Muurrbay Aboriginal Language and Culture Co-operative
Nambucca Heads, NSW — works with the Many Rivers Aboriginal Language Centre across the NSW north coast and has published grammar and dictionary work covering Bundjalung and Yugambeh.
Where to actually go
Bundjalung language
This website does not teach, translate or publish Bundjalung language, and it is not going to start. This page exists because a lot of people searching for Bundjalung words, dictionaries or lessons land here, and the useful thing to give them is directions to the organisations doing the work.
One language, many dialects
Bundjalung — also written Bandjalang (E12) — is usually described as a language with many dialects spoken across the Northern Rivers of New South Wales and the adjoining part of south-east Queensland. Linguists generally group them together as the Bandjalangic languages. Speakers of neighbouring dialects could often follow one another; more distant ones less so.
Dialect names you will meet include Yugambeh in the north, Githabul or Gidhabal in the Border Ranges, Widjabal around Lismore, Nyangbal around Ballina, Minyangbal on the Tweed, Wahlubal on the upper Clarence, and Bandjalang proper in the south. Those names line up closely with the clan and language groups, because that is what they are: the groups and their speech are the same distinction.
Why spellings vary so much
Bundjalung sounds do not map neatly onto English spelling, and the first people to write the language down were English speakers doing it by ear. The same word could come out four different ways in four different notebooks. Modern community orthographies are far more systematic, but they still differ between language centres, because each was developed with its own community for its own dialect.
The practical rule: use the spelling the relevant community uses, and if you do not know which that is, ask before you publish. This applies just as much to a business name or a domain as to a book.
Looking for words, pronunciation or lessons? Start with a community language organisation. Bundjalung.au does not translate or standardise language; spelling, pronunciation and usage can differ by place and community.
Where to go
Yugambeh Museum Language and Heritage Research Centre
Beenleigh, Qld — the language, family history and archival centre for Yugambeh, the northern Bundjalung group.
AIATSIS
The national collection: published dictionaries, grammars, recordings and manuscripts, including Bundjalung material. Access conditions apply to some items, which is deliberate.
<Bundjalung in AIATSIS AustLang, a language-name reference database, not a boundary authority
Gambay — First Languages Australia
A national First Languages map with regional contacts, useful for working out which language centre covers a particular area.
Local Aboriginal Land Councils
The right first call for who is teaching language near you. Several Northern Rivers schools run Bundjalung programs with community language teachers, and the local land council will know which.
Recordings and archives
Some collections contain names, images or voices of people who have died, and some material has cultural or access restrictions. Read the holding institution’s access conditions before viewing, sharing or reproducing material.
- Bundjalung language and oral-history recordings at AIATSIS
- Search the AIATSIS Collection; try variant spellings such as Bundjalung and Bandjalang.
If you are publishing language on a website
Bundjalung.au hosts static websites for community members, so this comes up. A few things worth settling before a language word goes on a public page:
- Get permission from the right people. Not the first person who says yes — the people with standing to speak for that language and that country.
- Check whether it should be public at all. Some words, names and knowledge are restricted, and a public web page is permanent, indexed and copied.
- Use the community orthography rather than an older settler spelling, and say which one you are using.
- Credit the source — the language centre, the dictionary, the speaker — and say when you got it.
- Do not machine-translate. No translation tool has Bundjalung, and anything one produces is fabrication.
- Consider ICIP labelling. Traditional Knowledge and Biocultural labels through Local Contexts let you mark community conditions on material you publish.
Bundjalung.au will not set up a page that publishes language material without a clear account of where it came from and who agreed to it being public. That is not a judgement about anyone — it is the one part of this that is genuinely hard to undo once it is indexed.
Further reading and linguistics
Older grammars and ethnographic works are useful research records, but terminology, spellings and interpretations may differ from current community usage. For present-day language, start with a community language centre.
- Sharpe (1985), Bundjalung Settlement and Migration, Aboriginal History Journal Vol. 9
- Livingstone (1892), A Short Grammar and Vocabulary of the Dialect Spoken by the Minyung People
- Sharpe (2005), Grammar and Texts of the Yugambeh–Bundjalung Dialect Chain in Eastern Australia
- Sharpe (2020), Gurgun Mibinyah: A Dictionary of the Northern Dialects of the Bundjalung Language
- Ryan (1963), Some Aboriginal Place Names on the Mid-North Coast of New South Wales and their Meanings
- Crowley (1978), The Middle Clarence Dialects of Bandjalang
- Geytenbeek & Geytenbeek (1971), Gidabal Grammar and Dictionary
- Jefferies thesis on Bandjalang linguistic relationships (2011, UQ MPhil thesis)
More about Bundjalung Country
Bundjalung Country map
Where Bundjalung Country runs, why no single map is official, and who holds the boundaries.
Clans and groups
Arakwal, Githabul, Bandjalang, Widjabal, Nyangbal, Yugambeh and the other names you will meet.
Place names
Which Northern Rivers town names come from Bundjalung language, and which came from Britain.
Bundjalung National Park
The coastal park between Iluka and Evans Head, its campgrounds, and the Iluka rainforest.
Frequently asked questions
Can I learn Bundjalung language online?
Not from this website, and you should be cautious about any site offering word lists without saying where they came from. Bundjalung language work is held by community language centres, schools and Aboriginal corporations who have the linguistic record and the community authority to teach it. Muurrbay and the Many Rivers Aboriginal Language Centre on the NSW north coast, and the Yugambeh Museum in south-east Queensland, are the places to start.
How do you say hello in Bundjalung?
“Jingi wahlu”, also written jingiwalla and several other ways, is used publicly as a greeting across the Northern Rivers and appears on community signage and council welcome signs. Pronunciation, the right form to use and the right context are things to learn from a language centre or a community language teacher, not from a web page.
Is Yugambeh the same language as Bundjalung?
Yugambeh is generally described as a dialect within the same language family, spoken across the Logan, Albert, Coomera and Nerang catchments in south-east Queensland. Linguists usually group Bundjalung and Yugambeh together as Bandjalangic. Whether speakers describe it as the same language or a related one varies, and that is their call.
Why do Bundjalung dictionaries spell the same word differently?
Older records used English spelling conventions applied by non-speakers, and different recorders heard the same sounds differently. Modern community orthographies are far more consistent, but they also differ between language centres because each was developed with its own community. Use the spelling the relevant community uses.
What are the Bundjalung seasons?
Seasonal knowledge — when the mullet run, when particular plants flower or fruit, what that tells you to do — is held by communities and is not this website's to publish. Some Aboriginal seasonal calendars have been published with community permission through the CSIRO Indigenous Calendars and the Bureau of Meteorology Indigenous Weather Knowledge project; where a Bundjalung calendar has been shared publicly, it will have come from the community itself and that is the version to use.