Kaurna language

Kaurna
Region	South Australia
Extinct	1931
Language family	Pama–Nyungan? Southwest? Yura? Kaurna
Language codes
ISO 639-3	zku
ELP	Kaurna

Kaurna is the language of the Kaurna people, a self identifying, indigenous ethnic group, in South Australia. It was historically spoken, according to Tindale's 1974 map, down the Adelaide Plains from Crystal Brook and Clare in the north, to Cape Jervis in the south. It became extinct in the 1860s but was revived and reconstructed in the 1990s.

Classification

R. M. W. Dixon classifies Kaurna as a dialect of the Kadli language, along with Nantuwara, Ngadjuri, Ngarangka, and Nukunu. Luise Hercus (1992) classifies Kaurna, along with Narungga, Nukunu and Ngadjuri, in the Meru subgroup of the larger group of Thura-Yura languages (which includes Yura Ngawarla or Adnyamathanha).

History of the name

The name "Kaurna" was not widely used until popularised by South Australian Museum Ethnographer Norman B. Tindale in the 1920s.

The term 'Kaurna' was first recorded by William Wyatt (1879: 24) for 'Encounter Bay Bob's Tribe'. At the same time he recorded 'Meeyurna' for 'Onkaparinga Jack's Tribe'. Kaurna most likely derives from kornar, the word for 'people' in the neighbouring Ramindjeri/Ngarrindjeri language [Berndt & Berndt (1993: 19) noted that kornarinyeri which became Point McLeay Raukkan Rev Taplin's Narrinyeri thus Narindjeri or Ngarindjeri hence contemporary Ngarrindjeri]. Mullawirraburka (Onkaparinga Jack), also known to the colonists as 'King John', was one of Teichelmann & Schurmann's main sources. Encounter Bay Bob, as his name suggests, came from Encounter Bay (Victor Harbor) and was most likely a fully initiated elder Ramindjeri man.

Thus Meyunna is probably an endonym and would linguistically be preferable as the name for this language group as Lewis O'Brien suggested in the mid 1990s. However, they are now known as Kaurna, despite increasing Ramindjeri opposition and others questioning.

History of the language

Kaurna is currently not spoken as a native language (and thus classified as a dead language), but it is being revived with the aid of a remarkable dictionary compiled by two German missionaries, Clamor Wilhelm Schurmann and Christian Teichelmann in the 1840s.

Medical Missionary Surgeon Dr William Wyatt served as the third part-time Protector of Aborigines 1837 until 1839.

"Unlike his successor and the German Missionaries, Wyatt did not live at Piltawodli. According to Foster (1990b: 39) he was "criticised for not 'going among' the Aborigines and for failing to provide information to the public about their culture." Nonetheless, Wyatt does provide valuable, though sometimes unreliable, information on the Kaurna language. After the German mission sources, it remains the next most important source and includes a sizable number of terms not recorded elsewhere.

A manuscript copy of Wyatt's wordlist, 'Vocabulary of the Adelaide Dialect' (Wyatt, 1840)¹⁴ in the Library of Sir George Grey in the South African Public Library, Cape Town, contains only 67 words, though this is unlikely to represent the extent of Wyatt's knowledge of Kaurna at that time. A more comprehensive paper published later lists approximately 900 Kaurna and Ramindjeri words. The cover page notes that the material was "principally extracted from his official reports" most of which would have been written when Wyatt served as Protector from 1837 to 1839. Assuming Wyatt's (1840) wordlist in the Grey collection is complete, presumably Wyatt went through his papers and extracted words he had recorded in the early days of the colony. The University of Adelaide Library copy, donated by the author, contains three corrections in Wyatt's own hand, where n has been typed instead of u. This wordlist was also published in J.D. Woods ed. (1879) without correction of the three typographical errors. Wyatt identifies certain vocabulary items with a subscript _e or _r as Encounter Bay or Rapid Bay words respectively. In 1923, Parkhouse republished Wyatt's paper in three separate wordlists designating them 'Adelaide', 'Encounter Bay', and 'Rapid Bay' with changed spellings, substituting u for Wyatt's oo."

Efforts to revive Kaurna began in 1990 with the writing of several Kaurna songs originally written in the Ngarrindjeri, Narrunga and Kaurna languages. A second songbook, Kaurna Paltinna was published in 1999. Following one-off workshops in 1990 and 1991, a Kaurna language program was introduced into Kaurna Plains School in 1992. Kaurna is now taught at all levels of education, including a Kaurna linguistics course taught at the University of Adelaide (first introduced in 1997).

The former range of the language was mapped by Norman Tindale and Dr Robert Amery and is managed by the Kaurna people.

Kaurna place names

Many prominent placenames are drawn from the Kaurna language. These include Ngangkiparringga (Onkaparinga River) 'women's river place', Nurlongga (Noarlunga) 'corner/curvature place', Ngaltingga (Aldinga), Willangga (Willunga), Maitpangga (Myponga), Kanggarilla (Kangarilla) 'shepherding place', Yernkalyilla (Yankalilla) 'place of the fallen bits', Waitpingga (Waitpinga) 'wind place', Kauwandilla (Cowandilla) 'in the north', Yurridla (Uraidla) 'two ears' etc.

Several placenames, such as Warriparringga (Warriparinga) 'windy river place' and Piltawodli 'brushtail possum home' have been reinstated. Some other names, such as Yertabulti (Port Adelaide), Patpangga (Rapid Bay) 'in the south' and Pattawilya (Glenelg) 'swamp gum foliage', are known from historical sources, but are yet to be fully reinstated. (See Amery & Williams, 2002)

Since efforts to reintroduce the Kaurna language, beginning in 1980 with the naming of Warriappendi Alternative School, it has gained a profile within the public domain. Many people, pets, organisations, clubs, sporting teams, programs, places, buildings, and other items have taken (or been given) Kaurna names. The Kaurna language is used frequently to give speeches of Welcome to Kaurna Country. Many public artworks, beginning in 1995 with the Yerrakartarta installation outside the Hyatt Hotel on North Terrace, Adelaide, have incorporated words, phrases and text drawn from the Kaurna language. Language classes are now offered through the Kaurna Plains School and the Warriparinga Living Kaurna Culture Centre.

Examples

As a revived language, neologisms form a core part of this effort:

• balta : covering
• wornu : bottom, bum
• wornubalta : diaper, nappy

See also

• Kaurna people
• Language death

References

General references

• Teichelmann, C. G. (1982) [1840]. Outlines of a grammar, vocabulary and phraseology of the Aboriginal language of South Australia spoken by the natives in and for some distance around Adelaide. Tjintu Books. ISBN 0-9593616-0-X. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• Amery, Rob (2000) 'Warrabarna Kaurna! Reclaiming an Australian Language. Swets & Zeitlinger, Lisse, The Netherlands. ISBN 90-265-1633-9
• Amery, Rob (compiler) (2003) Warra Kaurna. A Resource for Kaurna Language Programs. Kaurna Warra Pintyandi, Adelaide. ISBN 0-9751834-0-0
• Amery, Rob (2002) 'Weeding out Spurious Etymologies: Toponyms on the Adelaide Plains.' In Luise Hercus , Flavia Hodges & Jane Simpson (eds) The Land is a Map: Placenames of Indigenous Origin in Australia, 165-180.
• Amery, Rob & Georgina Yambo Williams (2002) 'Reclaiming Through Renaming: The Reinstatement of Kaurna Toponyms in Adelaide and the Adelaide Plains.' In Luise Hercus , Flavia Hodges & Jane Simpson (eds) The Land is a Map: Placenames of Indigenous Origin in Australia, 255-276.
• Wyatt, William (1879) Some Account of the Manners and Superstitions of the Adelaide and Encounter Bay Aboriginal Tribes with a Vocabulary of their Languages.

External links

• Kaurna Warra Pintyandi
• Kaurna Warra home page
• Kudnarto, an e-book by Bill Woerlee - Chapter 1: The Kaurna
• The Unaipon School at the University of South Australia
• Kaurna Place Names
• No-one from the government has consulted the Walker / Ramindjeri people