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.

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.

Yawarra madlhantyi

Update: click here to listen to the podcast of this blog entry.

Every language in the world has yawarra madlhantyi ‘bad words’ which should not be used if we are aiming to be polite, and Diyari is no exception. In an earlier post (here), we mentioned the word nhari ‘dead’, but as Reuther points out in his Dictionary (in entry 209) it should only be used about non-humans, like animals or plants:

[The phrase] kana nari ‘dead man’ was regarded as jaura madlentji ‘bad words’, and offensive to [loved ones] left behind. The descriptive, nari ‘dead’, was applied only in the case of dead animals or of dried up plants, trees and shrubs. One experiences time and again that the Aborigines would like to have [the term] nari unused as much as possible.

As we noted in the earlier post, there are various specific terms to refer to people whose children or parents have passed away. In Diyari, polite expressions are called yawarra miltyamiltya ‘soft words’.

Another area that is considered impolite is talk about bodily functions that are carried out in private. For example, the verb kipara-rna ‘to urinate, pee’ should only be used to speak about animals, and for human beings the expression malthiri-rna should be used instead — this is made up of malthi ‘cool’, the ending -ri- which means ‘to become’, and the verb ending –rna, so it literally means ‘to become cool’. This indirect polite expression is also used in other neighbouring languages, like Arabana and Wangkanguru.

An example of the use of this polite expression can be found in a story that Ben Murray once told. He was describing how he found two lost children by following the tracks and signs of where they had been. He says about the lost little girl:

ngathu thidna nhayiyi, wardayari nhani malthirini

‘I saw the track where she had relieved herself’

This is made up of the following words:

• ngathu — ‘I’ (used for the subject of the sentence)
• thidna — ‘foot, track’
• nhayiyi — ‘see’, made up of the root nhayi-rna ‘to see’ and the ending -yi indicating ‘present tense, something happening now’
• wardayari — ‘where’ (some speakers also say wirdirdi)
• nhani — ‘she’
• malthirini — ‘had urinated, had become cool’, made up of malthi ‘cool’, -ri- ‘become’ and –ni ‘happened before and was completed’ (note that this ending can only be used if the subject of the action is different from the subject of the main action — in this case ‘she’ is different from ‘I’)

Finally, here is another example of politeness, but one involving social relationships. Diyari has an ending –mara that is added to kinship terms to refer to a group of people, at least one of whom is called by the others using that term. For example, ngandri means ‘mother’ and ngandrimara is ‘a group consisting of mother and her children’ (another example would be kadnhinimara ‘grandmother and her grandchildren’ from kadnhini ‘mother’s mother, daughter’s daughter’). Now when it comes to brothers and sisters, Diyari has separate words kaku ‘elder sister’, and nhiyi ‘elder brother’ but only one term for younger brothers and sisters, namely ngathata. Now the term ngathatamara ‘group of people at least one of whom is called ngathata by the others’ can be used to refer to a group or brothers, or sisters, or a mixed group of brothers and sisters. However, when you are speaking about a group of brothers or sisters to your older brother you should say nhiyimara, not ngathatamara, because using the expression based on the term for younger ones is considered to be impolite, and an insult to the older brother.

Kararaya yawarra — word of the day: parlu

Today we look at the Diyari word parlu which is sometimes translated into English as ‘naked’ and ‘bare’, but it also has a wider range of other uses. In addition, it is found in some idioms about thinking — idioms are ways of speaking where the parts do not necessarily add up to the meaning of the whole (like English ‘kick the bucket’ to mean ‘to die’).

By using information in the Reuther-Scherer Diari dictionary (see here) and our own work with Diyari speakers, we can find the following examples showing the different uses of parlu:

1. A part of the body, with no hair or markings on it:
   • karna parlu hairless person
   • kupa parluparlu newly-born child
   • mangathandra parlu bare head; bald head without hair on it
   • nyurdu parlu person without any body hair
   • marna parlu bare mouth, a man without a moustache
   • mudlha parlu  bare, beardless face
   • ngarnka parlu bare beard, a man with a shaved-off beard
   • thuku parlu a man with a smooth back, without scars or cicatrices.
   • thidna parlu soft, smooth feet
   • pirda parlu bare navel, birds that have lost their feathers
2. A bare part of nature, with nothing covering it:
   • mitha parlu bare ground, without any plants or bushes on it
   • palthu parlu a clear, bare track, with no grass growing on it
   • pariwirlpa parlu bare sky, cloudless sky
   • thalara parlu sheer rain, when the sky is covered with virtually black clouds
   • piti parlu cloudless horizon
   • pirta parlu bare tree
   • pantu parlu a lake-bed with no trees or bushes growing on it
   • yawa parlu wild onion that has had the skin peeled off
   • nganthi parlu an animal that has had its hair singed off in hot ashes, ready for cooking
3. A smooth object with no markings on it:
   • marda parlu smooth stone
   • panyi parlu small, smooth sticks
   • kalthi parlu smooth spear
   • kira parlu boomerang without any engraved markings on it
   • pirra parlu coolamon without any engraved markings on it
4. An empty object with nothing in it:
   • mingka parlu an empty burrow, without footprints leading to the entrance
5. Idioms of ways of thinking:
   • thiri parlu smooth anger, where everybody is angry with one another
   • yawarra parlu  smooth words, that are aimed to flatter others
   • manu parlu  even temperament, not getting angry
   • tharlpa parlu  a person who listens attentively and obeys (literally ’empty ears’)
   • mara parlu  a man who has no helpers (literally ’empty hands’)

It is possible to create Diyari words from parlu using the endings -ri-rna ‘to become …’, -ri-pa-rna ‘to cause to become …;, -lha ‘associated with …;, and -yitya ‘habitually connected to …’. Here are some examples with –ri-rna ‘to become’:

• nyurdu parlu-ri-rna for a body to become naked of hair, when the body hairs are singed off
• mangathandra parlu-ri-rna for a head to grow bald
• ngura parlu-ri-rna for a place or camp to become empty of people
• kantha parlu-ri-rna for grass to dry off and the ground become bare
• pirta parlu-ri-rna for a tree to shed its leaves
• yawarra parlu-ri-rna for words to become smooth, for various opinions to become reconciled
• manu parlu-ri-rna for ideas to meet with agreement
• ngulku parlu-ri-rna for an accusation to become unanimous, as when people agree in their judgement over the actions of another
• tyilpi parlu-ri-rna to even out disagreement and convince someone to [adopt] the same point of view

Here are some examples with –ri-pa-rna ‘to cause’:

• nganthi parlu-ri-pa-rna to singe the hairs off an animal, in preparation for cooking it
• yawa parlu-ri-pa-rna to peel the skin off wild onions
• kapi parlu-ri-pa-rna to shell an egg
• mitha parlu-ri-pa-rna to sweep and smooth the ground, as the wind does by clearing everything away, or a flood does by clearing the ground and filling hollow places with water

Finally, here are a couple of other examples based on parlu with added endings:

• parlu-lha a person who has no friends and has to rely on himself alone (literally, ‘a bare one’)
• parlu-yitya the sole surviving relative, a person whose relatives have all died (literally ‘one who is habitually bare’)

Learning the Diyari language – Songs

The Diyari Language Blog is not a series of language lessons, and is not meant by itself to teach you how to speak or learn Diyari. The best way to do that is to work together with a member of the Dieri community and follow their pronunciation and expression as a model. Audio recordings can also be a useful help. However, with a bit of effort you can learn about the vocabulary and structure of Diyari, and how the language is used by working your way through the various blog posts on topics you might be interested in (see the list of Categories on the bottom left of this page).

Today, we present a listing of posts about songs, arranged according to their context and their level of difficulty – we suggest you work through them in the order of this listing. If you click on the links you will find sound recordings for most of them that you can listen to and/or download for yourself.

Let us know in the comments below if you enjoyed the songs or if you have any questions about them, or anything to do with the Diyari language.

Children’s songs

1. Naidoc 2017: kupaya wima – “Children’s song” link
2. Mangathandra, pilpiri, pantya, thidna – “Head, shoulders, knees and toes” link
3. Diyari wima – “Diyari songs” translation of “Old MacDonald had a farm” link
4. Ngayani Australiamara – “We are Australian” link

Adult’s songs

1. Ngayani yathayatharna warrayi – “We talked to each other” includes the Diyari translation of the chorus for the song “The Cooper’s coming down” by Chris Dodd link
2. Folsom Prisonanhi – translation of “Folsom Prison Blues” by Johnny Cash link
3. Folsom Prisonanhi mandru – second part of translation of “Folsom Prison Blues” by Johnny Cash link
4. Folsom Prisonanhi parkulu – third part of translation of “Folsom Prison Blues” by Johnny Cash link
5. Folsom Prisonanhi mandru-mandru – fourth part of translation of “Folsom Prison Blues” by Johnny Cash link

A traditional song

• Kudnarri wima – “Curlew song” link

Kararaya yawarra — word of the day: mudlha

Today we look at the Diyari word mudlha (also pronounced mulha) which can be translated into English as ‘face’ and ‘nose’, but also has a wider range of other uses. It is also found in a lot of idioms — ways of speaking where the parts do not necessarily add up to the meaning of the whole (like English ‘kick the bucket’ to mean ‘to die’).

Here are some examples showing the different uses:

1. ‘nose’
   • thanali muku kurrarna wanthiyi mudlhanhi ‘They used to put a bone in their noses long ago’
   • mudlha kilthi ‘snot, nasal mucus’
   • mudlha murru ‘dried crust of snot under the nose’
   • mudlha kumarri ‘nosebleed’
   • mudla wirlpa ‘nostril, hole in nose’
   • mudla durru ‘hook of the nose’
   • mudlha ngankarna ‘to rub the nose’ (ngankarna generally means ‘to do, make’)
   • nganhi mudlha pununu parrayi ‘my nose is itching’. People believe that when your nose itches then someone must be talking about you behind your back.
2. ‘tip of a body part’
   • mara mudlha ‘tip of the finger’ (mara means ‘hand, finger’)
   • thidna mudla ‘tiptoe’ (thidna means ‘foot, toe’)
3. ‘tip or edge of something in nature’
   • ngarrimatha mudlha ‘the edge of rising flood waters’
   • wathara mudlha ‘the edge of an approaching windstorm’
   • daku mudlha ‘the point of a sandhill’
   • karirri mudlha ‘the line of trees marking the edge of watercourse or creek’
   • pirta mulha ‘the thick end of a fallen tree’
   • kalku mudlha ‘the bottom end of a reed where is is broken off the root or stalk’
4. ‘tip or end of something that people make’
   • katu mudlha ‘the end of a windbreak’
   • palthu mudlha ‘the end of a road or path’
   • marda mudlha ‘the pointed end of a grinding stone’
5. ‘face’
   • mudlha ngumu ‘beautiful, attractive face’
   • mudlha manyu ‘friendly face’
   • mudlha kurlikirri ‘clean washed face’
   • mudlha dulyardulya ‘dirty face’
   • mudlha malka ‘stripes painted on the face’. Traditionally, when someone died the women would paint their faces with black and white stripes using charcoal and gypsum

Here are some idioms that use mudlha where the overall meaning is not predictable from the other words in the expression:

• mudlha putyu (literally ‘face blind’) ‘not paying attention when something bad could be predicted to happen’, for example, minhandru yundru kupa yinparna warayi ngapa padninhi? Yidni mudlha putyu?. ‘Why did you send the children out without any water? Couldn’t you see (they would nearly die of thirst)?
• mudlha yarkirna (literally ‘face burn’) ‘to look angry’
• mudlha pirtarirna (literally ‘face become wood’) ‘to become sullen, surly, glum’
• mudlha wararna (literally ‘face throw’) ‘to pull a long face, to look sad or disapproving’
• mudlha thiri pardakarna (literally ‘face angry take’) ‘to make up, become reconciled with someone’. When two people are upset with each other meet and make up then they take the angry faces away.
• mudlha wathirna (literally ‘face search’) ‘to look for someone among a group of people’
• mudlha punthiparna (literally ‘face separate’) ‘to separate people into two groups and send them on their way’
• mudlha matharna (literally ‘nose bite’) ‘to give someone the cold shoulder, for a woman to turn down an offer of marriage’
• mudlha murruwarna (literally ‘nose scratch’) ‘to beat around the bush, to ask for something indirectly’
• mudlha ngurdarna (literally ‘face stretch’) ‘to hurry ahead of someone’
• mudlha kutya (literally ‘face feather’) ‘leader of a revenge expedition’. Traditionally, when someone died a group of men called a pinya would be sent out to avenge the death by killing someone from another group. The leader of the pinya is called mudlha kutya because they have feathers stuck on their face with blood.

Words in the examples :

daku	sandhill
dulyardulya	dirty
durru	bent over
kalku	reed
karirri	creek, watercourse
katu	windbreak
kilthi	juice, liquid
kumarri	blood
kupa	child, children
kurlikirri	clean
kurrarna	to put
kutya	feather of a bird (not emu)
malka	mark, line, stripe
manyu	good, sweet
mara	hand, finger
marda	stone, rock, money
matharna	to bite
minhandru	why?
muku	bone
murru	crust
murruwarna	to scratch
ngankarna	to make, to do
ngapa	water
ngarrimatha	flood
ngumu	good
ngurdarna	to stretch
padni	none, nothing
palthu	road, path
parrayi	is lying down (of inanimate objects)
pinya	revenger expedition
pirta	tree, wood
pirtarirna	to be come wood
punthiparna	to separate, divide in two
pununu	itchy
putyu	blind
thidna	foot, toe
wararna	to throw
wathara	wind
wirlpa	hole in solid object
yarkirna	to burn
yinparna	to send

Nhawurdatha nganhi!

Here is the comic we presented in the last blog post:

Here is what the two characters (Thidnamara ‘Frog’ on the left, and Mawakantyi ‘Greedy’ on the right) are saying:

Thidnamara:	wardaru yini mawakantyi? ‘How are you?’
Mawakantyi:	matya nganhi manyu ‘I’m fine’
Thidnamara:	waranha nhaniya? ‘Who is she?’
Mawakantyi:	nhaniya ngakarni papa ‘She is my aunt’
Thidnamara:	waranha nhawurda? ‘Who is he?’
Mawakantyi:	nhawurda ngakarni kaka ‘He’s my uncle’
Mawakantyi:	nhawurdatha nganhi! ‘This is me!’

The English translation misses some important parts of the meaning in the Dieri original because English does not have a way to express certain concepts, like the distance someone is from the speaker. Notice that Frog uses nhaniya to refer to the aunt who is a little distance away, using the ending -ya. But when he points to the uncle who is understood to be right close by he uses nhawurda with the ending -rda that means ‘close by’. Similarly, when Greedy sees himself on the computer screen he uses nhawurda because it is close by (he could reach out and touch it) — he also adds the ending -tha which indicates old information, something that everyone can see and know about. Notice if the character was female she would say nhanirdatha nganhi! ‘This is me!’ using the female term for ‘this, she’.

You can use these expressions by yourself or in a group to practise Dieri in several ways. One possibility is to draw pictures of your relatives (and yourself!) and write the term for their relation to you in Dieri under the picture. Then place them on a table at various distances away and practice saying things like nhawurda ngakarni kaka ‘This (right here) is my uncle’ or nhaniwa ngakarni ngandri ‘That (far away) is my mother’. You can also do this with a friend as question and answer pairs, like:

Question: waranha yingkarni kaka ‘Who is your uncle?’
Answer: nhawurda ngakarni kaka ‘This (nearby) is my uncle’

or:

Question: nhaniya yingkarni kaku kara yingkarni ngathata ‘Is this your older sister or your younger sister?’
Answer: nhaniya ngakarni kaku ‘This is my older sister’

If you can use Powerpoint you can also scan the pictures with their Dieri relation terms, and create a Powerpoint show with them, one on each slide, and then narrate the slides in Dieri as you present them. You can end your presentation with nhawurdatha nganhi! or nhanirdatha nganhi!, depending on whether you are male or female.

Note: Thanks to Greg Wilson and the Dieri Language Committee for sharing some of the materials and ideas in this blog post.

Waranha nhawurda?

Today’s comic talks about different relations:

Here is what the two characters (Thidnamara ‘Frog’ on the left, and Mawakantyi ‘Greedy’ on the right) are saying — to help understand them you might have a look back at this blog post and this blog post. For some of the dialogue listen to the recordings of Aunty Rene and Aunty Winnie below:

Thidnamara:	wardaru yini mawakantyi?
Mawakantyi:	matya nganhi manyu
Thidnamara:	waranha nhaniya?
Mawakantyi:	nhaniya ngakarni papa
Thidnamara:	waranha nhawurda?
Mawakantyi:	nhawurda ngakarni kaka
Mawakantyi:	nhawurdatha nganhi!

Listen to Aunty Rene and Aunty Winnie saying part of the dialogue:

nhaniya ngakarni papa

nhawurda ngakarni kaka

nhawurdatha nganhi!

In the next blog post we will look at the translation of this dialogue and also some ways it can be used in language learning activities, either by yourself or in a group, such as in a classroom.

Note: Thanks to Greg Wilson and the Dieri Language Committee for sharing their sound recordings.

Nhingkirda, nhingkiya, nhingkiwa, nhaka

The previous blog post presented a comic where the characters talk about ‘this’ and ‘that’ and ‘here’ and ‘there’ in Dieri. Here it is again:

Here is what the two characters are saying (Warrangantyu means ‘left, left-hand’ and is the character on the left, and Ngunyari means ‘right, right-hand’ and is the character on the right in each panel):

Warrangantyu:	minha nhawuwa? ‘What’s that?’
Ngunyari:	wirdirdi? nhingkirda? ‘Where? Here?’
Warrangantyu:	wata! nhawuparra nhingkiwa ‘No, that one, there’
Ngunyari:	nhaka? pirtanhi? ‘There? In the tree?’
Warrangantyu:	wata yaruka warritha marla ‘Not that far away’
Ngunyari:	aa nhingkiwa ‘Oh, there’
Warrangantyu:	kawu ‘Yes’
Ngunyari:	nhawuparramatha mutaka ngakarni ngapiraya ‘That’s my father’s car’

English has only two words ‘this’ and ‘that’ to talk about things, and ‘here’ and ‘there’ to talk about locations. Dieri has more terms and is able to make subtle contrasts that are lacking in English.

To point out something we can use the words nhani ‘she, this’ for females and nhawu ‘he, it, this’ for everything else (these are the forms we use for intransitive subject in Dieri — the full set of forms for other functions are listed in this blog post). We can then add to these words endings that show distance from the speaker and the person spoken to:

-rda ‘right next to the speaker’, around 1 metre away
-ya ‘near the speaker’, around 2-3 metres away
-wa ‘far from speaker’, over 5 metres away

This gives us the following diagram:

Dieri has two other useful endings:

-parra ‘previously mentioned’, indicates something that the speaker or another person has mentioned previously, or that is being pointed to
-matha ‘identified information’, indicates that the speaker is able to identify the thing being spoken about

This gives us:
nhawuparra ‘this one we were talking about’
nhawumatha ‘this one that I just realised what it is’

You can combine these to give:
nhawuparramatha ‘this one that we were talking about that I just realised what it is’

This is used Ngunyari in the last frame when he realises exactly what it is that Warrangantyu has been pointing to all the time.

Finally, to talk about locations we have the following terms in Dieri (notice that English has only ‘here’ and ‘there’):

nhingkirda ‘here, right next to the speaker’, around 1 metre away
nhingkiya ‘here, near the speaker’, around 2-3 metres away
nhingkiwa ‘there, far from speaker’, over 5 metres away
nhaka ‘there, far from the speaker and the person spoken to’, a long distance away (including places that cannot be seen, like places over a hill or on the other side of the world)

This gives us:

Note: The two characters also use two very useful Dieri words kawu ‘yes’ and wata ‘no’ in their discussion.

Nhawuparra nhingkiwa

Today’s comic is about saying ‘this’ and ‘that’ and ‘here’ and ‘there’ in Dieri.

Here is what the two characters are saying (Warrangantyu is on the left and Ngunyari is on the right in each panel):

Warrangantyu:	minha nhawuwa?
Ngunyari:	wirdirdi? nhingkirda?
Warrangantyu:	wata! nhawuparra nhingkiwa
Ngunyari:	nhaka? pirtanhi?
Warrangantyu:	wata yaruka warritha marla
Ngunyari:	aa nhingkiwa
Warrangantyu:	kawu
Ngunyari:	nhawuparramatha mutaka ngakarni ngapiraya

Here is the vocabulary you need to understand this conversation:

kawu ‘yes’
marla ‘very’
minha ‘what?’
mutuka ‘car’
ngakarni ‘my’
ngapiraya ‘of father’ (consisting of ngapiri and the ending -ya ‘possessor, of’, with a change in the last vowel of the root element)
nhaka ‘there’
nhawu ‘he, this/that’
nhingki ‘here’
pirtanhi ‘in the tree’ (consisting of pirta ‘tree’ and the ending -nhi ‘in, located at’)
warritha ‘far, distant’
wata ‘no, not’
wirdirdi ‘where?’

There are also some endings that can be added to pronouns like nhawu ‘he, this/that’ and nhani ‘she, this/that’ and to the location word nhingki ‘here’ that appear in this conversation:

-rda ‘right next to the speaker’
-matha ‘identified information’
-parra ‘previously mentioned’
-wa ‘far from speaker’

Using this information, try to understand the conversation and to translate it into English. We will present the translation and some grammar notes in the next blog post.

Note: Thanks to Greg Wilson for suggesting the topic of today’s post.