Woiwurrung language

Woiwurrung (sometimes spelt Woiwurrong, Woiworung, Wuywurung) is an Indigenous Australian language spoken by some of the Kulin Nation clans, the Wurundjeri people, of Central Victoria, from Mount Baw Baw in the east to Mount Macedon, Sunbury and Gisborne in the west.

The Woiwurrung clans inhabited the Yarra River, called Birrarung in Woiwurrung, before European displacement. The clans include:

• The Wurrundjeri-willam, who occupied the Yarra River and its tributaries and inhabited the area now covered by the city of Melbourne. Referred to initially by Europeans as the Yarra tribe.
• The Marin-Bulluk
• The Kurung-Jang-Bulluk
• The Wurundjeri-Balluk
• The Balluk-willam

Wurundjeri is now the common term for descendants of all the Woiwurrung clans. Their totems are Bunjil the eagle and Waa the crow.

The Jindyworobak Movement claimed to have taken their name from a Woiwurrung phrase jindi worobak meaning to annex or join.

Consonants

Pronouns

In the case of the woiwurrung pronouns, the stem seems to be the standard ngali (you and I), but the front was suffixed to wa-, so wa+ngal combines to form wangal below.

Translation of the words

• Wangal = you and I.
• Wangan = we two.
• Munyi gurrabil = they two.
• Munyi gurrabila = they.

See also

• Kulin
• Wurundjeri

References

Barry J. Blake. 1991 Woiwurrung In: The Aboriginal Language of Melbourne and Other Sketches, ed. R. M. W. Dixon and Barry J. Blake, pp. 31-124, OUP, Handbook of Australian Languages 4.

External links

Look up Woiwurrung in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• About the Wurundjeri People
• Elders pass on songs in race to save languages
• Woiwurrung calendar