Dharug language

The word "koala" is derived from "gula" in the Dharuk and Gundungurra languages

The Sydney language, also referred to as Dharug or Iyora (Eora), is an 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.^[3] 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.^[4] 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,^[5] 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.^[6]

Bowern (2011) lists Dharuk and Iyora as separate languages.

Name

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.^[7]

History

Portrait of Bennelong, a senior Wanegal man of the Eora peoples.

Their traditional territory spreads from the Georges River and Botany Bay in the south, to Port Jackson, north to Pittwater at the mouth of the Hawkesbury River, and west along the river to Parramatta.

The indigenous people identify themselves as Eora, literally meaning "the people", a word derived from Ee (yes) and ora (here, or this place). The language of the people is also called Eora.

With a traditional heritage spanning thousands of years, approximately 70 per cent of the Eora people died out during the nineteenth century as a result of smallpox, other pathogens and viruses, and the destruction of their natural food sources.

Phonology

Consonants

Vowels

The language may have had a distinction of vowel length, but this is difficult to determine from the extant data.^[8]

Words surviving in English

Examples of Dharuk words that have survived in English are:

• Names of animals: dingo, koala, wallaby and wombat
• Trees and plants: burrawang, kurrajong, geebung and waratah
• The tools boomerang, a word from the Turuwal sub-group, and woomera (spear-thrower)^[9]
• Place names including Mulgoa, Toongabbie, Dural, Dharruk, Geebung and Winmalee

Revival

A Yuin man, c. 1904.

Although Dharug 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.^[10]

Notes

References

• Troy, Jakelin (1994). The Sydney Language. Canberra: Panther. ISBN 0-646-11015-2. 
• Broome, Richard (2001). Aboriginal Australians. Sydney: Allen & Unwin. ISBN 1-86508-755-6. 

External links

• The Aboriginal language of Sydney (with audio sample)
• Jeremy Steele's partial reconstruction of the Sydney language