Tell me, Mr. Rosenfelder

[vlad]

Where exactly in Australia is the traditional homeland of the Dyirbal speakers? Does anyone here know? There's actually a big grammar book of Dyirbal at my university library, and I kind of remember that it's around the Cairns area up in far north Queensland. But I might be wrong.

Northeast Queensland: "Herberton south to headwaters of Herbert River, to Cashmere, at Ravenshoe, Millaa Millaa and Woodleigh, east to Tully Falls."

Also, as far as I know, the first Aboriginal people with whom the first Europeans made contact was the Guugu Yimidhir tribe who lived around the Cooktown area. And the very familiar English words like kangaroo, koala, wallaby come from the Guugu Yimidhir language. So boomerang may have come from it as well and not Dyirbal.

Kangaroo does come from Guugu Yimidhirr, but koala, wallaby, and boomerang, as well as dingo and wombat, are all from Dharuk (Sydney area).

[Tupu]

Kangaroo does come from Guugu Yimidhirr, but koala, wallaby, and boomerang, as well as dingo and wombat, are all from Dharuk (Sydney area).

Yep, sorry...my mistake.

[Ghost]

I've heard him speak Portuguese before, too, which I found more esthetically pleasing than either Spanish or French. I suppose once you start in on the Romance languages, they kind of domino after the first one or two.

I love the sound of both French and Portuguese. And you're quite right about the dominos, so long as you can keep the lexicons separate. It's not a problem for me, but many people report trouble.

Surely this applies to any languages family?

Ghost

[Trebor]

Kangaroo does come from Guugu Yimidhirr, but koala, wallaby, and boomerang, as well as dingo and wombat, are all from Dharuk (Sydney area).

vlad, where did you learn all this? do you have any links? or... if possible, could you scan some print materials stuff?

:wishes there was so much accessible info on canadian aboriginal languages: