Guwaabal 1 Bigibila wiyayl/ The Echidna's spines

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In the right-hand column the story is broken down into individual sentences. The first line is in Yuwaalaraay, the third is an English 'free' translation. The second line is an 'interlinear' translation; it shows the various parts of each Yuwaalaraay word (verb, noun, suffix etc). By examining this line you can see how words and sentences are built in Yuwaalaraay. Go back to Version 1 or go to the Notes page to find out the background to the story.

00		Bigibila wiyayl echidna/porcupine quill The Porcupine's Quills
01		Bigibila yanaa-waa-nhi, biyaduul. porcupine walk-moving-Past alone A porcupine was walking along by himself.
02		Bulaarr badjin mindjarru yanaa-waa-nhi. two small weebill walk-moving-Past Two little weebills were walking along. [Weebills are small birds about the size of a wren.]
03		(Giirr yilaalu nhama mindjarru, bigibila really long.ago that weebill porcupine dhayn gi-gi-la-nhi.) Aboriginal.person be-contin-Past (A long time ago the weebills and porcupines were people.)
04		Milan-du mindjarru-gu gayawi-y barran-du one-doerto weebill-doerto throw.at-Past boomerang-with nhama, dhinawan nhama. that,the emu that,the One weebill threw a boomerang at an emu.
05		Giirr bundaa-nhi nhama dhinawan. really fall-Past that,the emu The emu fell down.
06		Bamba ngaama bundaa-nhi hard that.the fall-Past It fell with a crash.
07		Bigibila-gu-bala winanga-y, guwaa-y, porcupine-doerto-contrast hear-Past say-Past The porcupine heard it, and he said:
08		"Aa, minya ngaama bundaa-nhi? aa what? that.the fall-Past "Aa, what fell there?"
09		Bamba nhama bundaa-nhi? hard that.the fall-Past It fell with a crash.
10		Bulaa-yu-bala mindjarru-gu nhama guwaa-y, two-doerto-contrast weebill-doerto that say-Past "Waal, waal baayamba. Waal, baayamba." no,not no,not friend no,not friend But those two weebills said, "No, no mate. Nothing mate."
11		(Giirr bulaa-yu nhama gayrrba-lda-nhi "baayamba" really two-doer.to that,the name-continuous-Past friend (The two of them used call him "baayamba, friend".)
12		Giirr-bala nguu gaga-y "Waa, waa, waa, waa really-contrast he/she call-Past wow! wow! wow! wow! maaynndjul dhingaa." very.good meat. But he called out, "Waa, waa, waa, waa, lovely meat."
13		Guwaa-lda-nhi nguu dhinawan-di bigibila nhalay say-continuous-Past he/she emu-because.of porcupine this He was saying this about the emu meat, the porcupine.
14		Giirr gaa-nhi nguu nhama dhinawan really take-Past he/she that,the emu Then he took the emu.
15		Yilaa nguu nhama yilama-y nguu nhama directly he/she that,the cook-Past he/she that,the dhawuma-y cook.in.hole-Past Then he cooked it, cooked it in the ground.
16		Giirr nguu guwaa-y mindjarru girran.girraa really he/she tell-Past weebill leaves dhiyama-li-gu pick.up-Future-purpose He told the weebills to get some leaves
17		Giirr guwaa-lda-nhi nguu: really say-continous-Past he/she: He kept on telling them:
18		"Ngarraagulay-nga yanaa-ya, girran.girraa-gu, over.there-now go-command leaf-purpose dhawuma-li-gu ngiyani dhinawan." cook.in.hole-Futurre-purpose we(less)2 emu "Go over there for leaves, so that we can cook the emu."
19		"Ngaayaybaay ngaan.gii." Okay! all right! mate? "Okay, mate!"
20		Bulaa-yu guwaa-lda-nhi. two-doer.to say-continuous-Past The two of them were saying.
21		Giirr banaga-y-la-nhi yurrul-gu, nhalay badjin-duul. really run-continuous-Past bush, scrub-to this small-one Those little fellows were running around the bush.
22		"Nhalay-gaa baayamba? ngaan.gii?" this-perhaps friend? mate? "What about these, friend, mate?"
23		"Ngaangaarran-gu yanaa-ya." further.on-to go-command "Go further on."
24		Nguu guwaa-lda-nhi, "Yanaa-ya!" he/she say-continuous-Past go-command He kept on saying, "Go!"
25		Nhama bulaarr dhurra-y ngayagay-a maalaabidi-dja. that,the two come-Past other-to big tree-to Those two came to another tree.
26		"Nhalay-gaa ngaan.gii?" this-perhaps mate? "What about these, mate?"
27		"Waal, ngaangaarran, ngaangaarran-gu!" no, not further.on further.on-to "No, further, further on."
28		Yilaa-bala giirr nguu barraay dhinawan then-contrast really he/she fast, quickly emu dhawuma-lda-nhi cook.in.hole-continuous-Past But then he was quickly cooking that emu in a hole.
29		Yilaa dhinawan dhawuma-nhi. directly emu cook.in.hole-Past Then the emu was cooked.
30		Dhinawan-bala nhama-nga dhuwima-y nguu, emu-contrast that,the-now remove-Past he/she dhinawan ngaarrma, nyiyarrma nguu-nga dha-lda-nhi emu that here he/she-then eat-continuous-Past Then he took that emu out, and he was eating that emu there.
31		Mindjarru-bala nhama dhaay-nga yanaa-w-uwi-nyi. weebill-contrast that,the to.here-then go-w-back-Past Then the weebills came back there.
32		"Yaama-nga ngaan.gii!" what.now mate? "Hey, mate,
33		Giirr ngali-nga maayrr dha-lda-nha. really we2-now no.none eat-cont-that We've got nothing to eat.
34		Ngaa, gana-badhaay ngay wuu-na." yes liver-might to.me give-command Yeah, give me the liver."
35		Bigibila-gu-bala guwaa-y: porcupine-doer.to-contrast say-Past But the porcupine said:
36		"Waa, waa, waa, waa; maayndjul dhinggaa!" wow! wow! wow! wow! very.good meat "Waa, waa, waa, waa; lovely meat!"
37		Dhugay nguu ngaama guwaa-lda-nhi. always he/she that.the say-continuous-Past He kept on saying that.
38		Waal-bala nguu dhinggaa wuu-dha-nhi nhama no,not-contrast he/she meat give-continuous-Past that,the bulaarr-gu nhama badjin-gaali-gu two-to that,the small-two-to He wouldn't give any meat to those two, the two little fellows.
39		Giirr nhama ngiilay yanaa-nhi, nhama really that,the from here go-Past that,the bulaarr, badjin-duul. two small-one The two went away from there, the little fellows.
40		Dhurra-y bulaarr gadhuu-ga come-Past two ant.nest-to The two of them came to an ant nest.
41		(Giirr ganunga-bula dhayn gi-gi-la-nhi, nhama really they>2-also Aboriginal.person be-contin-Past that,the buurrngan.) meat.ant (At that time the meat ants were people too.)
42		Bulaa-yu guwaa-y nhama buurrngan-da: two-doer.to say-Past that,the meat.ant-to The two said to the meat ants:
43		"Waal ngaan.gii-dju minyagaa ngalingu wuu-rri. no, not mate?-doer.to something to.us2 give-Future "Old mate won't give us anything.
44		Waal nguu minyagaa ngay wuu-dha-nhi. no,not he/she something to.me give-continuous-Past He hasn't given me anything at all to eat.
45		Waal ngay gana wuu-nhi, waal ngay gii wuu-nhi." no,not to.me liver give-Past no,not to.me heart give-Past He didn't give me the heart, he didn't give me the liver.
46		"Ngaayaybaay," guwaa-y nhama buurrngan-du. okay! all right! say-Past that,the meat ant-doer.to "Okay! All right!" said the meat ants.
47		Giirr nhama buurrngan yanaa-w-aaba-y, bilaarr-iyaay. really that,the meat.ant go-w-all-Past spear-with The meat ants all went, with their spears.
48		Ngaa, ngaama-dhaay-nga ganunga, buurrngan yanaa-nhi. yes there-to.here-now they>2 meat.ant go-Past Yep, they went there, the meat ants.
50		Nyiyarrma-nga ganugu bilaa-yu dhu-nhi nhama. here-then they>2 spear-with spear-Past that,the There they speared that fellow.
51		Bilaa-yu dhu-nhi, bilaa-yu dhu-nhi, aawu, burrulaa-gu. spear-with spear-Past spear-with spear-Past aawu many-with Speared him and speared him, with a lot spears.
52		Giirr-nga nguu guwaa-y: really-then he/she say-Past And then he said:
53		"Nginaalingu dhinggaa, nginu dhinggaa, nginu dhinggaa." to.you2 meat to.you(1) meat to.you(1) meat "This meat is for you two, meat for you, your meat."
54		Giirr nguu dhugay gaga-lda-nhi, "Waal, waal." really he/she always call-contin-Past no,not no,not He kept on calling out, "No, no."
55		Yilaa-bala burrulaa bilaarr nguungunda wa-y-la-nha. then-contrast many spear to.him/her be.in-contin-Pres [Too late] But now lots of spears were sticking into him.
56		Nhama wiyayl nguungu, giirr nhama that,the quill her/his really that,the bilaarr gi-gi-la-nhi. spear be-continuous-Past Those quills of his, they were those spears.
57		Yalagiyu bigibila yanaay-la-nha wiyayl-bil, bilaarr-bil. now porcupine walk-contin-Pres quill-with.lot spear-with.lot And now the porcupine is covered with quills, covered with spears.