How to say “This is us” in Diyari

We saw in an earlier blog post that there are two ways in Diyari to say “This is me” — if you are female then you would say nhaniya nganhi and if you are male you would say nhawuya nganhi. This is because nhaniya means ‘this (female)’ and nhawuya means ‘this (not female)’.

When it comes to saying “This is us” then there are four ways to say this in Diyari. If there are just two people then we say:

pulaya ngaldra ‘These two are you and me’ (including the person you are talking to)

pulaya ngali ‘These two are someone else and me’ (excluding the person you are talking to)

If there are three or more people then we say:

thanaya ngayana ‘These three or more are you and us’ (including the person you are talking to)

thanaya ngayani ‘These three or more are someone else and me’ (excluding the person you are talking to)

For more information about pulaya and thanaya look at this blog post.

Advanced: more about “this” and “that” and “these” and “those” in Diyari

In the previous blog posts here and here, we learned that in the Diyari language there many ways to say “this” and “that” depending on what you are talking about or who you are talking to. These are the words we looked at:

nhaniya	‘this one (female)’
nhawuya	‘this one (not female)’
nhaniwa	‘that one (female)’
nhawuwa	‘that one (not female)’
pulaya	‘these two’
pulawa	‘those two’
thanaya	‘these three or more’
thanawa	‘those three or more’

Listed above are the basic terms that we use in sentences like ‘… is me’ or ‘… is going’. In other contexts, different terms are used, built upon these basic terms. Here is the full set that is found in Diyari (see my Grammar of Diyari for more details — it is free to download here).

For “this” and “these”:

Function	this one female	this one not female	these two	these three or more
active subject	nhandruya	nhuluya	pulaliya	thanaliya
object	nhanhaya	nhinhaya	pulanhaya	thananhaya
possessor	nhangkarniya	nhungkarniya	pularniya	thanarniya
with, to	nhangkanguya	nhungkanguya	pulanguya	thananguya
from	nhangkangundruya	nhungkangundruya	pulangundruya	thanangundruya

For “that” and “those”:

Function	that one female	that one not female	those two	those three or more
active subject	nhandruwa	nhuluwa	pulaliwa	thanaliwa
object	nhanhawa	nhinhawa	pulanhawa	thananhawa
possessor	nhangkarniwa	nhungkarniwa	pularniwa	thanarniwa
with, to	nhangkanguwa	nhungkanguwa	pulanguwa	thananguwa
from	nhangkangundruwa	nhungkangundruwa	pulangundruwa	thanangundruwa

Here are some examples of these various terms:

nhandruya mankarrali pulanhawa kanku nhayirna warayi This girl saw those two boys

nhaniwa widlha yathayi thananguya pinarranhi That woman is talking to these three or more old men

pulaya kupa thanarniwa walypalaya mindrirna warayi nhungkangundruwa ngurandru These two children belonging to those three or more white people ran away from that camp

This system might look complicated when we list out all the different terms, but with some practice you will be able to understand and use them all in their correct context.

How to say “these” and “those” in Diyari

In the previous blog post we learned that in the Diyari language there are basically two terms that are used to say “this” and two other terms that are used to say “that”, depending on whether we are talking about or talking to people or animals that are female and those which are not female (that is, they are male, or neutral or unknown, such as worms or ants). We use nhaniya for ‘this one (female)’ and nhawuya for ‘this one (not female)’, and nhaniwa ‘that one (female)’ and nhawuwa ‘that one (not female)’.

These are the words we use for one person, animal or thing — for two there is just one term and no difference between female and not female. So, we have pulaya ‘these two’ and pulawa ‘those two’, as in:

Pulaya mankarra wapayi nguraya These two girls are going to the camp

Pulaya kanku wapayi nguraya These two boys are going to the camp

Notice that in Diyari ordinary words do not have to change for one (singular) or more than one (plural), unlike English (‘boy’ –> ‘boys’, ‘child’ –> ‘children’ etc.). If you want to, you can add the ending –wurlu to indicate ‘two …’ or ‘a pair of …’ (e.g. mankarrawurlu ‘two girls, a pair of girls’ and kankuwurlu ‘two boys, a pair of boys’), but this is not necessary.

The same pattern applies when talking about things far away (“those”), so we say pulawa for ‘those two’ regardless of whether we are talking about females or others, as in:

Pulawa mankarra wapayi nguraya Those two girls are going to the camp

Pulawa kanku wapayi nguraya Those two boys are going to the camp

If we are talking about three or more people, animals or things then we use thanaya ‘these three or more’ and thanawa ‘those three or more’, as in:

Thanaya mankarra wapayi nguraya These three or more girls are going to the camp

Thanaya kanku wapayi nguraya These three or more boys are going to the camp

Thanawa mankarra wapayi nguraya Those three or more girls are going to the camp

Thanawa kanku wapayi nguraya Those three or more boys are going to the camp

Again, notice that in Diyari ordinary words do not have to change for one (singular) or more than one (plural), unlike English. If you want to, you can add the ending –wara to indicate ‘three or more …’ (e.g. mankarrawara ‘three or more girls’ and kankuwara ‘three or more boys’), but this is not necessary.

How to say “this” and “that” in Diyari

In the Diyari language, there are basically two terms that are used to say “this” and two other terms that are used to say “that”. Diyari makes a fundamental difference between talking about people or animals that are female and those which are not female (that is, they are male, or neutral or unknown, such as worms or ants). We use nhaniya for ‘this one (female)’ and nhawuya for ‘this one (not female)’, as in:

Nhaniya mankarra wapayi nguraya This girl is going to the camp

Nhawuya kanku wapayi nguraya This boy is going to the camp

The same difference applies when talking about things far away (“that”), so we use nhaniwa for ‘that one (female)’ and nhawuwa for ‘that one (not female)’, as in:

Nhaniwa mankarra wapayi nguraya That girl is going to the camp

Nhawuwa kanku wapayi nguraya That boy is going to the camp

It is important to remember this difference when describing or pointing to people, such as in a picture. To say “this is me” there are two different sentences, depending on whether the person speaking is male or female:

Nhaniya nganhi This is me (when a female is speaking)

Nhawuya nganhi This is me (when a male is speaking)

The same is true in the following:

Nhaniwa nganhi That is me (when a female is speaking)

Nhawuwa nganhi That is me (when a male is speaking)

When it comes to speaking to someone, then what we say will depend on whether that person is female or male, as in:

Nhaniya yidni This is you (when talking to a female)

Nhawuya yidni This is you (when talking to a male)

Nhaniwa yidni That is you (when talking to a female)

Nhawuwa yidni That is you (when talking to a male)

There are also different ways to say “this” and “that” if we are talking about or talking to more than one person — we will discuss this in the next blog post.

P.S. My thanks to Aunty Rene Warren for reminding me of the importance of nhaniya versus nhawuya in a Diyari language meeting in Port Augusta this week.