Bruny Island Tasmanian language
Bruny Island | |
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Nuenonne | |
Region | Tasmanians |
Extinct | perhaps 8 May 1876, with the death of Truganini |
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Dialects |
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Language codes | |
SE Tasmanian ) |
Bruny Island Tasmanian, or Nuenonne ("Nyunoni"), a name shared with
Bruny Island Tasmanian is attested in a list of 986 words collected by Joseph Milligan (published 1857 & 1859); in 515 words collected by George Augustus Robinson; in 273 words from Charles Sterling; and in 111 words from R.A. Roberts (published 1828). The Milligan vocabulary is divergent, and falls out as a distinct language when the lists are compared at p < 0.15, though it falls together with the rest of the island at a looser criterion of p < 0.20.[3]
"Running text"
The following is a sermon which George Augustus Robinson preached to the aboriginals on Bruny Island after having stayed there for eight weeks.[4] The first line is Robinson's transcription, followed by a reconstruction of what sounds Robinson was trying to represent, and finally an English gloss.
MOTTI
moti
one
NYRAE
nairi
good
PARLERDI
palati
God
MOTTI
moti
one
NOVILLY
nowili
bad
RAEGEWROPPER
retji-ropa
devil
PARLERDI
palati
God
NYRAE
nairi
good
PARLERDI
palati
God
MAGGERER
makara
stop
WARRANGELLY
waran-ngali
sky
RAEGEWROPPER
retji-ropa
devil
MAGGERER
makara
stop
TOOGENNER
tökana
below
UENEE
wini
fire
NYRAE
nairi
good
PARLERVAR
palawa
native
LOGERNER
lookana
dead
TAGGERER
takara
goes
TEENNY
tini
road
LAWWAY
lawey
up
WARRANGELLY
waran-ngali
sky
PARLERDI
palati
God
NYRAE
nairi
good
RAEGE (etc.)
retji
white man
NOVILLY
nowili
bad
PARLERVAR
palawa
native
LOGERNER
lookana
dead
TAGGERER
takara
go
TEENNY
tini
road
TOOGUNNER
tökana
below
RAEGEWROPPER
retji-ropa
devil
UENEE
wini
fire
MAGGERER
makara
stop
UENEE
wini
fire
This would roughly translate to:
"God is good, the devil is bad. God is good. God in heaven stops the devil in hell. A good Aboriginal or a good white person goes to heaven when he/she dies, while a bad Aboriginal or a bad white person goes to hell. God stops the devil in hell."
This is the only "running text" ever recorded for any of the Tasmanian languages. This sermon is really English replaced word-for-word with Bruny Island words stripped of their grammar, so is not a good indicator of what Bruny Island grammar was like.
History
The last speaker of Bruny Island was likely Truganini, who is also widely accepted as the last full-blooded Tasmanian Aboriginal person. She was a daughter of Mangana, Chief of the Bruny Island people. Her name was the word her tribe used to describe the grey saltbush Atriplex cinerea.[5] In her youth, she took part in her people's traditional culture, but Aboriginal life was disrupted by European invasion.
When Lieutenant-Governor
When Truganini met George Augustus Robinson, the Protector of Aborigines, in 1829, her mother had been killed by sailors, her uncle shot by a soldier, her sister abducted by sealers, and her fiancé brutally murdered by timber-getters, who then repeatedly sexually abused her. In 1830, Robinson, moved Truganini and Woorrady to Flinders Island with the last surviving Tasmanian Aboriginal peoples, numbering approximately 100. The stated aim of isolation was to save them,[citation needed] but many of the group died from influenza and other diseases. Truganini also helped Robinson with a settlement for mainland Aboriginal People at Port Phillip in 1838.[6]
After about two years of living in and around Melbourne, she joined
In 1856, the few surviving Tasmanian Aboriginal people on Flinders Island, including Truganini, were moved to a settlement at Oyster Cove, south of Hobart.[8][9]
References
- SE Tasmanian) at the Australian Indigenous Languages Database, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
- ^ Claire Bowern, September 2012, "The riddle of Tasmanian languages", Proc. R. Soc. B, 279, 4590–4595, doi: 10.1098/rspb.2012.1842
- ^ Bowern (2012), supplement
- ^ J.E. Calder, 1874. "Native Tribes of Tasmania", Journal of the Anthropological Institute, 3:28
- Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies. p.3
- ^ The Andersons of Western Port Horton & Morris
- ^ "Port Phillip". Australasian Chronicle (Sydney, NSW : 1839 - 1843). Sydney, NSW: National Library of Australia. 15 February 1842. p. 2. Retrieved 27 March 2015.
- ^ Gough, Julie Oyster Cove at Centre for Tasmanian Historical Studies, University of Tasmania
- ^ According to The Times newspaper, quoting a report issued by the Colonial Office, by 1861 the number of survivors at Oyster Cove was then 14:"...14 persons, all adults, aboriginal people of Tasmania, who are the sole surviving remnant of ten tribes. Nine of these persons are women and five are men. There are among them four married couples, and four of the men and five of the women are under 45 years of age, but no children have been born to them for years. It is considered difficult to account for this...Besides these 14 persons there is a native woman who is married to a white man, and who has a son, a fine healthy-looking child..." The article, headed ‘Decay of Race’, adds that though the survivors enjoyed generally good health and still made hunting trips to the bush during the season (after first asking "leave to go"), they were now "fed, housed and clothed at public expense" and "much addicted to drinking". The Times, Tuesday, 5 Feb 1861; pg. 10; Issue 23848; col A