buurraay (noun) water

When a river is rising or the tide is coming or going out, people sometimes say buurraay instead of river or sea or tide, like in buurraay gadaara the tide is coming in.

buurraay in sentences

Buurraay thula-mal. “The river will be flooded.”

Nhulu verandah buurrayil daamaalmi. “She was hosing down the verandah.”

Phrasemes

There are many phrasemes with buurraay; some have separate entries in the dictionary.

Collocations: buurraay muunhthiirrgu “under the water”; buurraay nyinda “shallow water”

Transparent compounds, weak idioms and derivations: bama ngaabaay buurayil thuugil “baptise”; buurrayi baawal “boil in water”;  buurrayil daamal “douse with water, hose down”;  buurraay baanggal “tide getting higher”; buurraay buuburr “tide going out”; buurraay gadaa “tide coming in”; buurraay gaga “alcohol, beer”; buurraay gaga “salt water”; buurraay gaangu “mudflat, watery swamp”; buurraay-malin “platypus”; buurraay ngathal “neap tide”; buurraay thalun “deep water”; buurraay warrga “sea, large amount of water”

Idioms and semi-idioms: buurraay guulnggul “brackish water”

Linguistic comment

Ergative/instrumental case can be buurrayil (using water); locative case can be: buurrayi or buurrayay (in the water); comitative case can be buurrayirr (together with water).

nyinda (adjective)  shallow

Shallow water or shallow soil.

nyinda in sentences

shallow soil: Gurra garrgu ngalaanda bubu thiimbay, bubu nyinda  ngan-guuygu dayinggal gurra minhthiil-manaathi, gurra mayi biiniiga.  “But later the sun shone on the land, the shallow soil quickly got dry and hot and the crop died.”

shallow water: Robert nhulu wali thaday buurraay nyindawi galga gurra milbiirrthirr gunduruwi. “Robert walked around in the shallow water with his spears and his spear thrower to spear stingray.”