Appendix
The Sydney Language
Words, personal names and place names from the Indigenous language of the Sydney coastal area and their meanings in English are reproduced here just as the officers of the First Fleet wrote them down. They have not been adapted phonetically. Many familiar words from the language spoken by the Eora have entered Australian English.
The main source for the following word list is Appendix XII ‘Language’ in Volume 1 of Collins, D, 1975, An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales, T. Cadell Jun. and W. Davies, in The Strand, London. Originally published 1798–1802. Available free online through Project Gutenberg Australia at Account of the English Colony in New South Wales Volume I freeread and gutenberg.
Another source is the ‘Governors’ Vocabulary’, an unpublished manuscript believed to have been compiled by Governor Arthur Phillip, his secretary David Collins and Captain John Hunter.
The list also draws on an anonymous manuscript, n.d. [1791?], Vocabulary of the language of N. S. Wales in the neighbourhood of Sydney (Native and English, but not alphabetical), MS 41645, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, London.
An interactive digital facsimile edition of this vocabulary and two others compiled by marine lieutenant William Dawes will be available soon http://www.hrelp.org/dawes/
| PIALLA: A brief word list of the Sydney language | |
| bad | were, weery |
| big, many, very | marri, murry, murray |
| canoe | nowey, noe |
| clever man; healer | carrahdy, koradgee |
| cockatoo, black | carate, caratt |
| cockatoo, white | garaway |
| come, or come here | coe, cooee, cowee |
| dance | caribberie, carabbara [later ‘corroboree’] |
| dog (tame) | dingo, jungho, tingo, tungo |
| dog (wild) | warrigal |
| earth | pemul |
| eel | burra |
| fire | gweeyong |
| fish | magra, maugro |
| fishing spear | callarr, calara, goolarra |
| go away! begone! | warra warra wai, woroo-woroo |
| good | boodjerre, boogeree [later ‘budgery’] |
| head | caberra |
| kangaroo (grey) | patagarang, patyegarang |
| king parrot | gomah |
| hut (bark) | gonye, gonie [later ‘gunyah’] |
| little, small | narrang, narrong |
| man (Sydney coast) | mulla |
| man (northwards) | kuri, koree [later koori] |
| no | beall, beyal |
| people | eora, eorah |
| shell fish hook | burra |
| snapper fish | wallumai |
| speak | pialla, byalla |
| spear | kamai, camye |
| stick or club | waddi, waddty, waddy |
| stingray | terringyan |
| stone hatchet | mogo |
| stone or rock | kebba, kibber [later gibber] |
| throwing stick | womara, womerra, womur |
| waratah | warata |
| wallaby | walibah, wolaba |
| woman | din, deeyin, dyin, din, dtheen [later ‘gin’] |
Compiled by Keith Vincent Smith
September–October 2007