Australian Aboriginal enumeration

Last updated

The Australian Aboriginal counting system was used together with message sticks sent to neighbouring clans to alert them of, or invite them to, corroborees, set-fights, and ball games. Numbers could clarify the day the meeting was to be held (in a number of "moons") and where (the number of camps' distance away). The messenger would have a message "in his mouth" to go along with the message stick.

Contents

A common misconception among non-Aboriginals is that Aboriginals did not have a way to count beyond two or three. However, Alfred Howitt, who studied the peoples of southeastern Australia, disproved this in the late nineteenth century,[ citation needed ] although the myth continues in circulation today. [1]

The system in the table below is that used by the Wotjobaluk of the Wimmera (Howitt used this tribal name for the language called Wergaia in the AIATSIS language map). Howitt wrote that it was common among nearly all peoples he encountered in the southeast: "Its occurrence in these tribes suggests that it must have been general over a considerable part of Victoria". As can be seen in the following tables, names for numbers were based on body parts, which were counted starting from the little finger. In his manuscripts, Howitt suggests counting commenced on the left hand.

Wotjobaluk counting system

Aboriginal nameliteral TranslationTranslationNumber
Giti mŭnyalittle handlittle finger1
Gaiŭp mŭnyafrom gaiŭp = one, mŭnya = handthe Ring finger2
Marŭng mŭnyafrom marung = the desert pine (Callitris verrucosa ).
(i.e., the middle finger being longer than the others,
as the desert pine is taller than other trees
in Wotjo country.)
the middle finger3
Yolop-yolop mŭnyafrom yolop = to point or aim
index finger4
Bap mŭnyafrom Bap = motherthe thumb5
Dart gŭrfrom dart = a hollow, and gur = the forearmthe inside of the wrist6
Boibŭna small swelling
(i.e., the swelling of the flexor
muscles of the forearm)
the forearm7
Bun-dartia hollow, referring to the hollow of the inside of the
elbow joint
inside of elbow8
Gengen dartchŭkfrom gengen = to tie, and dartchuk = the upper arm.
This name is given also to the armlet of possum
pelt which is worn around the upper arm.
the biceps9
Borporŭngthe point of the shoulder10
Jarak-gournfrom jarak = reed, and gourn = neck,
(i.e. is, the place where the reed necklace is worn.)
throat11
Nerŭp wrembŭlfrom nerŭp = the butt or base of anything,
and wrembŭl= ear
earlobe12
Wŭrt wrembŭl''from wŭrt = above and also behind,
and wrembŭl = ear
that part of the head just above
and behind the ear
13
Doke dokefrom doka = to move14
Det dethardcrown of the head15

A similar system but with one more place was described by Howitt for the Wurundjeri, speakers of the Woiwurrung language, in information given to Howitt by the elder William Barak. He makes it clear that once counting has reached "the top of the head. From this place the count follows the equivalents on the other side."

Other languages

Language012345678910
Anindilyakwa [2] awilyabaambilyumaabiyakarbiyaabiyarbuwaamangbalaememberrkwa
Gumulgal [2] uraponukasarukasar-uraponukasar-ukasarukasar-ukasar-uraponukasar-ukasar-ukasar
Gurindji [3] yoowarnigarndiwirringa-rloo-doo
Kokata [2] kumakuttharakabuwimangeria
Kunwinjku [2] na-kudjibokendanjbikkunkarrngbakmengkunbidkudjikunbidboken
Ngaanyatjarra [4] kutjakutjarramarnkurrakutjarra-kutjarrakutjarra-marnkurra
Nunggubuyu [2] anyjabugijwulawawulanybajwulalwulalmarang-anyjabugijmarang-anyjabugij wulamarang-anyjabugij marang-anyjabugij
Tiwi [2] natingajirarajiraterimajatapintapunginingitawamutirara
Wangka [2] kujakujarrakujarra kujukujarrakujarramarakujumarakujarra
Yorta Yorta [5] iyungbultjubulbultjubul iyungbultjubul bultjubulbultjubul bultjubul iyungbultjubul biyin-n
Yolngu [2] wangganymarrma'lurrkunmarrma' marrma'gong wanganygong marrma'

See also

Related Research Articles

The Diyari, alternatively transcribed as Dieri, is an Indigenous Australian group of the South Australian desert originating in and around the delta of Cooper Creek to the east of Lake Eyre.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wurundjeri</span> Aboriginal people who inhabited the Melbourne area before colonisation

The Wurundjeripeople are an Aboriginal people of the Woiwurrung language group, in the Kulin nation. They are the traditional owners of the Yarra River Valley, covering much of the present location of Melbourne. They continue to live in this area and throughout Australia. They were called the Yarra tribe by early European colonists.

The Boonwurrung, also spelt Bunurong or Bun wurrung, are an Aboriginal people of the Kulin nation, who are the traditional owners of the land from the Werribee River to Wilsons Promontory in the Australian state of Victoria. Their territory includes part of what is now the city and suburbs of Melbourne. They were called the Western Port or Port Philip tribe by the early settlers, and were in alliance with other tribes in the Kulin nation, having particularly strong ties to the Wurundjeri people.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marn Grook</span> Indigenous Australian football game

Marn Grook, marn-grook or marngrook is the popular collective name for traditional Indigenous Australian football games played at gatherings and celebrations by sometimes more than 100 players. From the Woiwurung language of the Kulin people, it means "ball" and "game".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Woiwurrung–Taungurung language</span> Pama–Nyungan language spoken in Australia

Woiwurrung, Taungurung and Boonwurrung are Aboriginal languages of the Kulin nation of Central Victoria. Woiwurrung was spoken by the Woiwurrung and related peoples in the Yarra River basin, Taungurung by the Taungurung people north of the Great Dividing Range in the Goulburn River Valley around Mansfield, Benalla and Heathcote, and Boonwurrung by the six clans which comprised the Boonwurrung people along the coast from the Werribee River, across the Mornington Peninsula, Western Port Bay to Wilsons Promontory. They are often portrayed as distinct languages, but they were mutually intelligible. Ngurai-illamwurrung (Ngurraiillam) may have been a clan name, a dialect, or a closely related language.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Hamilton Mathews</span> Australian anthropologist and linguist (1841-1918)

Robert Hamilton Mathews (1841–1918) was an Australian surveyor and self-taught anthropologist who studied the Aboriginal cultures of Australia, especially those of Victoria, New South Wales and southern Queensland. He was a member of the Royal Society of New South Wales and a corresponding member of the Anthropological Institute of London.

The murnong or yam daisy is any of the plants Microseris walteri, Microseris lanceolata and Microseris scapigera, which are an important food source for many Aboriginal peoples in southern parts of Australia. Murnong is a Woiwurrung word for the plant, used by the Wurundjeri people and possibly other clans of the Kulin nation. They are called by a variety of names in the many different Aboriginal Australian languages, and occur in many oral traditions as part of Dreamtime stories.

Yorta Yorta (Yotayota) is a dialect cluster, or perhaps a group of closely related languages, spoken by the Yorta Yorta people, Indigenous Australians from the junction of the Goulburn and Murray Rivers in present-day northeast Victoria. Dixon considers it an isolate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Possum-skin cloak</span> Clothing worn by Aboriginal people in the south-east of Australia

Possum-skin cloaks were a form of clothing worn by Aboriginal people in the south-east of Australia – present-day Victoria, South Australia and New South Wales. In Western Australia, Buka cloak was worn. They are made from pelts of various possum species.

The Mirning, also known as the Ngandatha, are an Aboriginal Australian people whose traditional lands lay on the coastal region of the Great Australian Bight extending from Western Australia into south-west South Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aboriginal Victorians</span> Indigenous people of the Australian state of Victoria

Aboriginal Victorians, the Aboriginal Australians of Victoria, Australia, occupied the land for tens of thousands of years prior to European settlement. Aboriginal people have lived a semi-nomadic existence of fishing, hunting and gathering and associated activities for at least 40,000 years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barababaraba</span> An Australian First Nations people of Northern Victoria and southern New South Wales

The Barababaraba people are an indigenous Australian people whose territory covered parts of southern New South Wales and northern Victoria. They had close connections with the Wemba Wemba.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mount William stone axe quarry</span> Aboriginal Australian archaeological site in Central Victoria, Australia

The Mount William stone axe quarry is an Aboriginal Australian archaeological site in Central Victoria, Australia. It is located 9 kilometres (5.6 mi) northeast of Lancefield, off Powells Track, 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) north of Romsey and 78 kilometres (48 mi) from Melbourne. Known as Wil-im-ee moor-ring, meaning "axe place" in the Woiwurrung language, the greenstone quarry was an important source of raw material for the manufacture of greenstone ground-edge axes, which were traded over a wide area of south-east Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ngarigo</span> Aboriginal Australian people

The Ngarigo people are Aboriginal Australian people of southeast New South Wales, whose traditional lands also extend around the present border with Victoria. They are named for their language, Ngarigo, which in the 19th century was said to be spoken by the Nyamudy people.

Geawegal is the name for an Australian Aboriginal people who were recorded as inhabiting an area of the Hunter Valley in eastern New South Wales, north of Sydney. This identification has been recently questioned by Jim Wafer of Newcastle University, who also reconstructs the original name as Kayawaykal.

The Brabiralung are an Indigenous Australian people, one of the five clans of Gippsland, in the state of Victoria, Australia, belonging to a wider regional grouping known as the Kurnai.

The Jupagalk or Jupagulk are an Aboriginal people of northern Victoria, Australia. They may have been a Wergaia clan.

The Wotjobaluk are an Aboriginal Australian people of the state of Victoria. They are closely related to the Wergaia people.

The Miyan, or Mian, were an indigenous people of the state of Queensland.

The Pallanganmiddang, otherwise known as the Waywurru, were an Indigenous Australian people of North-eastern Victoria, in the state of Victoria, Australia. Recent scholarship has suggested that In Norman Tindale's classic study his references to a Djilamatang tribe and their language arguably refer in good part to the Pallanganmiddang

References

  1. "Explainer: how does the Aboriginal numeric system work?". The University of Sydney. Retrieved 2021-03-15.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 John Harris, Australian Aboriginal and Islander mathematics Archived 2014-05-14 at the Wayback Machine , Australian Aboriginal Studies, 1987.
  3. William B. McGregor, (2013). Languages of the Kimberley, Western Australia, Routledge. ISBN   9781134396023
  4. Stephanie Fryer-Smith, (2002). Aboriginal Benchbook for Western Australian courts Archived 2013-10-12 at the Wayback Machine , Australian Institute of Judicial Administration Incorporated. ISBN   1875527427
  5. 'Yorta Yorta Language Heritage Dictionary', Heather Bowe, Lois Peeler, Sharon Atkinson, copyright 1997, Hawker Brownlow Education, 2005.

Bibliography