the Yangga language

Examining possible early sources for the Yangga language

This document examines archival sources thought to be associated with the Yangga language, based on Breen’s (2009) report and Terrill’s (1993) honours thesis.

There are seven sources in question. Of these, Tindale’s list is the only one to be overtly labelled Yangga. The rest are possibly associated with Yangga due to their stated locations:

• 1. Anonymous (1886) ‘Mount Elliott’, in Curr, E.M. (1886–1887), The Australian Race Vol. 2: 452–453.
• 2. Curr, Montagu (1886) ‘Porter’s Range’, in Curr, E.M. (1886–1887), The Australian Race Vol. 2: 456–457.
• 3. Kent, W.H. (1886) ‘Ravenswood, Upper Burdekin’ in Curr, E.M. (1886–1887), The Australian Race Vol. 2: 484–485.
• 4. Muirhead, James and Charles Lowe (1887) ‘Belyando River’ in Curr, E.M. (1886–1887), The Australian Race Vol. 3: 26–35.
• 5. Barnett, Jas. R. (1891) ‘The Aboriginal Language’ [letter to the editor], The Queenslander, April 11, 1891: 703.
• 6. Tindale, Norman B. (1938) ‘Australian Vocabularies Gathered by Norman B. Tindale, 1938-1963’ Unpublished Ms. held at the South Australian Museum MS AA 338/8/20, and AIATSIS MS 3189.
• 7. Rigsby, Bruce (1987) [Suttor River language] unpublished Ms.

Anonymous (1886) ‘Mount Elliott’, in Curr, E.M. (1886–1887), The Australian Race Vol. 2: 452–453.

This list is from Mount Elliot, an area associated with the Yangga language. Breen (2009: 224) labels this list “probably Yangga but possibly Yambina”.

It contains 42 comparable words, of which 16 (and four maybes) are recognised by Colin McLennan, and 22 not recognised, giving a positive percentage of 38%. This can be labelled as probably not Yangga.

Curr, Montagu (1886) ‘Porter’s Range’, in Curr, E.M. (1886–1887), The Australian Race Vol. 2: 456–457.

Porter’s Range is said by Breen to be “south of Ravenswood, and north of the large loop of the Burdekin River.” (Breen 2009: 226), an area that may be associated with the Yangga language.

Breen (2009: 224) labels this as only “tentative”, with the caveat that “it will probably be impossible to assign it to a particular dialect”.

Colin McLennan recognised almost all of the words as Yangga. Of the ones I am sure of, 68 out of 100 are said by Colin McLennan to be Yangga. Six are maybes and 26 are no.

It seems that this list is probably of the Yangga language.

Kent, W.H. (1886) ‘Ravenswood, Upper Burdekin’ in Curr, E.M. (1886–1887), The Australian Race Vol. 2: 484–485.

This is a sparse list, with only 37 words that I could compare, of which 22 are positive matches, 13 not matches, and two maybes, which is 59% positive matches. It’s hard to say if it belongs to the Yangga language or not, but I am in agreement with Breen (2009) in concluding that it could only very tentatively be assigned to the Yangga language.

Muirhead, James and Charles Lowe (1887) ‘Belyando River’ in Curr, E.M. (1886–1887), The Australian Race Vol. 3: 26–35.

This list has very little crossover with the other lists, but the four words which we have other evidence for were recognised by Colin McLennan: wangal ‘boomerang’, cocobean ‘wild turkey’ (cf. gogobi ‘scrub turkey’) and euri ‘meat’ (cf. yoori). Also maybe youngalla for doongulla ‘cloud’. However not wandora or burkum, which are also given for wild turkey.

Breen (2009: 224) says this is “very likely Yangga” but with only six words to go on I judge it impossible to say.

Barnett, Jas. R. (1891) ‘The Aboriginal Language’ [letter to the editor], The Queenslander, April 11, 1891: 703.

Out of 58 words shared between Barnett (1891) and words already recognised as Yangga, 35 are the same as the Yangga words. The other 21 are different words, with two maybes. This means which is 60.3% shared with known Yangga words. I would say the list is very tentatively Yangga.

Tindale, Norman B. (1938) ‘Australian Vocabularies Gathered by Norman B. Tindale, 1938-1963’ Ms. held at the South Australian Museum MS AA 338/8/20, and AIATSIS MS 3189.

I have reconstructed this list from my original unpublished card file index created for my Biri honours thesis (Terrill 1993), but was unable to check it with the original Tindale list so there may be errors. I had in 1993 accessed the original Tindale list from R.M.W. Dixon’s private collection.

This list contains 26 words agreed by Colin McLennan to be Yangga, 13 said not to be, and three maybes, giving a proportion of 61.9% said to be Yangga. Given that the list is actually labelled Yangga, the relatively low count is rather surprising, although there are rather few words to be counted.

Rigsby, Bruce (1987) [Suttor River language] unpublished Ms.

This list is from the Suttor River, which is within the area associated with the Yangga language. I reconstructed this list from my original unpublished card file index created for Terrill (1993) but was unable to check it so there may be errors; I had in 1993 accessed the original from R.M.W. Dixon’s private collection.

The list was provided by Jack Quinn, a white man who knew the language from Aboriginal friends (Terrill 1993: 6).

It is a list of 183 words, of which 99 are known to me so far. Of these, 50 are already recognised as Yangga, and 46 are not (three maybes), giving a positive rate of 52.6%. This is rather low and indicates that the word list is probably not from the Yangga language.

As said, the location given, Suttor River, is within the area associated with Yangga, but the list seems not to be of the Yangga language.

Discussion

I would say that only M. Curr (1886) from Porter’s Range and possibly Tindale (1938) are likely to be Yangga. To this can be added very tentatively Barnett (1891) and even more tentatively Kent (1886).

References

Gavan Breen (2009) The Biri Dialects and their Neighbours. Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia, 133:2, 219-256 DOI: 10.1080/03721426.2009.10887121

Terrill, Angela (1993) ‘Biri: A Salvage Study of a Queensland Language’. Thesis, BA Honours, The Australian National University.