that munanga linguist

A munanga friend was telling me a funny story the other day, which I hope she doesn't mind me repeating here. She got a text message from a Kriol-speaking relative but she didn't know who it was from. The number wasn't stored in her phone. So she replied with a 'who's this?' type message and then the reply came... "untie me barry" This SMS caused quite a bit of confusion. Untie him? Why, what's happened? Has he been locked up? Is someone holding him captive? Knowing that Kriol speakers are susceptible to not expressing themselves perfectly clearly over text messages, she didn't completely panic. But still... 'untie me barry'? After going back to the message about 5 times, finally it clicked. My friend was reading the stress wrong and the sender was using non-English spelling to show that he was 'writing' in Kriol. She finally decoded the message: Aunty! Me, Barry! Which in standard Kriol spelling, would read: Anti, mi...

Last year I blogged about an opinion piece by Aden Ridgeway that was written in Gumbaynggirr and how cool it was. Well, it seems the UN also thought it was pretty cool because they gave it a media peace award! See an article about it here . Good work Aden and also well done to those involved with the great work that seems to be going on in reviving Gumbaynggirr and making Muurrbay one of the best language centres in Australia (if not *the* best).