Sound of Wiradjuri Language Recently, linguists have studied and restored the Wiradjuri and associated languages, (101, 102, 103). The following table of Wiradjuri sounds is a brief summary based largely on the work undertaken by the Wiradjuri Development Project, as approved by the Wiradjuri Council of Elders. This work has not distinguished between dialects but focuses on the basics of the language. Thus some pronunciations and words may differ slightly to those still used today across Wiradjuri Country. Symbols used in Table 9 represent sounds used in the Wiradjuri language. Each separate sound in the language has a different symbol to represent just one sound only. This set of symbols gives us a practical working alphabet to help people read and pronounce the sounds correctly the Wiradjuri way, (103). It is best to refer to “symbols” rather than “letters” as this reduces confusion since the symbols represent sounds and many are represented by two letters. Throughout this report are a number of Wiradjuri words that can be used to practice the sounds. Please note that these words could be only one of a number of dialect variations. Full variations will be given in the Wiradjuri Dictionary (in preparation). How the Wiradjuri Language Works To fully understand and learn to speak Wiradjuri today one would need to undertake lessons as provided by the Wiradjuri Language Development Project, (99). However the following points about the language give some insight into how it works. There are seven main kinds of words needed to be understood to learn the language: · Naming words - for people, places and things (nouns) · Name describing words - tell what kind of people, places and things are (adjectives) · Action words - tell what is, was or will be done (verbs) · Action describing words - tell what way an action is being, was or will be done (adverbs) · Person replacing words - take the place of people (pronouns) · Place words - take the place of names of places or locations (relative pronouns) · Question words - ask for information (interrogatives) The way words are put together in Wiradjuri (its grammar) is complex and can be used with great subtlety of meaning. The language has no word for “the” (the definitive article) or “a” (the indefinite article) and no words for “thank you” or “goodbye”. These and other attributes of the language reflect the communal, sharing and ongoing/transforming nature of Wiradjuri society.
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