CANBERRA.
■ . • .. ■■ i urn n»np»,i., ■' . ... ■r ..• THE MUGHING-JAC3KASS GITT, ; the name of the capital^of Australia,' is, it appears, not a "good aboriginal namej - ; and; in fact; lends": to-"; ridicule;! This is the opinion expressed ;M;r>: Ai>Meston, director ©£ the »'; Tourist Bureau, who for 10 years waa'pro- ; v tector-bf abbrigiriebin QueWslaiid, recognised ias; a> standard - authority on the ] aboriginal dialects, vltt the course ol an ] Mr*•; MestonVsaid:— ~ ■;■ ,;-,< ; ; - ;::: .:.• i "in"naffiingHhe 1 Government. apparently entirely ignored the essential preliniinary precaution of as-, cortaihing the siboriginal meaninjr of Canberra, which ought to be speUed Kanburrai as-no-Australian philologist ever spells an aboriginal word with the -letter 'c,'' there being no 4 c,*.;*f/ «v,» 'x,' or 'z' in the.. language. Kanberra, he said, was not the name of the district, the aboriginals having ho name for a ; :district, namingonly every hill, lagoon, creek, and various parts of thecreek t the word' Kanberra, in foaicdifferent dialects—Kamibroi, i Wailwun, and Awabakal— being the name.of the young jackaes; the fully-grown bird being KokobuTra, Kukuburra, and Kukugahka. This naming of the capital without first ascertaining the meaning will leave room for the irreverent to refer to it as the ' jackass city.*".'.'. '>. -~-: , "There may be something appropriate m this apothfioats /of Australia's most distinctive national i>ird,/.but the name displays a deplorable poverty of nomenclature, when.. we;',know,-:&at;.;hnnch^s.vof. ; .otl»er;.,;nainw: With much appropriate and expressive abomeaning could have been selected. The youngjackass, like the young kangaroo,, had a name quite different from,that of',the-fully-grown bird,,and animal, but Kanberra as a name, for "the young kukuburra .was widely, disitributed over a-nnm-' ber, of dialects, as Kanburra, Kumburra, and Keemburra, finally becommg in the dialect of the Darling Downs ; , Goomburra,, the name of a well-known station in that
■-. V-:-: : ] "When Sir Edmund Barton was Premier I supplied him:with a list of names; suit-; able for the capital site,;and at hie request; his secretary-wrote, to me for a further number, which were duly forwarded. Any one of those names—a list of 40 0r.50 —would have been infinitely more euitable. expressive, and sonorous than -,the. word Canherra,.,which 'incite present form has no very euphohions sound and no sense or, meaning whatever.'.'.■ "Ridley in .1851' gave the name of the, young jackass as kamburra and the old one kukuburra, gorraworra,, ghuknghagha, or kukuraka,, names all . deriVbd ;from ■■ the. sound of the:, bird's >'oicei,,' The,''nearest Bound for the laugh of the bird is indicated by one'of the 'names, in the Eraser IskndVdialect^gogukugahka r -which merely adds bttbiinOrb'sound to the Kamilroi' ghu-,j kughaka. -, .- • ■~:;-'•„• : : • "Kul<uburra, if the.city.,was. to be. named; after the jackass, would have been a much finer word f than Canberra'. However,: the, deed is done, and if;.the boys and girls of the '.'future .capital, city, are, te be referred., to '.as., yQung;*ukub.UCTasV. the ,re:; sponeibility rests With those Who gave it the baptismal name of Canberra." ":.'<'::'■- filnVl'ii' lu'iWil'i '.'^Zr?
CANBERRA.
New Zealand Herald, Volume L, Issue 15269, 5 April 1913, Page 5 (Supplement)
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