Woiwurrung–Daungwurrung language


Woiwurrung and Daungwurrung are an Aboriginal language of the Kulin Nation of Central Victoria. Woiwurrung was spoken by the Woiwurrung and related peoples in the Yarra River basin, and Daungwurrung by the Taungurung people north of the Great Dividing Range in the Goulburn River Valley around Mansfield, Benalla and Heathcote. They are often portrayed as distinct languages, but they were mutually intelligible. Ngurai-illamwurrung may have been a clan name, a dialect, or a closely related language.

Phonology

The following is the Woiwurrung dialect:
It is not clear if the two rhotics are trill and flap, or tap and approximant. Vowels in Woiwurrung are /a e i o u/.

Pronouns

In the case of the Woiwurrung pronouns, the stem seems to be the standard ngali, but the front was suffixed to wa-, so wa+ngal combines to form wangal below.

Other vocabulary