Re: place names and fossils

[Nick Pharris <npharris@umich.edu>]

Quoting David Marjanovic <david.marjanovic@gmx.at>:

> > Another reason to collect and aim to preserve as much
> > as possible of these peoples' traditions as still
> > possible... the Tjapwuring language for example is
> > sadly extinct, essentially prohibiting to get behind
> > the original stories of the "mihirung".
>
> Which language? This supposedly comprehensive list 
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Australian_Aboriginal_languages 
> doesn't contain it, and (at least) the first page of Google results 
> is about dromornithids. It's not a dialect of the Western Desert 
> language...
>
> I'm asking because speakers of related languages may have related myths.

I checked Google, and the only sites that use the spelling "Tjapwuring" 
are ones that talk about Mihirungs.

I suspect it's a reference to Jab-wurrung, a dialect of the language 
known as Wemba-Wemba or Wembawemba.  Several language and dialect names 
in the area (western Victoria) end in -wurrung; I suspect it probably 
means "speech" or "language".

--
Nick Pharris
Department of Linguistics
University of Michigan

"Creativity is the sudden cessation of stupidity."
    --Edwin H. Land