| Dharug | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Iyora, Sydney | ||||
| Spoken in | New South Wales | |||
| Extinct | Late 19th/early 20th century | |||
| Language family |
Pama–Nyungan
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| Language codes | ||||
| ISO 639-3 | – | |||
| Linguist List | 0hl | |||
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The Sydney language, also referred to as Dharug or Iyora, is a nearly extinct Australian Aboriginal language of the Yuin–Kuric group that was spoken in the region of Sydney, New South Wales. It is the traditional language of the Darug and Eora peoples.
The term Dharug, which can also be spelt Dharukk, Dharoog, Dharrag, and Dararrug, etc., came from the word for yam Midyini. Dharug is the root or the Midyini of the languages of the Sydney basin. The Darug population was greatly diminished due to the effects of colonisation.[1] It is known today from written records and the oral tradition of the remaining speakers.
Darug people recognise Sir William Dawes of the first fleet and flagship the Sirius for having the grace and intelligence of humanity to record the original traditional dalang (tongue) of the elder people of Sydney Darugule-wayaun.[2] Dawes was returned to England in December 1791, after disagreements with Governor Phillip on, among other things, the punitive expedition launched following the wounding of the Government gamekeeper,[3] allegedly by Pemulwuy.
During the 1990s and the new millennium some descendants of the Darug clans in Western Sydney have been making considerable efforts to revive Dharug as a spoken language. Today some modern Dharug speakers have given speeches in the Dharug language and younger members of the community visit schools and give demonstrations of spoken Dharug.[4]
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The speakers did not use a specific "name" for their language prior to invasion. The coastal dialect has been referred to as Iyora (also spelt Iora, Eora), which simply means "people", while the inland dialect has been referred to as Dharug (also spelt Darug, Dharuk, Dharruk), a term of unknown origin or meaning. Both names are also used to refer to all dialects of the language collectively.[5]
| Peripheral | Laminal | Apical | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bilabial | Velar | Palatal | Dental | Alveolar | Retroflex | |
| Stop | b | k | c | t̪ | t | |
| Nasal | m | ŋ | ɲ | n̪ | n | |
| Lateral | ʎ | l | ||||
| Rhotic | r | ɻ | ||||
| Semivowel | w | j | ||||
| Front | Back | |
|---|---|---|
| High | i | u |
| Low | a | |
The language may have had a distinction of vowel length, but this is difficult to determine from the extant data.[6]
Examples of Dharuk words that have survived in English are:
Although Sydney is classified as extinct, efforts have been made to revive the language and the language had acquired current living speakers by the efforts of Chifley College's Dunheved campus in Sydney.[8]