A Basic Introduction to Kaurna Pronunciation

Part 1: Orthography and Pronunciation

The Kaurna Alphabet, As Adopted by The KWP (2010)

 

a, aa, ai, au, dl, dlh, dly, dn, dnh, dny, i, ii, k, l, lh, ly, m, n, ng (ŋ), nh, ny, p, r,

rd, rdl, rdn, rl, rn, rr, rt, t, th, ty, u, ui, uu, w, y.

 

Vowels

Kaurna has 3 short vowels

·        a = like the a in haka or visa

·        i = like the i in bit or pit

·        u = like the u in butcher

3 long vowels

·        aa = like the a in father

·        ii = like the ea in tea

·        uu = like the u in flu

And 3 diphthongs (2 vowel sounds joined together)

·        ai = like the ie in pie

·        au = like the ow in power

·        ui = like the oy in boy

Occasionally, you may find spellings of Kaurna words with the letters O and E, these are most often early transcriptions of the language, misidentifying sounds due to English conventions.

Notably, the name Kaurna is not spelt in the modern Kaurna language system, as it is not a Kaurna term. This is due to the Kaurna people originally not recognising themselves as a unified group, but rather a slew of small tribes, occasionally joining together for spiritual and governmental purposes, who happened to speak the same language. The name is most likely an exonym from the Ramindjeri or Ngarrindjeri tribes, coming from the word ‘kornar’ (people).

 

Consonants

Kaurna consonants are often trickier than vowels for English speakers to grasp, due to containing sounds not present in the English dialects. So too is it that certain English sounds are not present or distinct in Kaurna.

Kaurna also, alongside most Australian Indigenous languages, has a tendency to use combinations of extant English letters to create orthographical units that best represent their sounds, which, though seemingly making it easier for English speakers to grasp, can become confusing when letters in a word might represent a single sound, a collection of different sounds, or are simply combinations that English speakers are not used to seeing.

 

The below are pronounced much the same way as in English

    L

    M

    N

    W   

    Y

 

Kaurna does not differentiate between voiced and voiceless plosives, with the following being pronounced as either, and everywhere in-between. There is a modern tendency, however, to use the voiceless variants in most all situations, hence the voiceless English letters being used in the modern KWP alphabet. Some indigenous languages use the voiced versions primarily, hence their spellings, though the voiceless variants are often recognised as being equally correct.

The letter g is also used independently in location names; it is pronounced identically to the k in Kaurna. The reasons for its lack of presence in the KWP alphabet is currently unknown. For examples, see the Place Names section, below

·        P = either as English /p/ or /b/

·        T = either as English /t/ or /d/

·        K = either as English /k/ or /g/

 

The following are interdentals, sounds pronounced with the tip of the tongue in-between the teeth. There are 2 contradicting accounts of their pronunciation, though both produce quite similar sounds. Most sources indicate that the initial pronunciation is correct, hence their labelling as interdentals, however some few sources prefer the latter guide to pronunciation (and so their perspective is included here).

·        th = like the d in width or as the sound t or d followed by the breathiness of an English h

·        nh = like the n in tenth or as the sound n followed by the breathiness of an English h

·        lh = like the l in filth or as the sound l followed by the breathiness of an English h

 

The Alveopalatal consonants may be the most difficult Kaurna sounds to pronounce for the average English speaker as, though all their sounds are present in English, they are only used in very specific instances, and are far from intentional, often not even recognised as distinct sounds, such as with /ly/.

·        ty = like the /ch/ in church / dg in judge

·        ny = like the /ni/ in onion

·        ly = like the /lli/ in million

 

The /ng/ sound is identical to that in English, but is only used at the beginning of words, if you are having trouble pronouncing it, try slowly taking away more of the word “singing”, until you are left with the word “nging”, then until you are simply left with the sound “ng”. The sound is sometimes represented with the symbol ŋ.

·        ng (ŋ) = like the /ng/ in singing

 

The retroflex sounds are pronounced with the tip of the tongue curled up from where is would normally sit for an English speaker. As such, they produce sounds common in Indian-accented English speakers. It may be helpful to view the “r-” in these symbols as just representing the tongue being curled. Occasionally in such instances, a rhotic can be heard where this letter is used, but it is due to the movements of the tongue in changing between phonemes, rather than an attempt to make a rhotic sound actively.

·        rl

·        rn

·        rt

 

Each of the three rhotics, or r-sounds, are represented in Kaurna by 3 letters. Occasionally, you may see an underlined r (“r”) in a word borrowed from another indigenous language, in which an underlined r (“r”) refers to the Kaurna r, and a standard r represents the Kaurna rr. The tap rhotic (rd) can be confusing, so try to pronounce an r and a d at the same time.

·        r = a standard English r

·        rr = a rolled r

·        rd = a quick tapped r, sometimes also pronounced with the d, just as fast (Amery suggests it sounds like the ‘tt’ in butter, when the word is said quickly) 

Kaurna	Pitjantjatjara	Description
r	r	Standard English r
rr	r	Rolled r

 

 

In Kaurna, the l and n sounds can be pre-stopped. This occurs in free variation, at the whims of the speaker or writer. For instance, the word for house is both warli and wardli. Note that the pronunciation of the “rd” in the following letters is not the same as the tapped rhotic above, but rather a fully-fledged r-d sound, creating a pre-stop. These sounds have no English equivalents, and as such must be learned through practice. 

It is best to learn these sounds by listening to recordings of speakers.

·        rdl

·        rdn

 

All the Kaurna letters beginning with the d- symbol are their own sound. As I am unable to find a source describing a specific method of pronunciation, I shall simply describe how I learned them to be through both my classes with Rob Amery and listening to recordings of Kaurna speakers.

·        dl = pronounce a d (or occasionally t) and l at the same time

·        dlh = pronounce a /t/ and /l/ at the same time, with the tip of the tongue in between the teeth.

·        dly = split the pronunciation as /dl/-/y/ (this sound is never at the beginning or end of a word)

·        dn = split the pronunciation as /d/-/n/ (this sound is never at the beginning or end of a word)

·        dnh = split the pronunciation as /d/-/nh/ (this sound is never at the beginning or end of a word)

·        dny = split the pronunciation as /d/-/ny/ (this sound is never at the beginning or end of a word)

 

 

Part 2: Spelling & Grammar

Word Stress

In all instances, Kaurna words are stressed on the first syllable, with the third syllable receiving a secondary stress, if a word is long enough. This continues on every odd-numbered syllable for as long as the word might continue. To show this in action, let us compare the English and Kaurna way of saying “Nurlungga” (Noarlunga), with the primary stress in bold, and the secondary stress underlined. As English has its secondary stress on the fourth syllable, none is present here.

Kaurna	English
Nurlungga	Noarlunga

I should note that the word Nurlungga is the perfect Kaurna word to transition into speaking the language, and I use it to ensure I’m in the right pronunciational linguistic head-space when practicing Kaurna. I believe this to be due to it having a

 

Locations of Sounds

Kaurna words can ONLY start with the following sounds, though /i/ is thought to be un-traditional, and spawned from a mis-transcription of words beginning with /y/.

·        i

·        k

·        m

·        nh (n)

·        ng (ŋ)

·        p

·        th (t)

·        w

·        y

When Kaurna words begin with the sounds /nh/ or /th/, they are ALWAYS represented by the symbols ‘n’ or ‘t’ respectively. These are read as their original variants. This can be seen in reduplicated words, such as 'tadlithadli' (frypan), in which both the t and the th are pronounced identically.

Place Names

Kaurna placenames often end in the locative suffixes –ngka or –ila 'in, at, on'. When these suffixes occur on common nouns they are spelt –ngka and –ila. However, when they occur on a proper noun they are spelt –ngga and –illa. This does not change the pronunciation, however.
This can be seen in the two words nurlungka 'on the curve' and Nurlungga 'at Nurlu' (Noarlunga) are pronounced exactly the same but spelt slightly different.
Once again, it confuses me as to why the letter “g” can be used as a variation of k, yet is not included in the reform KWP alphabet, as mentioned above.

 

Common Noun	Propper Noun
-ngka	-ngga
-ila	-illa

 

These are far from the only suffixes in revived Kaurna. There are over a dozen suffix types for both nouns and verbs, allowing for a detailed case system and entirely free word order, though sources indicate that the historic Kaurna preferred a SOV word order. This would take pages to detail in full, and I recommend getting a copy of the Kaurna Learners Guide, Kulurdu Marni Ngathaitya, published by the KWP and Wakefield Press. This includes all the current suffixes, a detailed explanation and example of each in use. Furthermore, most all the information mentioned throughout this is sourced from there (with some information coming from the lectures of Rob Amery at the University of Adelaide in 2022). I may cover the case/suffix system in detail in future posts.

As you may encounter some spelling in from other indigenous languages, possibly the most common in Adelaide being Pitjantjatjara, but a handy table of spelling differences couldn’t hurt. There are other differences, but these are the most common I have encountered.

Kaurna	Pitjantjatjara	Description
r	r	Standard English r
rr	r	Rolled r
ty	tj	like the ch in church or the dg in judge
aa	a:	Long a
ii	i:	Long i
uu	u:	Long u