D32: MURUWARI | AIATSIS Collection

AIATSIS code:

D32

AIATSIS reference name:

MURUWARI

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Name

Thesaurus heading language	Muruwari language D32
Thesaurus heading people	Muruwari people D32
ABN name	Muruwari language
ABS name	Muruwari
Horton name	Muruwari
Ethnologue name	Muruwari
ISO 639-3 code	zmu
Tindale name	Morowari
Tindale (1974)	Murawari (valid alternative), Murawarri, Murra-warri, Muruworri, Muruwurri, Murueri, Moorawarree, Moorawarrie, Marawari.
O'Grady et al (1966)	Morowari, Marawari, Murrawarri, Muruwurri, Moorawarree, Moorawarrie, Marraawarree, Murri
Glottocode	muru1266
Other sources	Murawarri [Mathews 1903] Murruwurri (collector unknown), Murawari (Radcliff-Brown), Marawari, Murawari (Capell), Marawari, Murawari (Janet Mathews) [Oates 1988:5]
Synonyms	Muruwari, Muruwarri, Murawarri, Morowari, Marawari, MarraaWarree, Maruwari, Moorawarree, Moorawarrie, Morewari, Murawari, Murrawari, Murrawarri, Murri, Murueri, Muruworri, Muruwurri, Yacko Yacko, Marraawarree, Murra warri

Comment

Comments:

Oates reports possible dialectal variation in Muruwari based on locations: Weilmoringle, Goodooga and Brewarrina for one and Enngonia for the other, although there are no language data to support this.

Jimmie Barker name five groups, called 'sub-tribes' by Mathews who mentions two of them; in Wafer and Lissarrague (2008: 257) they are written as: Nuntukuri D50, Kungakuri D49, Kuntakuri D53, Thinuntu D52 and Purukuri D51, the exact status of these groups is not known They point out that the recurring form '-kuri' is a suffix Jimmie Barker said means 'belonging to'. Mathews writes this suffix '-gari', which is cognate with Paakantji language varieties.

Walsh (1981) treats these names as dialect names, while Radcliffe-Brown (1923:434) mentions the first two, describing them 'sub-tribes' who probably spoke different dialects.

The language name Muruwari seems to be formed with 'muru - fighting club' and 'warra - to fall'; Oates indicates there is fluctuation between a glide and a trill in the rhotic of this verb and in other words. Jimmie Barker's translation for the language name is 'to fell with fighting club' (Wafer & Lissarrague, 2008: 256-257).

References:

Oates, Lynette F. 1988. The Muruwari language: Pacific Linguistics C-108. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.
Radcliffe-Brown, Alfred R. 1918, 1923. Notes on the social organization of Australian tribes. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 48:222-253; 53:424-447.
Tindale, Norman B. 1974. Aboriginal tribes of Australia: their terrain, environmental controls, distribution, limits, and proper names. Berkeley: University of California Press/Canberra: Australian National University Press.
Wafer, Jim and Amanda Lissarrague. 2008. A handbook of Aboriginal languages of New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory. Nambucca Heads: Muurrbay Aboriginal Language and Culture Co-operative.
Walsh, Michael. 1981. Maps of Australia and Tasmania. In Language atlas of the Pacific area Pt 1, eds S. A. Wurm and Shirô Hattori. Canberra: Australian Academy of the Humanities.

Status:

Confirmed

Location

State / Territory:

NSW

QLD

Location information:

Guloga River, Birrie and Bokhara Rivers, Nebine and the Barwon, Weilmoringle, Brewarrina, Enngonia, Mulga Downs, Weela,as far east as Goodooga, to north Bourke, and northwards into Queensland about twenty-five kilometeres east of Cunnamulla, as far west as the Paroo River, to the south, from North Bourke to about twenty kilometeres north of the Darling River,and to Barwon at Brewarrina (Oates 1988:1).

Barringun, N.S.W., and Enngonia on Warrego River; Brenda, and Weilmoringle on Culgoa River; at Milroy; south to near Collerina. Extensively in New South Wales extending north to Mulga Downs and Weela (Wee-lamurra) in Queensland (Tindale 1974).

Maps:

Links

Search MURA people®

Search MURA language®

Awaye! Word Up: Silent grief: Jane Harrison

Jimmie Barker Recordings Project

Programs

Activities:

Wonganurra Aboriginal Corporation has been running the Murrawari Language Project and producing a word list, flash cards, and music CD (2007). Murdi Paaki Regional Enterprise Corporation received funding from the Maintenance of Indigenous Languages and Records program in the 2008-2009 financial year in order to teach the Yuwaalaraay/Murrawarri languages to students and community members in Goodooga.

People:

Janet Mathews, Lynette Oates, Judy Trefry, Wonganurra Aboriginal Corporation, Pulkurru Aboriginal Corporation

Indigenous organisations:

Murdi Paaki Regional Enterprise Corporation

Speakers

Year	Source	Speaker numbers
1975	Oates	1
1984	Senate	-
1990	Schmidt	-
1996	Census	-
2001	Census	-
2004	NILS1	-
2005	Estimate	-
2006	Census	3
2011	Census	10
2014	NILS2
2016	Census	12
2018-2019	NILS3

Speaker numbers were measured differently across the censuses and various other sources listed in AUSTLANG. You are encouraged to refer to the sources.

Speaker numbers for ‘NILS 2004’ and ‘2005 estimate’ come from 'Table F.3: Numbers of speakers of Australian Indigenous languages (various surveys)' in 'Appendix F NILS endangerment and absolute number results' in McConvell, Marmion and McNicol 2005, pages 198-230 (PDF, 2.5MB).

Documentation

Type	Documentation Status	Documentation Score
Word list	Small (20-100 pages)	2
Text Collection	Medium (100-200 pages)	3
Grammar	Large grammar (more than 200 pages)	4
Audio-visual	More than 10	3

Manuscript note:

tape transcription/field note available

Grammar:

Oates, Lynette. 1988. The Muruwari language: Pacific Linguistics C108. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.

Dictionary:

Oates, Lynette. 1992. Muruwari (Moo-roo-warri) dictionary: words of an Aboriginal language of north-western New South Wales (Brewarrina-Goodooga-Bourke area) written for schools. Albury, NSW:Graeme van Brummelen.

Classification

Source	Family	Group	Name	Relationship
Ethnologue (2005)	Pama-Nyungan	Muruwaric	Muruwari
Dixon (2002)		CENTRAL NEW SOUTH WALES GROUP	Muruwarri (or Murawarri)	Muruwarri (or Murawarri)
Wurm (1994)	Pama-Nyungan	Muruwaric	Muruwari
Walsh (1981)	Pama-Nyungan	Muruwaric	Muruwari (Murawari)	Muruwari (Murawari) [dialects: Buruguri/Baderugali, Gungaguri, Dhindundu, Nunduguri, Gungaguri]
Oates (1975)	Pama-Nyungan	Muruwaric	Muruwari
Wurm (1972)	Pama-Nyungan	Marawaric	Marawari (Muruwari)
O'Grady, Voegelin and Voegelin (1966)	Pama-Nyungan	Murawaric	Murawari