Pallanganmiddang language

Pallanganmiddang (also called Waywurru or Waveroo) is a language that no one speaks anymore. It was spoken by the Pallanganmiddang people in the Upper Murray area in the northeast of Victoria, Australia.

Name

Many tribe and language names in this area end with parts like -matong, -middang, -mirttong, -mathang, or -mittung.^: 2 This ending might mean "speech" or "tongue.") For Pallanganmiddang, it seems to be part of the name for the people.

Pallanganmiddang has also been called many other names, like Balangamida, Pallangahmiddang, Wavaroo, Waywurru, and others.

Classification

Pallanganmiddang is part of the Pama-Nyungan language family. But it is quite different from nearby languages like Dhudhuroa, Yorta Yorta and Wiradjuri. It shares very few words with these languages. The only exception is a language listed in 1899 called "Barwidgee, Upper Murray," which shares 39% of its words with Pallanganmiddang. This might be a dialect of Dhudhuroa or a mix-up of two languages. The list from 1899 is not very reliable.^: 3

Even though Pallanganmiddang is different from nearby languages, it still has some common Aboriginal language roots, like "nha-" meaning "to see" and "yan-" meaning "to go."^: 3

Documentation

There are only four main records of the Pallanganmiddang language:

• A list of 46 words from 1878
• A list of 109 words from 1886
• A list of 341 words from an unknown date
• A list of 63 words from 1900

Together, these lists have more than 300 words from the language.^: 1–2

References