Bidhawal

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The Bidhawal were an Australian Aboriginal tribe of Gippsland, Victoria. According to A. W. Howitt, the Bidhawal were composed of "refugees from tribal justice or individual vengeance" from neighbouring tribes.

[edit] Language

The Bidhawal spoke a dialect of the Kurnai language, which was also spoken by the Kurnai tribes to the west. However, the Bidhawal dialect had borrowed a number of words referring to mammals, birds and celestial bodies from Ngarigo, as well as a smaller number of words from Thawa and Dhudhuroa.

The Bidhawal called their own dialect mŭk-dhang ("good speech"), and that of the neighbouring Kurnai gūnggala-dhang. The Kurnai, however, called their own dialect mŭk-dhang, and that of the Bidhawal kwai-dhang ("rough speech").

[edit] References

  • Dixon, R. M. W. (2002). Australian Languages: Their Nature and Development. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 43–44. 
  • Howitt, A. W. (1886). "On the Migrations of the Kurnai Ancestors". The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland 15: 419–420. 
  • Howitt, A. W. (1904). The Native Tribes of South-East Australia. London: Macmillian, 79–81. 
  • Mathews, R. H. (Oct.–Dec. 1907). "Language of the Birdhawal Tribe, in Gippsland, Victoria". Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 46 (187): 346–359.