English Loanwords into Badimaya & Wajarri

List of English Loans into Badimaya

Sources: The Badimaya Dictionary, 2nd Edition (Bundiyarra-Irra Wangga Language Centre, 2022); Badimaya, a Western Australian Language (Leone Dunn, 1988)
  • Bagudyi (southern dialect), bagudyu (northern dialect) "fox" - from English fox
  • Bibarl "paper" - from English Bible
  • Budyi, budyiga(d) "cat" - from English pussy, pussycat
  • Buli(n)man "policeman" - from English policeman
  • Bulugu, bulagu (northern dialect) "cow" - from English bullock
  • Buraagu "dress" - from English frock (see phonological notes)
  • Dii "tea" - from English tea (see phonological notes)
  • Durangga "drunk" - from English drunk (see phonological notes)
  • Dyambinu "Geraldton" - from English Champion Bay, the name of a bay near Geraldton
  • Dyiibu "sheep" - from English sheep
  • Dyuga "sugar" - from English sugar
  • Dyugi "chicken" - from dialectal English chookie
  • Dyuru(d) "road" - from English road, apparently?
  • Gaabu "hat" - from English cap
  • Gaan "to not be able to do something" - from English can't
  • Gugaman "cook (job)" - either from English cooker man, or from English man + Badimaya guga "meat"
  • Guru gulaadyi "eyeglasses" - from English glasses + Badimaya guru "eye(s)"
  • Madaga (southern dialect), mudaga (northern dialect) "car" - from English motorcar
  • Mastarimdha "to muster" - from English muster (see phonological notes)
  • Maadya "boss" - from English master
  • Marran "sheep" - from English mutton
  • Midyidyi "white woman" - from dialectal English missus
  • Miyul "mule" - from English mule (see phonological notes)
  • Nyamili "jam" - from English jam, apparently?
  • Rayidamanda, rayidimdha "to ride" - from English ride (see phonological notes)
  • Walybala, wulybala, widbala (southern dialect) "white man" - from dialectal English whitefella
  • Wanda "to want" - from English want to
  • Winama "to win" - from English win
  • Winmilman (southern word) "windmill man" - from English windmill man
  • Wudibwudib (southern word) "woodheap" - from English woodheap; reduplication indicates it is a word for something that is made up of smaller things

    • List of English Loans into Wajarri

    Source: The Wajarri Dictionary, 2nd Edition (Bundiyarra-Irra Wangga Language Centre, 2021)
  • Abigaanu "Middle-Eastern or south Asian person" - from English Afghan
  • Aburnin.gi "afternoon" - from English afternoon
  • Aranji "orange" - from English orange
  • Bagardi "pocket" - from English pocket
  • Bagi "cigarette" - from dialectal English baccy
  • Banagarri, banagari, banagayi "cup" - from English pannikin
  • Bayiba "smoking pipe" - from English pipe
  • Bayigi "bag" - from English bag (see phonological notes)
  • Bayijigil "bicycle" - from English bicycle
  • Biba "pepper" - from English pepper (see phonological notes)
  • Bibarlu "paper" - from English Bible
  • Bilayirri, biliyirri "plate" - from English plate (see phonological notes)
  • Biligan "billycan" - from dialectal English billycan
  • Binju(r)lu "pencil" - from English pencil (see phonological notes)
  • Biraagu, buraagu "dress" - from English frock (see phonological notes)
  • Budiri "potato" - from English potato or spud, apparently?
  • Buji "cat" - from English pussy
  • Bulinymaanu "policeman" - from English policeman
  • Bulugu "cow" - from English bullock
  • Buuju "bush" - from English bush
  • Buwugu "fork" - from English fork (see phonological notes)
  • Daanjaman "to dance (European-style)" - from English dance
  • Dagidagi "doctor, medical professional" - from English doctor
  • Daginu "sock" - from English stocking
  • Damba "damper" - from dialectal English damper
  • Dambaman "to make damper" - derived from dialectal English damper
  • Dan.gi "donkey" - from English donkey (see phonological notes)
  • Danggi, dayingi "water tank" - from English tank (see phonological notes)
  • Dii "tea" - from English tea
  • Duwa "house" - from English door (see phonological notes)
  • Gaanu "gun" - from English gun
  • Gaardu "playing cards" - from English card
  • Gaba "cup" - from dialectal English cuppa
  • Gigaman "to kick" - from English kick
  • Giidi "gate" - from English gate (see phonological notes)
  • Giigi "cake" - from English cake (see phonological notes)
  • Gilaadyi "spectacles" - from English glasses (see phonological notes)
  • Ginibala "skinny" - from dialectal English skinny fella
  • Injin "engine" - from English engine (see phonological notes)
  • Jaamu "jam" - from English jam
  • Jaardu "shirt" - from English shirt
  • Jabulu "shovel" - from English shovel
  • Jalgi "sulky cart" - from English sulky
  • Jambinu "Geraldton" - from English Champion Bay, the name of a bay near Geraldton
  • Jarala "saddle" - from English saddle, apparently?
  • Jigibala "cheeky" - from dialectal English cheeky fella
  • Jigibalayi "to be cheeky" - derived from dialectal English cheeky fella
  • Jiibu "sheep" - from English sheep
  • Jija "sister, sister-in-law" - from English sister
  • Jinamaanu "east Asian person" - from English Chinaman
  • Juga "sugar" - from English sugar
  • Jugi "chicken" - from dialectal English chookie
  • Juurlbala "short" - from dialectal English short fella
  • Juurlu "salt" - from English salt (see phonological notes)
  • Layigaman "to like" - from English like
  • Luubala "low to the ground" - from dialectal English low fella
  • Luujuman "to lose something" - from English lose
  • Luujumayi "to get lost" - from English lose
  • Maaja, maatha "boss" - from English master
  • Migaman "to make" - from English make (see phonological notes)
  • Mijiji "white woman" - from dialectal English missus
  • Muduga "car" - from English motorcar
  • Muni "money" - from English money (see phonological notes)
  • Nani "goat" - from English nanny (the term for a female goat)
  • Rayigi "rag" - from English rag (see phonological notes)
  • Ruuba "rope" - from English rope
  • Ruudu "road" - from English road
  • Thardaji "trousers" - from English trousers, apparently?
  • Wajaman "to wash" - from English wash
  • Waya "wire, telephone" - from English wire
  • Wayangga "wire, fence" - from English wire
  • Wayangunda "telephone" - from English wire
  • Wilhbala, walhbala, walybala, widbala, wilybala, wilybalha "white man" - from dialectal English whitefella
  • Yanggubala "young (of a male)" - from dialectal English young fella
  • Ya(r)ndan "to sew" - from English yarn
  • Yayina (refers to a variety of station tools which might be called "irons") - from English iron

    • Phonological Notes

    -bala

    The suffix -bala, from the English word fellow, appears all over Wajarri and Badimaya. I think that the fact that it always takes the form -bala can tell us a lot about the way this word was pronounced in the English of the place and time, namely that it was pronounced as /fʌlə/ (this is the pronunciation that is most common amongst blackfellas and rural whitefellas in Australia today) rather than /fɛləw/.
    Firstly, we see that English /əw/ is loaned into northern Badimaya and Wajarri as either /u/ or /uː/ consistently (see table below). However, here it is loaned as /ᴀ/ instead, which might imply a lower realisation such as [ə] or [ʌ], the latter of which is a common Australian word-final allophone for schwa.
    Secondly, we see that the first syllable's vowel is transferred into both languages as /ᴀ/. While we have no data on /ɛ/ being loaned into Badimaya, in Wajarri it is consistently recieved as /i/, never as /ᴀ/. So we can conclude that this vowel must have been lower, perhaps /ʌ/. We see this (/ɛ/ → /ʌ/ / _l) sound change happen a lot in Australian English, and it is a very common feature of modern Aboriginal English and Broad Australian English. I do it in "hello", "well", and "welcome"; my father does it almost universally. It's not much of a stretch to assume that it was also a feature of the region's speech back then as it is now.
    So there you go. In the late 1800's and early 1900's, most Australians in the midwest pronounced "fellow" as /fʌlə/, just as we still do to this day.

    (Wajarri) Bayigi, dayingi, rayigi

    These three words are very, very interesting. There are four examples in Wajarri of the English /æ/ sound before /g/ or /ŋ/: they come in the three words shown above (from bag, tank, and rag respectively), as well as danggi (also from tank). For some reason, these instances of /æ/ are not loaned like other instances we've seen in Wajarri. Usually it just becomes /ᴀ/ or /ᴀː/, like in abigaanu, damba, jaamu. But in these words, it becomes /ᴀji/ (with the sole exception of danggi, which is just an alternate form to dayingi anyway)!
    The only other times we see English vowels loaned into Wajarri as /ᴀji/ are with the English diphthongs /ej/ (English plate → Wajarri bilayirri) and /ᴀj/ (English pipe → Wajarri bayiba; English bicycle → Wajarri bayijigil; English like → Wajarri layigaman)
    To me, this means one of two things about the dialects of those English-speaking settlers who loaned these words to the Wajarri people: 1) their /æ/ before /g/ or /ŋ/ was phonemically a diphthong similar to /ej/ or /ᴀj/, or 2) their /æ/ before /g/ or /ŋ/ was phonetically similar to /ej/ or /ᴀj/, but not phonemically a diphthong.
    I reckon option 2 is more likely: it's not a stretch to say that this dialect had an upglide in /æ/ before these velar sounds, which led to the Wajarri interpretation. However, option 1 is way more interesting to me. How cool would it be if this Wajarri loanword evidence was the only surviving remnant of a now extinct dialect of English that existed in colonial Westralia? That'd be sick!! We'll probably never know. Unless...?

    (Wajarri) Giidi, giigi, bilayirri/biliyirri, migaman

    There are four or five examples in Wajarri of the English diphthong /ej/ (ignoring the whole kerfuffel with æ / _{g,ŋ}): English make → Wajarri migaman, English plate → Wajarri bilayirri or biliyirri, English gate → Wajarri giidi, and English cake → Wajarri giigi. We can see that it's been loaned into Wajarri as /i/, /ᴀji/, /iji/, and /iː/ respectively. Why all these different realisations?
    This is interesting because of the pronunciation of /ej/ in Australia. Starting in the late 1800's (not too far from the time first contact was made between the Wajarri and their invaders), we hear records of /ej/ being pronounced more like [æj] by Australia's uneducated masses (which is how a slim majority of Aussies pronounce it today). So, we can hypothesise that, at the time and place where these loans were happening, [æj] could have been a realisation of /ej/ that coexisted with the more "standard" [ej] realisation. On top of that, we can hypothesis pointlessly (because this doesn't do anything to further our point) that settlers from anywhere in the British Isles that wasn't southern England probably realised this vowel as [eː].
    I bring all of this up because it allows us to explain the 3½ different ways it got loaned into Wajarri. The form ayi in bilayirri could be an interpretation of the lower [æj]; after all, we see English /æ/ getting loaned into Wajarri as either /ᴀ/ or /ᴀː/ in almost every instance. Meanwhile, the higher ii, and interpretations could reflect the higher [ej] realisation; all instances of English /ɛ/ getting loaned into Wajarri result in /i/ (e.g. English pepper → Wajarri biba). And so, I hypothesise that the various Wajarri interpretations of English /ej/ as low (/ᴀji/) or high (/i/, /iji/, /iː/) might reflect coexisting varieties of the vowel that could have been found there at the time, namely low [æj] and high [ej] or [eː]. But hey, that's just a theory. A LINGUISTICS THEORY!

    (Badimaya) Buraagu, durangga

    These words come from English frock and drunk respectively, which raise a problem for Badimaya: ⟨r⟩ /ɻ/ cannot appear as the second part of a consonant cluster, according to Badimaya phonotactics. The /u/ which we see inserted before the /ɻ/ in these words is an inventive solution to this. In regular speech in Badimaya (and presumably Wajarri, though I'm not sure), the cluster of /uɻ/ in the first syllable of a word is usually reduced to [əɻ], and even to [ɻ]. Thus, if someone is speaking casually, buraagu /ˈbuɻᴀːˌgu/ can sound like [ˈbɻᴀːˌgu], which is much closer in terms of syllable structure to English frock [fɹɔk] from which it comes. This probably isn't an attempt to sound more accurate to the original word, but rather a natural product of interpreting the English clusters in a way which these Badimaya speakers were subconsciously accustomed to: the only time they ever heard [ɻ] coming after another consonant within a word was when it was a reduced /uɻ/, and so that is how they rendered it.

    (Wajarri) Muni

    What the heck??????????????????? In every single other instance of /ʌ/ being loaned into Wajarri, it has manifested as either /ᴀ/ or /ᴀː/. On the other hand, every single instance of /ʊ/ being loaned into Wajarri yields /u/ (and also /uː/ in the case of buuju). This leads me to the conclusion that the form of the word "money" which the Wajarri picked up wasn't pronounced /mʌni/, but instead like /mʊni/! Isn't that wild?? It's not really wild that, in late 1800's Australia, a whitefella didn't have the ᴘᴜᴛ-ᴄᴜᴛ split (and that they were a minority in this regard, judging by the other loanwords). But it IS wild that every other word which could either have /ʊ/ or /ʌ/ seems to end up having /ʌ/, meaning this could only be an indicator that at least some of these whitefellas didn't have the ᴘᴜᴛ-ᴄᴜᴛ split. What a strange little outlier, and a nice little reminder of the linguistic diversity the Midwest once had. Or maybe I'm just wrong.

    (Badimaya) Dii, durangga

    There are only four words in the entire Badimaya language which begin with ⟨d⟩. Two of them are dialectal variations of words which would normally begin with ⟨dh⟩; the other two are dii and durangga. Thus, initial /d/ could almost be considered a loaned souned into Badimaya from English /t/ and /d/. Obviously Badimaya already had /d/, but it wasn't usually used in that context.

    (Badimaya) Mastarimdha

    This word, on the other hand, objectively has a phoneme loaned from English: /s/. /s/ doesn't appear in any Australian language, and is completely loaned from English into Badimaya via this word.

    (Badimaya) Miyul

    This word, despite being spelled as though it is said /mijul/, is actually said /mjul/ (and thus would be more accurately spelled myul). That's so cool! In contrast with buraagu and durangga, the English /mj/ cluster has been totally loaned into Badimaya with this word.

    (Badimaya) Rayidamanha/rayidimdha

    These are the only words in the entire Badimaya language which start with /ɻ/. Again, this is a new context for the phoneme that has been brought about by English loanwords. Cool!

    (Wajarri) Biraagu, gilaaji

    For these words, The Wajarri Dictionary says that the /i/ is frequently omitted, and they are pronounced braagu and glaaji! That cluster wouldn't normally be allowed, woohoo.

    (Wajarri) Buwugu, duwa

    These words contain a phoneme that, in older Australian English, was rendered [o͡ə]. The word duwa seems to preserve this, approximating [o͡ə] with /uwᴀ/. The other word, buwugu, is a little more confusing. It might have originally been buwagu and changed into buwugu; it might be a more subtle approximation of a diphthong or summat, idk. Why is the "uwu" so confusing???

    (Wajarri) Dan.gi

    For some reason, here the English cluster [ŋk] has been loaned into Wajarri as /ng/ rather than /ŋg/. The other loaning of English [ŋk] we see is in the two words derived from tank, being danggi and dayingi. Both of these retain the velar articulation of the nasal; in fact, the second one omits the stop but keeps the velar nasal. idk, this doesn't really matter, it's just puzzling.

    Notes

    For some of the words we see here, we can tell what time period they were introduced to the language. For one thing, there's stuff like mudaga "car", which couldn't have existed prior to the mid-20th century, when cars were introduced to the area. For others, we can tell from the word itself. For example, the fact that English wire is the source of the Wajarri words for "telephone" is indicative of when the word was loaned as waya, because 1) that kind of technology was only used for phones during a certain period of history, and 2) that word was only used for phones during a certain period of history. Also note Samuel McBurney's 1887 description of Australian and New Zealand English: "Where the young Colonial finds himself understood by half the oral exertion necessary, he forthwith abbreviates. Thus he does not telegraph but wires."

    Phoneme Correspondences

    Here's nifty lil table I've made of all the vowel correspondences we can observe with English to Badimaya/Wajarri loanwords.
    English Vowel Lexical Set Badimaya Forms Wajarri Forms
    ɪ ᴋɪᴛ i (winama) i (jija)
    ɛ ᴅʀᴇꜱꜱ N/A i (biba)
    ɛ_ / l FELLOW a (walybala) a (ginibala)
    æ ᴛʀᴀᴘ a (Dyambinu)
    aa (gaabu)    		 a (damba)
    aa (jaamu)
    æ_ / {g,ŋ} BAG N/A a (danggi)
    ayi (bayigi)
    ʌ ꜱᴛʀᴜᴛ a (duranggu) a (gaba)
    aa (gaanu)
    ɔ ʟᴏᴛ a (wanda)
    aa* (buraagu)    		 a (aranji)
    aa* (buraagu)
    ʊ ꜰᴏᴏᴛ u (bulugu) u (juga)
    uu (buuju)
    i# ʜᴀᴘᴘʏ i (budyi) i (jalgi)
    iː ꜰʟᴇᴇᴄᴇ i (buliman)
    ii (dyiibu)    		 i (jigibala)
    ii (dii)
    ᴀː ʙᴀᴛʜ aa (maadya) aa (daanjaman)
    a (aburnun.gi)
    ᴀː ꜱᴛᴀʀᴛ a (madaga) aa (gaardu)
    a (yarndan)
    o͡ə ɴᴏʀᴛʜ/ꜰᴏʀcᴇ N/A uu (juurlbala)
    uwa (duwa)
    uwu (buwugu)
    uː ɢᴏᴏꜱᴇ N/A uu (luujuman)
    u (aburnun.gi)
    juː TUNE yu (miyul) N/A
    əː ɴᴜʀꜱᴇ N/A aa (jaardu)
    ej ꜰᴀᴄᴇ N/A ii (giidi)
    iyi (biliyirri)
    i (migaman)
    ayi (bilayirri)
    ᴀj ᴘʀɪᴄᴇ i (bibarl)
    aly (walybala)
    uly (wulybala)    		 ayi (bayiba)
    i (jinamaanu)
    aly (walybala)
    əw ɢᴏᴀᴛ u (mudaga)
    a (madaga)    		 uu (ruuba)
    *I think the only reason /ɔ/ has been recieved as /ᴀː/ here is because a syllable had to be added (like I explained above) to make the word match these languages' phonotactics, and this ended up with the stressed vowel in the English word taking a position (second syllable) which is usually unstressed in a Kartu word. Thus, the vowel is lengthened to compensate for this unstressed-ness.

    Rhoticity in early Westralian English?

    Let's have a look at all of the loanwords which, in English, would have an R in rhotic dialects, but no R in non-rhotic dialects. Then, let's exclude words which are derived from the same English word, and also exclude thardaji because I don't know how to cope with that word's ridiculous form.
    If we do all that, we can see that of our 17 words, only one (mastarimdha) has an /ɻ/ where we would expect a rhotic English /ɹ/. However, this /ɻ/ appears before a vowel, so this could be a learned use of the English linking R. In other words, this rhotic would also be present in a non-rhotic dialect. After all, we can tell that this word was exchanged after the languages had been in contact for some time, because /s/ appears as it does in English as opposed to being changed to /ɟ͡ʝ/. Of the remaining 16 words, 5 have a retroflex consonant just after the place we'd expect to see /ɹ/ in a rhotic accent (e.g. gaardu /gᴀɖu/ from card /kᴀɹd/), potentially suggesting that a /ɹ/ was once present; and 11 have no sign of rhoticity at all. In fact, some words like duwa show evidence of diphthongs that were only present in non-rhotic accents at the time.
    Let's look a bit closer at those retroflex consonants. If we go back to our whole list of loanwords, we can take a look at all of the Badimaya/Wajarri loanwords which have retroflex consonants in them. If all or most of the retroflex consonants are found where we would expect to find English /ɹ/, as in gaardu, then we can guess that there is a direct correlation between the two, and that rhoticity might have been present to some extent in the English of the place and time. However, if retroflex consonants appear willy-nilly, we can surmise that these retroflexions are not related to the English sounds they correspond to, and furthermore, that there is no evidence of there having been rhoticity in that early Westralian English.
    The results are, sadly, inconclusive. Of the nine English-derived Badimaya and Wajarri words which have retroflex consonants in them, four of them are from English words with no /ɹ/ in them, and five are from words with /ɹ/ in them. The rate of success here is definitely higher than our previous search, but it's still very far from conclusive. Looking at the four retroflex-having words which do not correlate to /ɹ/-having English words: in three of them, the retroflex consonant in question is /ɭ/, and all three of these /ɭ/'s correspond to either word-final or pre-consonantal English /l/. Interestingly, this is the exact position in which English /l/ is usually velarised: perhaps these retroflex laterals are an attempt at mimicking English velar laterals, trying to lower their formants in similar ways? That might be a stretch.
    Before we can come to a conclusion, I have to clarify that, in the late 1800's and early 1900's, Australian English was very much in flux in the lower classes, influenced by the intermixing of various immigrants and transportees from Europe, and very much based on "proper British English" in the upper classes. There was no one dialect spoken by the people of midwestern Western Australia at this time in history. Thus, the goal of this little diversion isn't to see if the dialect itself was rhotic (if it was, we would know), but rather to see if a significant proportion of the people of this place and time spoke with rhotic accents.
    Another thing I need to clarify is that rhoticity was much more widespread around the turn of the 20th century than it is now. Nowadays it's restricted to North America, Ireland, Scotland, and a few shrinking regions of England; but at the time we're looking at, basically the only place in the British Isles that was totally non-rhotic was the east and southeast of England. Anyone who came from outside that pocket was likely to speak a rhotic accent, and so the odds of Australia having plenty of rhotic speakers in it isn't at all unlikely. In fact, there are records (and one very short paper) of Aboriginal people near Adelaide speaking with a partially rhotic accent, which the aforementioned singular paper deduces is because of the influence of the speech of Cornish immigrants and invaders in the area throughout its history.
    Anyway, conclusion time: It doesn't look like many people spoke with rhotic accents. The sole example of a Badimaya or Wajarri /ɻ/ equating directly to an English /ɹ/, that would only be present in a rhotic dialect, is in the word mastarimdha - and even then there is a good chance that this is simply an example of linking R, and would have been present in a non-rhotic dialect anyway. The only other evidence we have for rhoticity is in retroflex consonants, which seem to have a significant chance of only being there by accident, thus they aren't able to tell us anything about rhoticity.

    TL;DR there probably wasn't much rhotic English being spoken in the midwest of Western Australia between the late 1800's and early 1900's. There's a small chance there was a little bit of rhoticity, but other than that it seems unlikely.

    Semi-related cool things

    Modern Wajarri has a word which isn't a loanword from English, but is still amazing, and I can't not include it here. The Wajarri word for "mobile phone" is (get ready for this...) dingidingi. That's amazing.
    This isn't necessarily related to Kartu languages, and isn't related to English at all, BUT...according to Volume I of Curr's The Australian Race, a word could be found near Toodyay (then known as Newcastle; they changed the name in 1910 because people kept getting it mixed up with Newcastle, NSW). The word was wapi "fish", and was found in an identical form in Gudang, spoken all the way in Cape York, as well as Kalaw Lagaw Ya, spoken in the Torres Strait. That's crazy enough on its own, but what's even wilder is that it seems to be a loanword from a Papuan language (such as Gizrra, in which wapi means "fish" yet again). The original language of Toodyay was nothern Noongar, but it's still wild that this word made its way all the way down there. Maybe it made its way into the proto-language as Pama-Nyungan was making its way down the northern and western coasts of Australia, and mostly got retained in those daughter languages which retained contact with Papuan languages, with the weird exception of the Noongar of Toodyay, which kept it for some reason.



    Home