Lesson 3 – Family
Let’s learn some words to about family members and people. We’ll learn to talk about our family and ask questions about other people’s families as well.
We’ll also have a look at some more general words for people, and practice some simple sentences using what we’ve learnt.
In Yankunytjatjara’s kinship system there are two different sides that dictate the organisation of society and therefore language. We-bone or our-side is your own generation and your grandparents and grandchildren, this is called nganaṉṯarka. Your parents and your children are called they-flesh or their side, this is called tjanamilytjan.
For the words we’re learning today it’s important to simply note there are different words for different generations and kin as they relate to yourself. There are of course more complex and nuanced learnings that go along with this system that we aren’t covering today.
GENERAL FAMILY WORDS
Let’s begin with learning some general words for family and people that come up a lot in everyday conversation.
WORDS FOR YOUR SIDE
Remembering that there are two sides of the kinship system, let’s take a look at some words that you would say when talking about your side of the kinship system nganaṉṯarka.
These are your generation, your grandparents and your grandchildren.
WORDS FOR THEIR SIDE
Now let’s have a look at words for tjanamilytjan their-side. These are your parents and your own children.
TALKING ABOUT YOURSELF AND YOUR FAMILY
With these words in mind, let’s practice a few simple sentences.
Introducing yourself you might say:
ngayulu means I, kungka means woman and Yankunytjatjara is the name of your language.
Talking about your family you might say:
Ngayulu means I, walytja means family and tjuṯatjara means with many.
Introducing your husband or partner you might say:
Ngayuku means mine, kuri means husband, ini means name and Phil-nga is your partner’s name.
If you wanted to know who someone is you could ask:
Ngananya means who and palatja means that.
You might answer:
Palatja means that’s, ngayuku means my, kuntili means auntie and Mary-nya is the name of your auntie.
You could also answer:
Palatja means that, ngayuku means my and walytja means family.
You might even want to say:
Palatja means that, palumpa means his or her and walytja means family.
NUMBERS
Let’s take a quick moment to go over how to use numbers and count in Yankunytjatjara. Yankunytjatjara has a simplified counting systems that only has words for one, two, three and many.
To count beyond this you can combine words as you would combine numbers in addition to make numbers up to six.
Using the numbers we know of above lets add them together to form new numbers up to six.
Let’s combine the numbers we’ve just learnt with some family terms to make some sentences.
Talking about how many sons we have, we might say:
Ngayulu means I, katja means son and mankur means three.
If we were talking about our siblings we might say:
Ngayulu means I, malany means younger sibling and mankur-kutjara means five.
Next up we’ll be having a look at pronouns and working to build up some more complex sentences.