Gamilaraay language

The name Gamilaraay means 'gamil-having', with gamil being the word for 'no'. Other dialects and languages are similarly named after their respective words for 'no'. (Compare the division between langues d'oïl and langues d'oc in France, distinguished by their respective words for 'yes'.)

Spellings of the name, pronounced [ɡ̊aˌmilaˈɻaːj] in the language itself, include Goomeroi; Kamilaroi; Gamilaraay and Gamilaroi.

Traditional lands of Australian Aboriginal tribes around Sydney, New South Wales[Note 1]

While AUSTLANG cites Euahlayi, Ualarai, Euhahlayi, and Juwalarai as synonyms for Gamilaraay in earlier sources,[3] it has updated its codes to reflect more recent sources suggest different distinctions. AIATSIS groups the Yuwaalaraay/Euahlayi/Yuwaaliyaay language and people in its resource collection,[6][7] and gives it a separate code (D23).[8] AUSTLANG assigns separate codes to the following dialects, all related and part of the Gamilaraay group:[8]

• Yuwaalaraay (Yuwaaliyaay, Euahlayi) (D27), spoken by the Yuwaalaraay people;[Note 2]
• Wirray Wirray (Wiriwiri) (D28);[9][Note 3]
• Guyinbaraay (Gunjbaraay) (D15);[11]
• Yuwaalayaay (D54);[12][Note 4]
• Waalaraay (Walaraay) (D55);[13]
• Gawambaraay (Kawambarai) (D39), spoken by the Gawambaraay people.[14]

According to Robert Fuller of the Department of Indigenous Studies at Macquarie University and his colleagues, the Gamilaraay and Euahlayi peoples are a cultural grouping of north and northwest New South Wales (NSW), and the Gamilaraay dialect groups are known as Gamilaraay and Yuwaalaraay, while the Euahlayi (Euayelai[15]) have a similar but distinct language.[16]

Southern Aboriginal guides led the surveyor John Howe to the upper Hunter River above present-day Singleton in 1819. They told him that the country there was "Coomery Roy [=Gamilaraay] and more further a great way", meaning to the north-west, over the Liverpool Ranges.[17] This is probably the first record of the name.

A basic wordlist collected by Thomas Mitchell in February, 1832, is the earliest written record of Gamilaraay.

Presbyterian missionary William Ridley studied the language from 1852 to 1856.

In 2013 Gamilaraay was noted as endangered by Ethnologue, with only 35 speakers left in 2006 (AUSTLANG says 37 at that date), all mixing Gamilaraay and English.[1] At the 2011 Census there were 87 speakers recorded and in 2016, 105.[3]

Several loanwords have entered Australian English from Gamilaraay, including:

• Austin, Peter (1993). A Reference Dictionary of Gamilaraay, northern New South Wales. La Trobe University.
• Dixon, Robert M. W. (2002). Australian Languages: Their Nature and Development. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-47378-0. (On Google Books)
• Mathews, R. H. (July–December 1903). "Languages of the Kamilaroi and Other Aboriginal Tribes of New South Wales". The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. 33. 33: 259–283. doi:10.2307/2842812. JSTOR 2842812.
• Ridley, William (1856). "On the Kamilaroi Tribe of Australians and Their Dialect". Journal of the Ethnological Society of London. Ethnological Society of London (1848-1856), Vol. 4. 4: 285–293. doi:10.2307/3014109. JSTOR 3014109.

• Ash, Anna et al. Gamilaraay, Yuwaaaraay and Yuwaalayaay Dictionary. Alice Springs: IAD Press 2003.
• K. Langloh Parker (1905), The Euahlayi Tribe: A Study of Aboriginal Life in Australia, London: Archibald Constable, Wikidata Q19086199 Contains a glossary
• Ridley, William (1855). "On the Kamilaroi Language of Australia". Transactions of the Philological Society. 2 (6): 72–84. doi:10.1111/j.1467-968X.1855.tb00794.x.

For a list of words relating to Gamilaraay language, see the Gamilaraay language category of words in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• http://yuwaalaraay.org/ has information about recent Gamilaraay and Yuwaalaraay language development and links to numerous language resources.
• The Gamilaraay (Kamilaroi) Language, northern New South Wales — A Brief History of Research (PDF)
• Gutenberg Project Browse By Language: Gamilaraay
• Online dictionary
• Gamilaraay Online dictionary by Peter Austin and David Nathan
• A Reference Grammar of Gamilaraay
• Bibliographies of published, rare or special materials on Gamilaraay language and people, at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
• Bibliographies of published, rare or special materials on Yuwaalaraay language and people, at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
• Des Crump digital story, State Library of Queensland. Digital story discussing Gamilaraay language.