Paakantyi

[aka Darling, Darling River Language, Kula]

Classification: Pama-Nyungan

·

critically endangered

resource

Out at the Reserve

Andrew speaks some Paakantyi words. Paakantyi is the language of the Aboriginal peopleof far western New South Wales. He shows how to put two words together, like wiimpatya + puungka becomes wiimpatya-puungka. He says the short form, wiimpatyuungka. Also, when you're talking about a particular Aboriginal or a particular humpy, you say wiimpatya-na puungka. Sometimes two words put together make a new idiomatic expression: thungka,night, + yarra, tree, becomes thungka-yarra, which means a grave.

Robert Lindsay

Comments