The homelands of the Gumbaynggirr lie between the Clarence and the Nambucca rivers in northern New South Wales. The Baanbay people to the West speak the same language. As with many Aboriginal Australian languages, Gumbaynggirr had fewer speakers and was in danger of extinction. All that changed in 1986 when a small group of Elders took steps to revive it, and this book is a tribute to their efforts.
Brother Steve Morelli’s research is based on the recordings of Gumbaynggirr Elders, written sources and the knowledge of Gumbaynggirr people today. This book includes more than 2700 word entries, easy-to-read grammar section, a semantic fields section which groups words such as birds, emotions, insects or artefacts. A new words section lets people use Gumbaynggirr in a modern context, a section on traditional families as well as two new maps depicting the Gumbaynggirr world and several pictures to complement the word entries.
This second edition of the Gumbaynggirr dictionary and learners grammar has been expanded and improved to meet the needs of the language community
There are now 3,000 entries, with expanded definitions.
New sections describe the three Gumbaynggirr dialects, and special kinship ways of talking: respect, politeness and avoidance, based on extensive linguistic research of the Gumbaynggirr dreaming story collection
The New words section has been expanded to include many Gumbaynggirr words develop over the last decade of language revitalisation
A new Education words section lists many new words relevant to the place where Gumbaynggirr is now taught.
A new index allows the reader to more easily locate grammatical information
The grammar has been redefined and updated.
By:
Steve Morelli ISBN:9780980840599 ISBN 10: 0980840597 Format:Hardback Publisher's Status: Out of Print