Karri-borlbme Kun-wok

ngahburrbun

ngahburrbun

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English Translation
(Kun-balandaken)
I know, I think, I am thinking
Pronunciation
(Bale ka-yime karri-ngeybun?)

Listen to the audio. IPA ˈŋaʔburbun

Morphology
(Karri-wokdjobdjobke)

nga-h-burrbun where nga- is the first person singular 'I', the h is a glottal stop sound that represents immediacy (happening right now) and the verb is the last part -burrbun. It is in the non-past form. Here are the other forms:

-burrbom (past perfective, I knew)
-burrbuyi (irrealis, should have known, didn't know)
-burrbuni (past imperfective, used to know, were knowing, a continuing state of knowing in the past)

Notes
(Njalenjale)

This is a synonym for -bengkan, but it is also more associated with the Kunwinjku spoken at Gunbalanya. As mentioned in the last post, Kuninjku and Kune/Mayali speakers (Maningrida region) do not use this word much, they say -bengkan. Gundjeihmi speakers use either -bengkan or -burrbun (but in the Gundjeihmi spelling system the former is spelt -benggan and -bengkan in Kunwinjku).

Also, -wernhburrbun 'know very well, know thoroughly'.

Usage
(Bale kabirri-yime?)

Here's an example in Gundjeihmi (someone talking about traditional mortuary practices):

A-burrbun gorrogohni, yiman bandi-gurrmi yiman balabbala bandih-marnemarnbuni bandi-godjdjegurrmi an-djeuk mait danjbik o gun-bid barri-weyi, wanjh barri-durndengi yiman bandi-murrngmangi.

I know that long ago, they used lay [deceased] people on platforms for maybe 3 or 5 years and then they would come back and collect the bones.

In Kunwinjku:
Konda yi-bolkngeyburrbun?
Do you know the name of the place here?

Date
(Balekeno)
27 Feb 2013