Gamilaraay

Peter Austin, SOAS

Project Summary:

Gamilaraay (also spelled Kamilaroi) is an Australian Aboriginal language spoken by the Kamilaroi people of north-west New South Wales. The language currently has a few elders who speak it, and it is in the process of being revived through school programmes and other activities by the local Aboriginal community.

Peter Austin has been studying Gamilaraay since 1972 and has published two bilingual dictionaries. He recently wrote a paper on the history of research on Gamilaraay that will be published in 2006. In 1996 Peter Austin and David Nathan co-authored a Gamilaraay-English bilingual dictionary website (see link below).

Ongoing project description:

A revised and expanded version of the dictionary website incorporating grammatical and cultural information is being prepared. John Giacon and David Nathan are working on a CD-ROM of Gamilaraay materials for the language teaching programme currently underway in north-west New South Wales.

Links

Schools programme http://www.yuwaalaraay.org/about_this_website.htm

Resource use by the Gamilaraay people (including medicinal plants) http://www.une.edu.au/Arch/NAWwebsite/GRUPNEWS21.pdf

Gamilaraay dictionary website http://coombs.anu.edu.au/WWWVLPages/AborigPages/LANG/GAMDICT/GAMDICT.HTM