Yir-Yoront people
| Regions with significant populations | |
|---|---|
| Australia | |
| Languages | |
| Yir-Yoront, English | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Yirrk-Thangalkl, Koko Bera, Thaayorre, Uw Olkola, Uw Oykangand |
The Yir-Yoront, also known as the Yir Yiront, are an Indigenous Australian people of the Cape York Peninsula now living mostly in Kowanyama (kawn yamar or 'many waters') but also in Lirrqar/Pormpuraaw, both towns outside their traditional lands.
Yir-Yoront belongs to the Pama-Maric group of the Pama-Nyungan language family. Etymologically their language and the ethnonym derived from it are composed of yirrq (speech) and yorront. Several roots for Yorronthave been proposed, one suggesting it is derived from yorr(l) (thus, like this), this-style denominations for tribal languages being not infrequent in Australia. Alpher argues that the more convincing etymon is yorr (sand), sandridges constituting the core geomorphic feature of Yir Yoront traditional territory. To support this interpretation he notes that an alternative voice for both the people and the language is Yirr-Thuchm, where thuch denotes a sandridge.
The Yoront adopt sign language when people withdraw from their social world, or are ashamed of themselves.
The earliest explorers came across the Yir-Yoront in their traditional lands, each sectioned according to patrilineal clan divisions, at the mouths of the Mitchell River.
Pam-nhing were the ancestral supernatural beings responsible for both the creation of the world and for the way the group was organized socially. Every site was associated with its ancestral pam-nhing owner, to whom living Yir-Yoront owners were related through the male line. The word also signified a doppelganger or guardian spirit, distinct from both one's mang (reflection, image) and thepam-ngerrr or inner soul, pulse, breath of a person.
Yir-Yoront land divisions were based on patrilineal clans, each of which had a swathe of territory segments of which, on the birth of individual clan-members was then assigned to members according to their respective conception totems (lerrn nerp). That is, their names (nhaprr) were drawn from their clan totems (purrn). This territory extended into the tribal areas of the Kuuk-Thaayorre and Yirrq-mayn (Bakanh) to their north and northwest through political alliances and exogamous marriages that led to Yir-Yoront people adopting other languages ). Their clan system was composed of two moieties, the Pam-Pip and the Pam-Lul.
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