Dharug language

The speakers did not use a specific name for their language prior to settlement by the First Fleet. The coastal dialect has been referred to as Iyora (also spelt as Iora or Eora), which simply means "people" (or Aboriginal people), while the inland dialect has been referred to as Dharug, a term of unknown origin or meaning.Troy (1994): p. 9. Linguist and anthropologist Jakelin Troy (2019) describes two dialects of the Sydney language, with neither Dharug (S64) nor Eora being in the historical record as language names.Troy, Jakelin. 2019. [https://shop.aiatsis.gov.au/products/the-sydney-language-dictionary The Sydney language] [blurb]. 2nd edition. Canberra : Aboriginal Studies Press. "The language is now called by its many clan names, including Gadigal in the Sydney city area and Dharug in Western Sydney. The word for Aboriginal person in this language is 'yura', this word has been used to help identify the language, with the most common spellings being Iyora and Eora."

Language scholar Jeremy Steele and historian Keith Vincent Smith have postulated the name "Biyal Biyal" for the language, based on evidence that this term or something like it was actually used.{{Cite thesis |title=The aboriginal language of Sydney: a partial reconstruction of the indigenous language of Sydney based on the notebooks of William Dawes of 1790-91, informed by other records of the Sydney and surrounding languages to c.1905 |url=https://figshare.mq.edu.au/articles/thesis/The_aboriginal_language_of_Sydney_a_partial_reconstruction_of_the_indigenous_language_of_Sydney_based_on_the_notebooks_of_William_Dawes_of_1790-91_informed_by_other_records_of_the_Sydney_and_surrounding_languages_to_c_1905/19440629 |publisher=Macquarie University |date=2005 |type=MA |language=en |first=Jeremy Macdonald |last=Steele|p=7 |quote=… Biyal-Biyal, abbreviated to 'BB', has been used here for the classical language of Port Jackson.}} [https://www.williamdawes.org/docs/steele_thesis.pdf PDF]Lauterer, J. (1897). "[https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/13873565#page/331/mode/1up The Aboriginal Languages of Eastern Australia Compared: A philological essay]." Proceedings of the Royal Society of Queensland, XII: p.12: "the Beall language around Sydney, which died out long ago …’{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article15981671 |title=ABORIGINAL NAMES| author=Meeston, A. |newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald |issue=26,143 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=19 October 1921 |access-date=24 August 2024 |page=11 |via=National Library of Australia|quote=… in that dialect and also in the “Beeal-Beeal” dialect of Botany Bay.}}

A website devoted to Dharug and Dharawal resources says "The word Daruk was assigned to the Iyura (Eora) people as a language group, or more commonly referred to as the people that sustained their diet by the constant digging of the yams as a vegetable supplement. The Dark, Darug, Tarook, Taruk Tarug is related to the word Midyini, meaning yam".{{cite web | title=Introduction: Aboriginal Languages of Sydney Region | website=Dharug and Dharawal Resources | url=https://www.dharug.dalang.com.au/plugin_wiki/page/introduction | access-date=31 July 2022}}

Image:Bennelong.jpg, a senior Wangal man of the Eora peoples]]

The traditional territory of the coastal variety ("Iyora/Eyora", or Kuringgai) was estimated by Val Attenbrow (2002) to include "...the Sydney Peninsula (north of Botany Bay, south of Port Jackson, west to Parramatta), as well as the country to the north of Port Jackson, possibly as far as Broken Bay".

Attenbrow places the "hinterland dialect" (Dharug) "...on the Cumberland Plain from Appin in the south to the Hawkesbury River in the north; west of the Georges River, Parramatta, the Lane Cove River and Berowra Creek". R. H. Mathews (1903) said that the territory extended "...along the coast to the Hawkesbury River, and inland to what are now the towns of Windsor, Penrith, Campbelltown".

{{main|Eora#Ethnonym}}

The word "Eora" has been used as an ethnonym by non-Aboriginal people since the late 19th century, and by Aboriginal people since the late 20th century, to describe Aboriginal peoples of the Sydney region, despite there being "no evidence that Aboriginal people had used it in 1788 as the name of a language or group of people inhabiting the Sydney peninsula".{{Cite book|last=Attenbrow|first=Val|title=Sydney's Aboriginal Past: Investigating the archaeological and historical records|publisher=University of New South Wales Press Ltd|year=2010|isbn=978-1-74223-116-7|location=Sydney|pages=36}}

With a traditional heritage spanning thousands of years, approximately 70 per cent of the Eora people died out during the nineteenth century as a result of the genocidal policies of colonial Australia, smallpox and other viruses, and the destruction of their natural food sources.

Radiocarbon dating suggests human activity occurred in and around Sydney for at least 30,000 years, in the Upper Paleolithic period.{{cite news |last=Macey |first=Richard |date=2007 |url=http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/settlers-history-rewritten/2007/09/14/1189276983698.html |title=Settlers' history rewritten: go back 30,000 years |work=The Sydney Morning Herald |access-date=5 July 2014}} However, numerous Aboriginal stone tools found in Sydney's far western suburbs gravel sediments were dated to be from 45,000 to 50,000 years BP, which would mean that humans could have been in the region earlier than thought.{{Cite book | last1= Attenbrow | first1= Val | year= 2010 | title= Sydney's Aboriginal Past: Investigating the Archaeological and Historical Records | location= Sydney | publisher= UNSW Press | isbn= 978-1-74223-116-7 | pages= 152–153 | url= https://books.google.com/books?id=TDxldj_SLcYC&q=inauthor%3A%22Val%20Attenbrow%22&pg=PA152 | access-date= 11 November 2013 }}{{Cite journal | last1= Stockton | first1= Eugene D. | last2= Nanson | first2= Gerald C. |date=April 2004 | title= Cranebrook Terrace Revisited | journal= Archaeology in Oceania | volume= 39 | issue= 1 | pages= 59–60 | jstor=40387277 | doi= 10.1002/j.1834-4453.2004.tb00560.x }}

Dharug people recognise William Dawes of the First Fleet and flagship, the Sirius, as the first to record the original traditional tongue of the elder people of Sydney Dharugule-wayaun.{{Cite web |publisher= School of Oriental and African Studies and NSW Department of Aboriginal Affairs |title= The notebooks of William Dawes |url= https://www.williamdawes.org/ |access-date= 21 September 2010 }}{{cite journal |title= The Sydney Language Notebooks and responses to language contact in early colonial NSW |journal= Australian Journal of Linguistics |volume= 12| pages= 145–170 |url= https://www.williamdawes.org/docs/troy_paper.pdf |last= Troy |first= Jakelin |year= 1992 |doi= 10.1080/07268609208599474}} Dawes was returned to England in December 1791, after disagreements with Governor Phillip on, among other things, the punitive expedition launched following the wounding of the Government gamekeeper,{{Cite book| publisher = Australian Dictionary of Biography Online | title = Dawes, William (1762 - 1836) | url = http://adbonline.anu.edu.au/biogs/A010282b.htm | access-date = 16 September 2010 }} allegedly by Pemulwuy, a Yora man.

The Indigenous population of Sydney gradually started using English more in everyday usage, as well as New South Wales Pidgin. This, combined with social upheaval, meant that the local Dharug language started to fade from use in the late nineteenth/early twentieth century.{{cite book|url=https://dharug.dalang.com.au/Dharug/reference/troy_sydney_language_publication.pdf|last=Troy|first=Jakelin|title=The Sydney Language|date=1994|page=5}} A wordlist of the local Sydney language was published by William Ridley in 1875, and he noted that, at that time, very few fluent speakers were left.{{cite book|url=https://dharug.dalang.com.au/Dharug/reference/troy_sydney_language_publication.pdf|last=Troy|first=Jakelin|title=The Sydney Language|date=1994|page=15}}

File:Dharug language Jakelin Troy.jpg

{{further|Language revitalization}}

The Dharug language had largely been lost as an extinct language, mainly due to the historical effects of colonisation on the speakers.{{Cite web |title=UNPO: Aboriginals of Australia: Revive Dharug Language |url=https://unpo.org/article/9485 |access-date=2023-07-16 |website=unpo.org}} Some vocabulary had been retained by some Dharug people, but only very little grammar and phonology. For many years non-Aboriginal academics collected resources for Aboriginal languages to preserve them, and more recently, Aboriginal people have been getting involved in the process, and designing tools to reclaim the languages. During the 1990s and the new millennium, some descendants of the Dharug clans in Western Sydney have been making considerable efforts to revive Dharug as a spoken language. In the 21st century, some modern Dharug speakers have given speeches in a reconstructed form of the Dharug language, and younger members of the community visit schools and give demonstrations of spoken Dharug.{{Cite web| publisher = CITIES | title = Dharug Dalang | url = http://www.dharug.dalang.com.au/ | access-date = 21 September 2010 }}

In 2005 a Macquarie University master's thesis by Jeremy Steele, "The Aboriginal Language of Sydney", provided an analysis of the grammar in a partial reconstruction of the language. The notebooks of William Dawes were the main source, together with word lists compiled by First Fleeters David Collins, John Hunter, Philip Gidley  King (in Hunter), Daniel Southwell, Watkin Tench, David Blackburn, a notebook called "Anon" (or "Notebook c"), Henry Fulton, and later contributors such as Daniel Paine, James Bowman, and others. In particular, largely thanks to Dawes, the thesis shows how verbs operated. Past and future tenses were indicated by suffixes or endings, often with further pronoun suffixes attached, revealing who (I, you, they, etc.) was responsible for the actions concerned.{{cite web | title=The notebooks of William Dawes on the language of Sydney | website=The notebooks of William Dawes on the language of Sydney | url=https://www.williamdawes.org/nbabout.html | access-date=24 August 2024}}

A recreated version of the language is spoken at welcome ceremonies conducted by the Dharug people.{{cite journal | last=Everett | first=Kristina | title=Welcome to Country … Not. | journal=Oceania | publisher=Wiley | volume=79 | issue=1 | year=2009 | issn=0029-8077 | doi=10.1002/j.1834-4461.2009.tb00050.x | pages=53–64}}

As of 2005, some children at Chifley College's Dunheved campus in Sydney had started learning the reconstructed Dharug language,{{Cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7992565.stm|title=Lost Aboriginal language revived|date=2009-04-14|access-date=2018-06-05|language=en-GB}}{{Cite web|url=https://sydney.edu.au/news-opinion/news/2015/12/02/the-first-time-i-spoke-in-my-own-language-i-broke-down-and-wept.html|title=The first time I spoke in my own language I broke down and wept|website=The University of Sydney|language=en-AU|access-date=2018-06-05}} and parts of the language have been taught at the Sydney Festival.{{Cite web|url=https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/sydney-festivals-bayala-how-we-all-speak-some-darug-20171218-h06ddd.html|title=Sydney Festival's Bayala: How we all speak some Darug|first=Ann|last=Ding|date=28 December 2017|website=The Sydney Morning Herald}}

In December 2020, Olivia Fox sang a version of Australia's national anthem in Dharug at the Tri Nations Test match between Australia and Argentina.{{cite news |title='Spine-tingling': Rugby viewers praise Australian national anthem sung in First Nations language |url=https://www.sbs.com.au/news/spine-tingling-rugby-viewers-praise-australian-national-anthem-sung-in-first-nations-language |access-date=6 December 2020 |work=SBS News |date=6 December 2020}}

The language may have had a distinction of vowel length, but this is difficult to determine from the extant data.Troy (1994): p. 24.

The Dharug language highlights the strong link between people and place through its clan naming convention. This can be seen through the suffix identifier {{lang|xdk|-gal}} and {{lang|xdk|-galyan}} which refer to -man of and -woman of.{{cite web |url=https://www.centennialparklands.com.au/getmedia/e32ae90a-e730-4c28-82c4-4b17e9e3c5e1/Appendix_S_-_Pre-colonial_Archaeology_report_Val_Attenbrow.pdf.aspx |title=2. THE PEOPLE – A BRIEF OVERVIEW OF THEIR LIFE AND CULTURE |work=Pre-colonial Aboriginal land and resource use in Centennial, Moore and Queens Parks – assessment of historical and archaeological evidence for Centennial Parklands Conservation Management Plan |publisher=Val Attenbrow, Australian Museum |access-date=22 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190401202404/https://www.centennialparklands.com.au/getmedia/e32ae90a-e730-4c28-82c4-4b17e9e3c5e1/Appendix_S_-_Pre-colonial_Archaeology_report_Val_Attenbrow.pdf.aspx |archive-date=1 April 2019 |url-status=dead}}

Clan names such as {{lang|xdk|Burramuttagal}} (identifying the people) therefore translate to man of Burramutta - also known as Parramatta (identifying the place those specific people are from); {{lang|xdk|Gadigal}} (identifying the people), man of Gadi - Sydney within Gadigal Country (identifying the place those specific people are from); and, {{lang|xdk|Kamaygalyan}} (identifying the people), woman of Kamay - Botany Bay (identifying the place those specific people are from). This people-and-place naming convention within the Dharug language can be seen throughout all of the clans of the Eora Nation.

Another example of the strong link between people and place, but without the suffix, can be seen with the nation name 'Eora' itself, which translates to people and from here or this place. The name Eora refers collectively to the people of the Sydney region and also translates to the name of the (Greater Sydney) region inhabited by those people.{{cite web|url=https://www.sydneybarani.com.au/sites/aboriginal-people-and-place/|title=Aboriginal people and place|work=Barani Sydney Aboriginal History|publisher=sydneybarani.com.au|access-date=22 February 2022}}

Examples of English words borrowed from Dharug are:

• Names of animals: dingo, koala, wallaby, wombat{{multiref|For dingo, koala, and wallaby, see: {{cite journal | last=Comrie | first=Bernard | title=[Review] Australian Aboriginal Words in English: Their Origin and Meaning | journal=Language | volume=69 | issue=1 | date=1993 | doi=10.2307/416440 | page=198 |doi-access=free}}|For wombat, see: {{cite web | title=Meet the bare-nosed wombat, the world's largest burrowing mammal |magazine=World Wildlife|publisher=World Wildlife Fund | url=https://www.worldwildlife.org/magazine/issues/summer-2024/articles/meet-the-bare-nosed-wombat-the-world-s-largest-burrowing-mammal | date=Summer 2024 | access-date=20 June 2024}}}} and perhaps pademelon, wallaroo, potoroo {{citation needed|date=March 2025}}
• Trees and plants: burrawang, kurrajong, geebung, myall, waratah{{citation needed|date=August 2022}}
• The tools boomerang, a word from the Turuwal sub-group, and woomera (spear-thrower)[http://www.boomerang.org.au/articles/article-what-is-a-boomerang.html What is a Boomerang?] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090208042945/http://boomerang.org.au/articles/article-what-is-a-boomerang.html |date=8 February 2009 }}; see under "The Origin of Boomerang". Retrieved 16 January 2008.
• The word gin, a now derogatory term for an indigenous woman, is believed to derive from Dharug diyin, "woman"{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FKpcDwAAQBAJ&q=gin+dharug&pg=PA484|title=The Cambridge Guide to Australian English Usage|first=PAM|last=PETERS|date=26 April 2007|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9780511294969}}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=abYBCgAAQBAJ&q=gin+dharug&pg=PT8377|title=The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English|first1=Tom|last1=Dalzell|first2=Terry|last2=Victor|date=26 June 2015|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9781317372516}}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h0mcBQAAQBAJ&q=+dharug&pg=PA346|title=The Concise New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English|first1=Tom|last1=Dalzell|first2=Terry|last2=Victor|date=27 November 2014|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9781317625124}}
• The word koradji, referring to an Aboriginal person with traditional skills in medicine, comes from Dharug.Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., p 977.

{{Reflist}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20150528073648/http://aiatsis.gov.au/sites/default/files/docs/collections/language_bibs/dharug_daruk_darug.pdf Bibliography of Dharug people and language resources], at AIATSIS
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20150528105401/http://aiatsis.gov.au/sites/default/files/docs/collections/language_bibs/eora_iora.pdf Bibliography of Eora people and language resources], at AIATSIS
• {{Cite book |last=Broome |first=Richard |url=https://archive.org/details/aboriginalaustra0000broo_s6p2 |title=Aboriginal Australians |publisher=Allen & Unwin |year=2001 |isbn=1-86508-755-6 |location=Sydney}}

{{Aboriginal peoples in New South Wales}}

{{Pama–Nyungan languages|East}}

Category:Yuin–Kuric languages

Category:Extinct languages of New South Wales

Category:Critically endangered languages