Chris.
On any given night in an Alice Springs supermarket que up to 10 aboriginal
languages can be heard being spoken enthusiastically and (I have to assume)
fluently!
I don't want to sell aboriginal folk as some sort of noble savages but it
really is the case that many traditional people out here have a relationship
with their birds which goes far beyond eating them- I have been pretty amazed
by the depth of bird knowledge in traditional stories out in the Red Centre,
but also the variety- I have been told 3 radically different stories about
willie wagtails by people from different language groups. Birds had other uses
besides food- zebra finch (or should that be zebra waxbill?) behaviour for
example in most desert regions is a great way to find surface water as they
have to drink very frequently.
Most names for birds seem to be derived from their calls- zebra finch locally
to Alice is called 'nink' or 'ninka' which is of course the usual call they
make! It makes many of them quite elegant and adds an extra element to birding
by ear when you know some of these names.
With regards the pronounciation of the names I have found the modern written
phonetics developed by academics linguists to be a real hinderance for us
english speakers. For example, willie wagtail in Eastern Arrernte (roughly
pronounced 'Arranda') is spelled Artityerrityerre but pronounced
'ar-didge-a-didge' which is a really good approximation of a willie wagtail
alarm call. I recon stuff the linguists and just write it Ar-didge-a-didge!
Perhaps us birders need to explore this idea further? I hear Bob Gosford up in
the Tanami is on the verge of publishing a book on ethno-ornithology which will
hopefully inspire more thought on this:
http://blogs.crikey.com.au/northern/2009/08/23/why-birds-culture-and-language-are-relevantand-interesting/
--- On Tue, 24/11/09, Chris Sanderson <> wrote:
From: Chris Sanderson <>
Subject: Re: Subject: [Birding-Aus] Re 'Jabiru'
To: "Greg Little" <>
Cc: "Mark Carter" <>,
Date: Tuesday, 24 November, 2009, 8:45
Not sure this is strictly true Greg. Willie Wagtails would barely be a
mouthful, but I know at least one big creation myth features Willie Wagtails
(the trickster I think) centrally. I would struggle to believe they didn't
have names for anything they couldn't use, naming things is just something
humans do. Perhaps the fault lies with the anthropologists for not recording
the names or asking the right questions? And for those mentioning different
languages in Australian indiginous peoples, there are in fact over 400 language
groups, but many of these are now lost completely. I believe there are only 3
indiginous languages still spoken fluently so perhaps the choice is being made
for us?
Regards,
Chris
On Tue, Nov 24, 2009 at 7:11 PM, Greg Little <> wrote:
Mark
Good call, but from my understanding of Aboriginal names they named
things that they could eat or use or that otherwise affected their lives
and ignored the rest. So we would still be stuck with names for the
others.
Greg Little
Greg Little - Principal Consultant
General Flora and Fauna
PO Box 526
Wallsend, NSW, 2287, Australia
Ph 02 49 556609
Fx 02 49 556671
www.gff.com.au
-----Original Message-----
From:
On Behalf Of Mark Carter
Sent: Tuesday, 24 November 2009 1:55 PM
To:
Subject: Subject: [Birding-Aus] Re 'Jabiru'
I agree with Philip Veerman's post- the confusing 'Jabiru' is just the
tip of the iceberg when it comes to Australian bird common names. I
think settlers did Australian birds a great diservice when they set
about naming them after the vaguely similar species of elsewhere but it
was understandible. What I don't understand is the way 21st century
ornithology persists with these clumsy confusing labels. A Red-capped
Robin is not a robin in much the same way than a Koala bear is not a
bear. Mammologists have gotten over this dodgy inheritance years ago-
native cats are now almost universally renamed quolls, marsupial mice
are now dunnarts (or antichinus or psuedo antichinus or...) and
porcupines are now echidnas.
Australian birds such as shrike-thrushes, woodswallows, wrens, chats,
magpies, babblers and treecreepers are intrinsically awesome and don't
deserve to be encumbered by these clumsy, 2nd hand, confusing and often
dreadful misnomers (shrike-thrush particularly makes me cringe). These
is a vast and rich source of authentic names in the many Aboriginal
languages of our continent- is it outragous to suggest we consider this?
Mark Carter
Alice Springs
------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 2009 23:15:24 +1100
From: "Philip Veerman" <>
Subject: [Birding-Aus] Re 'Jabiru'
To: "'Tony Russell'" <>
Cc: "Birding-aus \(E-mail\)" <>
Message-ID: <>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Surely their proper name is the Australian Black Satin-necked non-jabiru
Stork. (joke)
Why doesn't some book author take the initiative to rename some bird
groups to simpler things, like rename the Cuckoo-shrikes as Cush e.g.
"Black-faced Cush" and likewise invent other new names, so we can
dispense with all those silly names like "Cuckoo-shrike" (not a joke).
After all, names are just labels, why not have distinctive ones that
don't give wrong impressions.
Philip Veerman
24 Castley Circuit
Kambah ACT 2902
02 - 62314041
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