S60: Gundungurra / Gandangara

AIATSIS code: 
S60
AIATSIS reference name: 
Gundungurra / Gandangara

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Name
Thesaurus heading language
Gundungurra / Gandangara language S60
Thesaurus heading people
Gundungurra / Gandangara people S60
ABN name
-
ABS name
-
Horton name
Gundungurra
Ethnologue name
-
ISO 639-3 code
-
Tindale name
Gandangara
Tindale (1974)
Gundungurra, Gundungari, Gundanora?, Gurra-gunga, Burragorang.
O'Grady et al (1966)
Gundungurra, Gundaahmyro,
Glottocode
-
Other sources
Gundungorra, Cundunorah [ALRRC]
Synonyms
Burragorang, Gundungura, Gundaahmyro, Gundungorra, Cundunorah, Gundungari, Gundanora, Gurra gunga, Gungungurra, Gandanguurra
Comment
Comments: 

Mathews published separate grammars for the Gundungurra and Ngunawal D3 but both of these grammars are drawn from the same material in his notebooks headed 'Gundungurra' (Mathews 1901 and 1904, in Eades 1976:6).

Based on his analysis of pronoun forms, Koch concludes that Gandangara (S60) and Ngunawal D3 are dialects of the same language (2011:18).

 

References: 
  • Attenbrow, Valerie. 2002. Sydney's Aboriginal past: investigating the archaeological and historical records Sydney: UNSW Press.
  • Besold, Jutta. 2004 [2003]. A sketch grammar of Gandangara (Gundungurra): a 'sleeping' language of south eastern New South Wales. Deptartment of Linguistics, University of Melbourne: BA (Hons).
  • Eades, Diana. 1976. The Dharawal and Dhurga languages of the New South Wales south coast: Australian Aboriginal Studies, Research and Regional Studies 8. Canberra: AIAS.
  • Kohen, James Leslie. 1993. A dictionary of the Gundungurra language. In Blue Mountains Dreaming: the Aboriginal heritage, ed. E. Stockton, 136-146. Winmalee, NSW: Three Sisters Productions.
  • Mathews, Robert Hamilton. 1901. The Gundungurra language. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 40(167):140-148.
  • Mathews, Robert Hamilton. 1904. Ethnological notes on the Aboriginal tribes of New South Wales and Victoria. Journal of the Royal Society of NSW 38:203-381.
  • Mathews, Robert Hamilton. 1904. The Ngunawal language. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Society 34:294-299.
  • Mathews, Robert Hamilton. 2007. Culture in translation: the anthropological legacy of R.H. Mathews. Canberra: ANU E Press and Aboriginal History Inc. (B M429.78/C1)
  • Organ, Michael. 1990. Illawarra and South Coast Aborigines 1770-1850. Aboriginal Education Unit, Wollongong University.
  • 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.
Status: 
Confirmed
Location
State / Territory: 
NSW
Location information: 

... southern rim of the Cumberland Plain west of the Georges River, as well as the southern Blue Mountains (Attenbrow 2002:34).

... from Mt Victoria south through the Blue Mountains to Goulburn and east to the Nepean River (Kohen 1993).

The territory of the Gundungurra tribe includes Burragorang, Katoomba, Picton, Berrima, Taralga and Goulburn, with the intervening country (Mathews 2007:133).

 

Maps: 
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Links

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PDF icon Oates_S60.pdf
Tindale 1974
Programs
Activities: 

The Gundungurra Language Awakening Group has been active since 2003, and linguists Jutta Besold and Amanda Oppliger have been involved in this project. The Blue Mountains World Heritage Institute has done some work on the language (cf. Wafer and Lissarrague 2008:115).

People: 
Jutta Besold, Jim Kohen, Robert Mathews, Jeremy Steele, A.L. Bennett, Mary Everitt
Indigenous organisations: 

Gundungurra Tribal Council 

Speakers
Year Source Speaker numbers
1975Oates-
1984Senate-
1990Schmidt-
1996Census-
2001Census-
2004NILS1-
2005Estimate-
2006Census-
2011Census-
2014NILS280
2016Census-
2018-2019NILS3

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 Less than 20 pages 1
Text Collection None 0
Grammar Sketch grammar (less than 100 pages) 2
Audio-visual None 0
Manuscript note: 
tape transcription/field note available (vocabulary)
Grammar: 

Besold, Jutta. 2003. A sketch grammar of Gandangara (Gundungurra): a 'sleeping" language of southeastern New South Wales. University of Melbourne: BA (Hons).

Dictionary: 
-
Classification
Source Family Group Sub-group Name Relationship
Ethnologue (2005)          
Dixon (2002)   SOUTHERN NEW SOUTH WALES GROUP Southern tablelands group Gundungurra (or Burragorang) Gundungurra (or Ngunawal, or Burragorang)
Wurm (1994) Pama-Nyungan Yuin-Kuric   Gundungura  
Walsh (1981) Pama-Nyungan Yuin-Kuric Gundungura Gundungura  
Oates (1975) Pama-Nyungan Yuin-Kuric Iora Gandangara  
Wurm (1972) Pama-Nyungan Yuin-Kuric Kuri Gandangara  
O'Grady, Voegelin and Voegelin (1966) Pama-Nyungan Yuin-Kuric Yuin Gandangara