Lesson 3 – Trees, plants and the outdoors.
In this lesson we will go over some plants found on Adnyamathanha yarta (country).
You can read, hear and practise saying these Adnyamathanha words. Listen to the accompanying audio and practise your pronunciation. Test yourself at the end by covering the English and listening to the yura mityi (Adnyamathanha name).
Here are some plant names to practise saying aloud. Have you seen these plants before?
Mai is the Adnyamathanha word used for vegetable food. There are a lot of fruit and seeds which come from trees, plants, vines and the earth. Which one is your favourite?
Ngurru is the general term for grass in Adnyamathanha, and yuthara is the term for any long grass. There are also words for specific grasses.
Here are some words for other types of bush tucker.
Adnyamathanha yarta has three seasons. They don’t exactly correspond with the months as you may know it, pay special attention to the months in which they occur.
Other useful yarta words
Here are some practice sentences with the words we’ve learnt
maiaka means bush banana, ukarla means flower, and nguthii– means grow and -nda is the present tense marker which means it’s happening now.
vatapi means mistletoe, mai means vegetable food/fruit and mardlaapa means tiny/small
warndu means good/beautiful, urlkanyi means smell, yawi- means to smell from a distance, -nda is the present tense marker to mean it’s happening now, iga means native orange, waru means already and mutya means ripe