Koori coast
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The Dhurga phoneme inventory and pronunciation key

Vowels

  front   back
high i/ii   u/uu
low   a/aa  

 

Consonants

  Place of articulation
Manner/type of sound
bilabial
dental
alveolar
laminal/palatal
velar
stop
b
dh
d
dj
g
nasal
m
nh
n
nj
ng
lateral 
l
rhotic
rr
glides
w
r
y

 

Pronunciation of sounds in Dhurga words

a as in but, muffin (short vowel) baba    father
aa as in father, mark (long vowel) gabaanu head
b as in bee bilima turtle
d as in dive duruwa smoke
dh as in d with tip of tongue between teeth or tip of tongue against back of lower teeth dhadha elder brother
dj as in dew, did’ya djiraali blood
g as in good gaagur hole
i as in hit (short vowel) wiling lips
ii as in heat, bee (long vowel) dhurliing elbow
l as in louse djagula lyrebird
m as in mouse minga mother
n as in nut bana rain
ng as in sing, singer ngadjung water
nh as in n with tip of tongue between teeth or tip of tongue against back of lower teeth nhuruubaba mud
nj as in onion, canion njurgun bullrush
rr as in trill, like a cat’s purr nugurr nose
r as in parrot, right gari snake
u as in put, foot (short vowel) gugu shoulder
uu as in pool, shoe (long vowel) dhuula fishhook
w as in water waadhu skin
y as in young yandabal girl

 

Important points to remember

The letter ‘u’ ALWAYS represents the sound as in ‘put’. NEVER does it represent the sound /ah/ as in ‘hut’!

The sound ‘ng’ is always pronounced like the ‘ng’ in ‘singer’. NOT like the ‘ng +g’ as in the word ‘finger’. Notice the difference!

The sound ‘dj’ is like the ‘dy’ sound in ‘dew’, not like the sound in ‘jew’! Same for ‘nj’, it’s NOT pronounced like in ‘munch’, but like the middle sound ‘ny’ in ‘onion’! 

The ‘dh’ sound is NOT like the English ‘th’. Just say ‘d’ with the tip of the tongue against the back of your LOWER teeth, it’s a duller sound than the normal ‘d’.

 

Source: Jutta Besold, Linguist, 2007