Welcome to the Art Centre

So I'm in Ngukurr again and have been hanging around the Art Centre a bit. They asked me to help with getting 'welcome' messages done in language, which has been kinda fun. MT did the Marra one first:

Ngarlarla ginya nuwu-minay ninya gana jarag-niwijujunyi waya-wayarra nuwu-minay.

Kriol and English translations:

Yumob gaman iya, yumob garra luk dijan weya mela meigimbat, nathakain yumob garra luk.

Come here and you will see what we’ve been making. You’ll see different kinds of things.

And then the next day, Rek-Rek did a Ritharrŋu version:

Gayunu nhuma nhäŋu yakun'na gamunuŋgu-mala ŋuli napu djaŋ'guŋu.

Kriol and English translations:

Yumob gaman luk dijan ola peinting, weya mela bin duwum.

You are welcome here to look at all the paintings we've been making.

Was kinda fun thinking about Ritharrŋu again!

What's also been fun is helping the French volunteer at the Art Centre straighten out some of the Marra that old MT has been teaching her. There's another Marra student! She didn't know anything about Marra grammar, spelling or phonology but did her best. Hopefully my tips have helped and she can learn a bit more. Good on MT for being such a warhorse of Marra language maintenance.

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that munanga linguist

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