Gamilaraay language
| Gamilaraay | |
|---|---|
| Darling tributaries | |
| Region | Central northern New South Wales |
| Ethnicity | Gamilaraay people |
| Extinct | "recently extinct" as of 2007 |
| Revival | 37 speak mixed Gamilaraay–English (2006 census) |
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Pama–Nyungan
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| Dialects |
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| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | |
| Glottolog | gami1243 |
| AIATSIS | D23 |
A map of the tribes of New South Wales, published in 1892. Gamilaraay is marked I.
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The Gamilaraay or Kamilaroi (see below for other spellings) language is a Pama–Nyungan language of the Wiradhuric subgroup found mostly in south-east Australia. It was the traditional language of the Kamilaroi people, but is now moribund—according to Ethnologue, there were only 35 speakers left in 2006, all mixing Gamilaraay and English. However, there are thousands of people of mixed descent both within the native populations as well as immigrant populations, who identify themselves as Kamilaroi. Kamilaroi is also taught in some Australian schools.
The name Gamilaraay means gamil-having, gamil being the word for "no". Other dialects and languages are similarly named after their respective words for "no". (Compare the division between Langue d'oïl and Langue d'oc in France, distinguished by their respective words for "yes".) "yaama" means "hello".
Spellings of the name, pronounced [ɡ̊aˌmilaˈɻaːj] (listen) in the language itself, include:
Southern Aboriginal guides led the surveyor John Howe to the upper Hunter River above present-day Singleton in 1819. They told him that the country there was "Coomery Roy [=Gamilaraay] and more further a great way", meaning to the north-west, over the Liverpool Ranges (see O'Rourke 1997: 29). This is probably the first record of the name.
A basic wordlist collected by Major Thomas Mitchell in February, 1832 is the earliest written record of Gamilaraay.
The Presbyterian missionary William Ridley studied the language from 1852 to 1856.
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