Karri-borlbme Kun-wok

mandjewk

mandjewk

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English Translation
(Kun-balandaken)
1. rain 2. year
Pronunciation
(Bale ka-yime karri-ngeybun?)

(m)un-jeuk
If you know International Phonetic Alphabet (which would help a lot with pronunciation):
[ manƫeŭk ].

Note that 'u' in Bininj Gunwok dialects is always pronounced as in English 'put' and NEVER as in 'up'.

For those who are interested the IPA [ƫ] is a lamino-palatal stop and the [eŭ] is a diphthong with the second vowel quite short.

Morphology
(Karri-wokdjobdjobke)

man- is a vegetal noun class prefix. In Gundjeihmi dialect it loses the 'm' and is an-

-djewk is the noun root for 'rain'

Notes
(Njalenjale)

In Gundjeihmi and Kundedjnjenghmi dialects the equivalent is an-djeuk. In Kunwinjku, Kuninjku and Kune dialects it is man-djewk.

In Gundjeihmi the [ew] diphthong is written [eu] but the pronunciation is the same.

The 'year' sense is derived from the fact that in Northern Australia there is an annual monsoon or wet season.

Usage
(Bale kabirri-yime?)

1.Kabirri-dudjeng wanjh ka-kolhdebebme ka-kimukmen. Bu man-djewk ka-bun wanjh bonj manekke, ka-wernmen.

They bury it [the top of a yam] and the new shoots appear and it grows big. If the rain falls on it then then that will do it, they increase in number.

2. Bu man–djewkbuyika ka-yimerran wanjh manbu man-mim ka-warrwarrhme.

After another year the seeds will all fall down.

-buyika 'other, another'
man-djewkbuyika 'another year'

The verb 'it's raining' is ka-djakdung, but rain can also 'hit' an object as in ... bu man-djewk ka-bun 'when the rain strikes/falls on...'

Date
(Balekeno)
04 Jul 2012