Learner's Guide to Bardi
Learner's Guide to Bardi
About the Book
About the Author
Table of Contents
Preface and Acknowledgements....................................................................... vi
Preface............................................................................................................................ vi
Acknowledgements........................................................................................................... vi
How to use this book........................................................................................................ vii
Chapter 1: About the Bardi language............................................................... 1
1 Where Bardi is spoken...................................................................................................... 1
Dialects of Bardi............................................................................................................... 2
2 Differences between Bardi and English................................................................................ 2
Different meanings............................................................................................................. 2
New words........................................................................................................................ 2
3 What other books in Bardi are there?................................................................................... 3
4 The Bardi KirrKirr dictionary............................................................................................. 4
5 Bardi culture................................................................................................................... 5
Kinship............................................................................................................................ 5
6 The seasons..................................................................................................................... 8
Chapter 2: Bardi Sounds and Spelling............................................................. 10
1 Vowels, consonants, and syllables.................................................................................... 10
2 Bardi vowel sounds........................................................................................................ 12
3 Consonant sounds.......................................................................................................... 14
Stop consonants............................................................................................................... 14
Nasal consonants............................................................................................................. 17
L‑sounds......................................................................................................................... 20
R‑sounds........................................................................................................................ 22
Glides............................................................................................................................ 23
Sounds that Bardi doesn’t have.......................................................................................... 24
4 Notes on spelling & pronunciation.................................................................................... 24
5 Practice words................................................................................................................ 25
Chapter 3: Simple Sentences in Bardi............................................................... 27
1 Vocabulary (“Words”).................................................................................................... 27
Words for people.............................................................................................................. 27
Words for natural features, plants, and wildlife..................................................................... 29
Words for other places and things....................................................................................... 30
Words for actions............................................................................................................. 32
2 Basic sentences.............................................................................................................. 35
A whole sentence in one word............................................................................................. 35
Describing people and things............................................................................................. 38
“this” and “that”............................................................................................................ 39
Naming people................................................................................................................ 39
Questions........................................................................................................................ 40
3 Simple transitive sentences............................................................................................... 41
Summary........................................................................................................................ 44
Chapter 4: Intransitive verbs (1)....................................................................... 46
1 More about intransitive verbs: verbs with one participant...................................................... 47
2 Things happening right now............................................................................................ 47
3 Talking about things that already happened....................................................................... 52
4 Vowel harmony (that is, vowel changes)............................................................................ 55
Summary........................................................................................................................ 58
5 Plural verb forms for present tense..................................................................................... 58
6 Plural verb forms for past tense......................................................................................... 61
Chapter 5: Pronouns and some more vocabulary.................................... 65
1 Bardi pronouns.............................................................................................................. 65
2 Using pronouns.............................................................................................................. 66
3 More vocabulary: a Bardi story........................................................................................ 67
Chapter 6: Intransitive verbs (2)....................................................................... 70
1 Intransitive B/J/G verbs................................................................................................... 70
Past tense forms............................................................................................................... 70
Present tense forms........................................................................................................... 72
Plural forms.................................................................................................................... 73
Summary........................................................................................................................ 75
2 Irregular intransitive verbs............................................................................................... 75
Chapter 7: Questions and Commands................................................................ 78
1 Yes‑no questions............................................................................................................ 78
How do you answer yes‑no questions in Bardi?..................................................................... 80
2 Question‑Word Questions................................................................................................. 81
Vocabulary for question words........................................................................................... 81
3 Commands (telling someone to do something).................................................................... 84
How to form verbs which tell someone to do something......................................................... 84
More commands.............................................................................................................. 88
Chapter 8: Transitive verbs................................................................................. 89
1 Transitive nasal and sonorant verbs................................................................................... 89
Present tense verbs............................................................................................................ 91
2 Transitive BJG verbs....................................................................................................... 92
3 Object marking.............................................................................................................. 94
4 Irregular transitive verbs.................................................................................................. 96
Chapter 9: Two-word Verbs................................................................................... 98
1 Introducing two-word verbs.............................................................................................. 98
2 Using two-word verbs..................................................................................................... 98
Two-word verbs with inin “sit”.......................................................................................... 99
Two-word verbs with inyjiidigal “he’s going”.................................................................... 100
Two-word verbs with inamagal “he put it”........................................................................ 100
3 Other two-word verbs..................................................................................................... 101
Chapter 10: Numbers & counting...................................................................... 102
1 Bardi numbers.............................................................................................................. 102
2 Counting in Bardi........................................................................................................ 104
Chapter 11: Nouns: who’s doing what to who?.......................................... 107
1 Introduction................................................................................................................. 107
2 Vocabulary.................................................................................................................. 107
3 Endings on nouns......................................................................................................... 108
4 Revision: objects and transitive markers........................................................................... 112
Verb prefix patterns for transitive subjects........................................................................... 112
Object suffixes (endings).................................................................................................. 112
5 More people in the sentence............................................................................................ 113
6 A special case: semi-transitive verbs................................................................................ 117
Chapter 12: Places & Directions....................................................................... 119
1 Bardi place names........................................................................................................ 119
Place name practice........................................................................................................ 121
2 Talking about places in Bardi........................................................................................ 122
Compass points............................................................................................................. 122
3 Saying where people and things are located...................................................................... 124
Practising descriptions.................................................................................................... 128
Chapter 13: Location, Direction, and Association.................................. 132
1 Vocabulary.................................................................................................................. 132
2 Location Ending........................................................................................................... 132
More Vocabulary................................................................................................................ 135
3 Two ways of saying coming “from” somewhere................................................................ 137
“From”, “away from” or “out of”.................................................................................... 137
Being “from” somewhere................................................................................................ 140
4 Going “to” somewhere.................................................................................................. 141
5 Going “for” something................................................................................................. 144
6 Going “with” someone.................................................................................................. 145
7 Doing something “with” something................................................................................ 146
8 Summary.................................................................................................................... 148
Chapter 14: Possession (owning something)................................................. 150
1 Vocabulary.................................................................................................................. 150
2 Possessing (“owning”) something.................................................................................. 150
Forms........................................................................................................................... 152
3 Plural possession: owning more than one thing................................................................. 152
4 Talking about parts of the body...................................................................................... 154
Nouns that use the special prefix....................................................................................... 156
5 Knowing things In Bardi............................................................................................... 157
6 Summary.................................................................................................................... 158
Chapter 15: Talking about the Future.......................................................... 159
7 Talking about the future................................................................................................ 159
8 The tenses of Bardi....................................................................................................... 165
Chapter 16: Possibility & Saying No................................................................ 166
1 Possibility or potential: saying that something might happen............................................. 166
2 Forms......................................................................................................................... 168
3 Answering yes‑no questions with no................................................................................ 170
4 Saying you don’t know the answer to something............................................................... 173
5 Telling someone not to do something: don’t do it!............................................................. 174
Where to next?.......................................................................................................... 178
Answers to the exercises.................................................................................... 179
Index............................................................................................................................... 203
Bibliography............................................................................................................... 209
1 Language.................................................................................................................... 209
2 Anthropology and Material Culture................................................................................. 211
3 Other unpublished work................................................................................................. 211
4 Books on other languages which might be helpful............................................................. 211
Vocabulary List....................................................................................................... 213
1 Bardi – English............................................................................................................ 213
2 English – Bardi............................................................................................................ 220
Notes.............................................................................................................................. 228
Causes Supported
Endangered Language Fund
http://endangeredlanguagefund.orgELF supports endangered languages all over the world.
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