Karri-borlbme Kun-wok

kukku (W) kunronj (I, E)

kukku (W) kunronj (I, E)

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English Translation
(Kun-balandaken)
water
Pronunciation
(Bale ka-yime karri-ngeybun?)

GOOK-goo
If you know IPA [ˈgʊkːʊ]

Remember that the kk refers to a long stop that straddles the syllable boundary.

Morphology
(Karri-wokdjobdjobke)

A single morpheme (no divisible word parts).

Notes
(Njalenjale)

If you are learning Kuninjku (I) or Kune (E) dialects at Maningrida beware, there is a different word for water, kunronj pronounced GOON-rony or in IPA [gʊnrɔɲ]. The word for water in Bininj Kunwok dialects is a real linguistic shibboleth— a way of speaking that marks membership of a particular speech community.

Bedda Kunbarlanja kukku kabirriyime, ngad Kuninjku ngarriyime kunronj.
Those Gunbalanya people say 'kukku' for water whilst we Kuninjku people say 'kunronj'.

Usage
(Bale kabirri-yime?)

If you want to say 'in the water' or 'into the water' the initial consonant softens to 'w' after a locative prefix ku-:
kuwukku
ku- 'in/at' -wukku 'water'
In Kuninjku it would be kuronj 'in the water'.

We have already mentioned the concept of noun incorporation where a noun stem can be fixed between a pronoun prefix and a verb. However for the word water, there is a completely different word for the incorporated form, -bo-.

ngabonan 'I can see water'
nga-bo-nan 'I-water-see'
kanbowo 'give me water'
kan-bo-wo 'you>me-water-give.imperative'
Kukku, kanbowo! Water, give me water.
Kunronj, kanbowo. Water, give me water.

If you are learning Kune dialect, the incorporated form is not -bo- but -kolh-.
Ngakolhngun 'I'll have a drink'
nga-kolh-ngun 'I-water-consume'

Date
(Balekeno)
21 Sep 2012