ayearinlanguage:A Year in Language, Day 18: Guugu Yimithirr Guugu Yimithirr, whose spelling can va
ayearinlanguage: A Year in Language, Day 18: Guugu Yimithirr Guugu Yimithirr, whose spelling can vary quite a bit depending on your source, is a language spoken by an Australian Aboriginal tribe of the same name in Far North Queensland. It belongs to the Pama-Nyungan language family, as do almost all Autralian Aboriginal languages. This languages claim to fame is as the source of the word “kangaroo”. Despite urban legends that this word translates to something like “what are you asking me, white man?” it is actually the name for the animal, though in Guugu Yimithirr it refers to just one variety of kangaroo. The name of the language actually means “language that has “yimi”“. “yimi” is the Guugu Yimithirr word for “this” and apparently that fact was considered distinctive about them. We’ll likely see a similar style of name next time I cover an Aboriginal language. As is true for many Aboriginal language Guugu Yimithirr lacks any fricative consonants; no “s”, “f”, “sh” and so on. Another feature it lacks, at least prior to colonization, are any words for egocentric coordinates. These are words like “left”, “right”, “forwards” and “backwards”. So in Guugu Yimithirr your western leg might be sore today, at least until you turn and it becomes your northern leg. -- source link