have begun to record the oral history and language of older Noongar men and women. Efforts have been made in our Noongar community to re-invigorate language. Classes for Noongar and non-Noongar alike aid in the transmission of knowledge. Revival of our language is also evident with Noongar being taught in addition to English, in primary schools like Carralee in Willagee, Morditj Noongar in Middle Swan, Ashfield Primary School and Djidi Djidi School at Bunbury. The Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education has been working towards revitalising Noongar language. In the Yallingup region, the Wardan Centre brings an increased understanding of our language and culture through education programmes.

 

Rosezanna Jetta learning Noongar language from Charmaine Bennell at Djidi Djidi school in Bunbury. Photo courtesy of The West Australian.

 

References

[i] Tindale, N.B. Aborigines of Australia. ANU Press, Canberra, 1974.

[ii] This map is just one representation of many other map sources that are available for Aboriginal Australia. Using published resources available between 1988-1994 this map attempts to represent all the language or tribal or nation groups of the Indigenous people of Australia. It indicates only the general location of larger groupings of people which may include smaller groups such as clans, dialects or individual languages in a group. Boundaries are not intended to be exact. This map is NOT SUITABLE FOR USE IN NATIVE TITLE AND OTHER LAND CLAIMS. David R Horton, creator, copyright, Aboriginal Studies Press, AIATSIS and Auslig/Sinclair, Knight, Mertz, 1996. No reproduction allowed without permission.

[iii] Glover, J.E. and Cockbain, A.E. Transported Aboriginal Artefact Material, 1971 Perth Basin, Australia. Nature 234 (5331) pp.545-546.

[iv] Despatch from Hutt to Marquis of Normanby, 11 Feb 1840 with enclosure, BPP, Papers relating to Aboriginies, Australian Colonies, 1844, Colonies, Australia, Vol 8, Shannon University Press, 1968. pp. 372-3.

[v] Bates, D. Aboriginal Perth. Bibbulmun Biographies and Legends. P.J. Bridge (ed.), Hesperian Press, Carlisle, 1992.

[vi] Beard, J.S., Chapman, A.R. and Gioia, P. Species Richness and Endemism in the Western Australian Flora. 2000. Journal of Biogeography 27: 1257-1268.

[vii] Lyon, R.M. 'A Glance at the Manners and Language of the Aboriginal Inhabitants of Western Australia; With a Short Vocabulary'. 1833 In Green, N. 1979 (ed.), Nyungar - The people: Aboriginal Customs in the Southwest of Australia. Creative Research and Mt Lawley College, Perth. pp. 148-180.

[viii] Moore, G.F. A Descriptive Vocabulary of the Language in Common Use Amongst the Aborigines of Western Australia. 1884b London.

[ix] Grey, G. A Vocabulary of the Dialects of South West Australia. 1840 L. and W. Boone, London.

[x] Grey, G. Journals of Two Expeditions of Discovery in North-West and Western Australia, During the years 1837, 38 and 39, under the authority of Her Majesty's Government. Describing many newly discovered, important, and fertile districts, with observations on the moral and physical condition of the Aboriginal Inhabitants, 1841 &c. &c. T. and W. Boone,  29 New Bond Street.

[xi] Salvado, Dom Rosendo Memorie Storiche dell'Australia. 1851 (edited and translated in 1977 by E.J. Storman).

[xii] Bindon and Chadwick A Nyoongar Wordlist from the South-West of Western Australia. 1992. Published by the Western Australian Museum, Francis street, Perth, Western Australia 6000.

[xiii] Whitehurst, R. Noongar Dictionary. 1992 Noongar Language and Culture Centre.

 

Related archive materials

Perth suburbs with Aboriginal place names

Joe Northover talks about the spirituality of Minningup Pool on the Collie River, the resting place of the Waugal, and the Bilyagul, the river people

Noongar of the Beeliar - Swan River

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