Resources
Franks Story
Frank talks about Balanda maths
| Before ŋarra dhu losing, moma ŋarra dhu, balanya idea ŋarraku bitjan, balanya gam’: ga correct me if I’m wrong, bili bawalamirri nhakun nhuma dhu nhawi bitjan, ŋarra djäl correctiongu dhuwal, yän nhakun going back to nhanŋu Gutjan’ku question, yän nhakun bothurruw ŋayi ga try find out nhakun limurr dhuwal ga waŋanhamirri ga findout. | Just before I forget what I was going to say, I have an idea that’s like this, so, correct me if I’m wrong, because you might be (thinking about) something entirely different, so I want to be corrected, but just going back to Lanybalanyba’s question about counting, she was trying to find out about what it is that we are discussing here and finding out. |
| balanya nhakun when a balanda says ‘Our candidate has 45%, ya’ ŋunhi, is there 45% napurruŋgal yolŋuwal? How do you work that out? In Yolŋukurrdja yaka rra marŋgi, mak lurrkun’ bäy, mak lurrkun’ bäy , mak lurrkun’, yurr lurrkun’ can be 3, ya’ nhakun. Yän muka idea nhakun going back to nhanŋu question, and this is the thing that napurr ga barpuru asking question when we came here. | For example when a balanda says ‘Our candidate has 45%’, like that, is there such a thing as 45% for us Yolŋu? How would we work that out? In Yolŋu language I don’t know, maybe we would say lurrkun’ but lurrkun’ can also be used to mean 3, you see. It’s only an idea going back to her question, and it’s the question we were asking yesterday when we arrived in Darwin (before the workshop). |
| Ya’ bitjan nhakun lurrkun, lurrkun nhakun is it a percentage or nhä? Nhakun ŋunhi yalala nhuma dhu ŋarrany nhawi guŋga’yun, balanya nhakun limurr ŋuli bitjan nhäma gam’: | So that word lurrkun’, is lurrkun’ a percentage or what is it? That’s what you are going to have the help me with, for example we see it like this: |
| ŋunhi napurr ga talking about shapes and sizes mala nhakun, balanya nhakun outside napurr ga talking about, balanya nhakun nhä muka bambay? | We were talking about different shapes and sizes, outside (having tea) we were talking about – what was it ‘blind-one’? (ie sister) |
| WG: Nhä ŋunhi nhe? F: Dhuŋa ŋarra, yän nhakun ŋunhi say warraga, walal ŋuli lakaram yony-barrtjun ya’ balanya nhakun, like there might be a word in English mak ya’ ŋunhi, WG ŋäthil walal gan baman’ use that word yony-barrtjun ŋathaw mala dilkurruwurruy F: Yow balanya nhakun |
Waymamba: What was it? F: I don’t know, but just talking about cycad (ceremonial bread) they used the word yony-barrtjun (to talk about division and shapes) you see, so there might be a word in English for that, Waymamba: long ago a word the old people used was yony-barrtjun F: Yes, you see. |