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I heart language revitalisation

Today we recorded my little banji reading a Marra story that goes like this:

Manabarru

Nana ninya manabarru.
Wagmin nana manabarru.
Wiji gana wa-jinja nana ninya.
Gana nyardin-gugi, wagmin.
Nana ninya manabarru, marluy gana ngalgi-wugi. Marluy. Guda.

These words were spoken by FR and we turned it into a little storybook that we have been using in the school program. A translation of the story is:

Buffalo

This is a buffalo.
The buffalo is black.
It eats grass.
It's skin is black.
The buffalo doesn't have a skin name (subsection). Nothing. That's all.

My little banji, JF, is about 12 and he read the story pretty well. It's pretty special for a 12 year old kid to be able to read that story in a language which is only spoken by a few old people.

Lots of credit to the Marra team here at Ngukurr who do a wonderful job. I heart language revitalisation.

Comments

Sophie said…
I heart that Olgaman for her tireless thirty years of teaching students and linguists alike. And I heart the Ngukurr Language Centre too.
4:31 am
Anonymous said…
That's great!
Wamuttjan/Claire
12:59 pm
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