Guugu Yimithirr Lesson 7
A song: Guujuwi Baarrabarrawi (Fishing in the Mangroves)
One of the most important projects in our language work is creating new songs together with Guugu Yimithirr school students. Singing is one of the best ways to revitalise a language.
In this lesson we’ll llisten to the song Guujuwi Baarrabarrawi (Fishing in the Mangroves). Guuju means “fish”. Guujuwi has the “to”-suffix, which is –wi: literally guujuwi means “to (the) fish”.
Below is the text with English translation:
Ngayu baduur ngathu thambarr
I throw my line I / line / my / throw
gurra gunbu-gunbu waarrilil.
and it sings as it flies. and / song-song / is flying
Ngayu thiigaaya gurra diigal.
I stretch and let it go. I / stretch / and / send
Nhayun bulii buurraay bathaalbi.
It falls in deep water. It / falls / water / deep-in
Ngayu garrbun, ngayu garrbun,
I’m happy, I am happy. I / happy / I / happy
Ngayu ngathu baduur thambanbarr.
I throw my line. I / my / line / am throwing
***
Ngayu dagaalgiya baarrabarrawi.
I sit in the mangroves. I / am sitting / mangrove-in
Ngayu binaalgu banyjiilnyjinhu
I know how to wait. I / know / be waiting-to
Ngayu buurraay munhi nhaamaalma.
I watch the dark water. I / water / black / am watching
Buurraay munhiwi nhulu daabaalbiya.
In the dark water he moves. Water / black-in / he / is moving
***
Ngayu baduur ngathu thambarr
I throw my line I / line / my / throw
gurra gunbu-gunbu waarrilil.
and it sings as it flies. and / song-song / is flying
Ngayu thiigaaya gurra diigal.
I stretch and let it go. I / stretch / and / send
Nhayun bulii buurraay bathaalbi.
It falls in deep water. it / falls / water / deep-in
Ngayu garrbun, ngayu garrbun,
I’m happy, I am happy. I / happy / I / happy
Ngayu ngathu baduur thambanbarr.
I throw my line. I / my / line / am throwing
***
Ngayu banyjii barrbaalnda jindanhu.
I wait for the black bream to bite. I / wait / black bream-doer / bite-to
Ngayu binaalgu banyjiilnyjinhu
I know how to wait. I / know / be waiting-to
Ngayu dagaalgiya guugumulgu.
I sit quietly I / am sitting / speech-without-gu
Ngayu banyjii buurraay munhiwigu.
I wait by the dark water. I / wait / water / black-at-gu
***
Ngayu baduur ngathu thambarr
I throw my line I / line / my / throw
gurra gunbu-gunbu waarrilil.
and it sings as it flies. and / song-song / is flying
Ngayu thiigaaya gurra diigal.
I stretch and let it go. I / stretch / and / send
Nhayun bulii buurraay bathaalbi.
It falls in deep water. it / falls / water / deep-in
Ngayu garrbun, ngayu garrbun,
I’m happy, I am happy. I / happy / I / happy
Ngayu ngathu baduur thambanbarr.
I throw my line. I / my / line / am throwing
***
Ngayu banyjii barrbaalnda jindanhu.
I wait for the black bream to bite. I / wait / black bream-doer / bite-to
Ngayu binaalgu banyjiilnyjinhu
I know how to wait. I / know / be waiting-to
Ngayu buurraay munhi nhamaalma.
I watch the dark water. I / water / black / am watching
Buurraay munhiwi
In the dark water water / black-in
nhulu daabaalbiya.
he moves. he / is moving
The ending –wi/-bi can mean “to or at a place”
There’s lots of grammar in this song. It would take many lessons to study it, but we’ll pick one important piece of grammar. The title is Guujuwi Baarrabarrawi. We have said that –wi means “to” as in “Give it to him”. But it can also mean “to a place”. Another meaning is “at a place” or “in a place”.
Baarrabarra is a mangrove tree, so baarrabarrawi means “in the mangroves”.
The ending –wi can have the form –bi after a consonant. In the song we heard the words buurraay “water” and bathal “deep”. Buurraay bathaalbi means “in the deep water”. The –bi at the end means “in”.
So the –bi/-wi ending can mean four things, which we have learned in the lessons so far:
Shannonbi nambal “Shannon’s money” (ownership)
Shannonbi wuwaa! “Give it to Shannon!” (recipient)
bayanbi “to the house“ (to a place)
bayanbi “ the house“ (to a place)
WORDS IN LESSON 7
GRAMMAR FACT IN LESSON 7
The ending –wi/-bi menas “to”, “in” or “at” when we talk about places or things. These meanings are called Allative (“to something”) and Locative “in or at something”) in linguistics, but it’s not necessary to remember those terms.
TEST YOURSELF
Now go to the Quizlet web site to practice what you learned in this lesson:
Three are many new words in this song, but we are only testing elven of them in the Quizlet. Please remember that many of the words in the song have endings that we haven’t studied in detail. For example, the song has the word ”waarrilil” (is flying), but in the Quizlet we learn the basic form ”waarril” (fly).
