Lesson 1 – Daily Conversation
Let’s begin by learning some useful, everyday words and sentences that will help us speak and understand Yankunytjatjara.
We’ll start with the basics and then move on to some questions and answers.
It’s really good to practice saying things out loud. Listen to the audio, then try to match what you’re saying with that.
USEFUL WORDS
These words are some of the most common and useful words used when learning to speak Yankunytjatjara. Use them as your safe words to keep conversations going and listen out for them to begin to understand other people speaking Yankunytjatjara.
GREETINGS
Let’s put some of these words we’ve been learning into some greetings and question sentences.
To ask someone how they are you might ask:
Nyuntu means you and palya means good.
Someone might reply:
Ngayulu means I and palya means good.
If you’re not so good you might say ngayulu palya wiya. You could also say ngayulu pikatjara.
Ngayulu means I, wiya means no and palya means good.
Ngayulu means I and pikatjara means sick.
We’ll touch on a few other responses a bit later on.
SOME BASIC QUESTIONS
Let’s have a look a few question and answer sentences that will help you use Yankunytjatjara in everyday conversations.
If you meet somebody, you might want to ask them:
Nyuntu means you and ngananya means who.
To this you might reply Ngayulu Lisa-nya. If your name is Pingkai you would say Ngayulu Pingkai-nya.
Ngayulu means I and Lisa-nya is your name.
Once again Ngayulu means I and Pingkai-nya is your name.
You might want to ask someone where they’re from by asking:
Nyura means you all and yaaltjinguṟu means from where.
To this you might answer Ngayulu ngura nyanganguṟu.
You might also reply with Ngayulu Alice Springs-languṟu. If you were from Adelaide you would say Ngayulu Adelaide-languṟu.
Ngayulu means I, ngura means country and nyanganguṟu means here (this place).
Ngayulu means I and Alice Springs-languṟu is where you’re from. -la- means in/at/on and -nguru means from.
Once again ngayulu means I and Adelaide-languṟu is the place that you are from. -la- means in/at/on and -nguru means from.
SPEAKING
As you are learning to speak Yankunytjatjara it can be handy to tell people what language you are speaking and even let people know that you are still learning.
Let’s learn some words and phrases about speaking Yankunytjatjara.
If you’ve only just begun to learn Yankunytjatjara you might want say to another speaker I only have a little bit of language, you might say this by saying:
Ngayulu means I, wangka means language, tjapu-ku means a little, and ninti means knowledge.
You might also ask someone what language they are speaking, you could ask:
Wangka means language, nyaa means what, nyuntu means you and wangkanyi means speaking.
You could reply to this by saying:
Ngayulu means I, wangkanyi means speaking and Yankunytjatjara is the name of the language you are speaking.
You might also want to ask another speaker if you are speaking alright, you could say:
Palyaṉa means I good and wangkanyi means speaking.
SOME MORE FEELINGS AND DESCRIBING WORDS
Here are a few other ways you can answer Nyuntu palya?
Next up we’ll be looking at the Yankunytjatjara alphabet and practicing pronouncing the letters.