Bardi language facts for kids

Bardi (also called Baardi or Baard) is an Aboriginal language from Australia. It is an endangered language, meaning very few people speak it fluently today. The Bardi people speak it. They live at the tip of the Dampier Peninsula and on nearby islands. This area is north of Broome in Northwestern Australia. Bardi is part of the Nyulnyulan language family. It is very similar to the Jawi language. Even though few people speak Bardi fluently now, there are efforts to teach it in schools. This helps keep the language and culture alive.

The Bardi Language Story

A long time ago, before Europeans settled in Australia, about 1500 Bardi people lived in the area. Almost everyone in the community spoke Bardi. Today, there are more Bardi people, around 2000. However, most of them now speak only English. Only the oldest people are still fluent in Bardi.

In 2012, many middle-aged Bardi people could still understand the language. Some could even speak it a little. To help the language survive, Bardi and Jabirr Jabirr man Vincent McKenzie teaches Bardi. He grew up speaking Bardi. He teaches the language and culture at Christ the King Catholic School in the Djarindjin community.

How Bardi is Connected to Other Languages

Bardi belongs to the Western group of the Nyulnyulan language family. Think of it like different branches on a family tree.

Some experts, like R. M. W. Dixon, believed Bardi was very similar to other languages. These included Jawi, Nyulnyul, Jabirr-Jabirr, Ngumbarl, and Nimanburru. He thought people speaking these languages could understand each other easily.

However, other language experts, like Claire Bowern and William McGregor, have a different view. They, along with Bardi speakers, see most of these as separate languages.

Recording the Bardi Language

The Bardi language has been studied and recorded quite a bit. Sadly, some of the very first recordings from the 1880s are now lost. The oldest records we still have are from the early 1900s.

In the late 1920s, a researcher named Gerhardt Laves spent time on Sunday Island. He recorded over 1000 pages of Bardi texts. Since the late 1960s, more and more documentation has been done. In 2012, a big book about Bardi grammar was written by Claire Bowern. It was published by De Gruyter Mouton. This book helps people learn how the language works.

Sounds of Bardi

Every language has its own unique sounds. Bardi has 17 different consonant sounds. These are sounds like 'p', 't', 'm', or 'n'. It also has an interesting set of vowel sounds. Vowels are sounds like 'a', 'e', 'i', 'o', 'u'.

In Bardi, the way words are put together follows a pattern. Most words have a consonant, then a vowel, and sometimes another consonant. For example, a word might be like CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant).

When you speak Bardi, the first part of every word gets the main stress. This means you say the first syllable a bit louder or stronger. This stress always falls on the first syllable, even for words borrowed from other languages. Stress alone does not change the meaning of a word in Bardi.

How Bardi Words are Built

Bardi is a language that uses many affixes. Affixes are small parts added to words to change their meaning or how they are used. These can be prefixes (at the start of a word) or suffixes (at the end of a word).

There are four main types of words in Bardi:

• Nominals: These are like nouns, which name people, places, or things.
• Verb roots: These are the basic forms of verbs, which describe actions.
• Preverbs: These are words that come before verbs.
• Particles: These are small words that help connect ideas.

How Nouns Change in Bardi

Nouns in Bardi can change by adding suffixes. A suffix is a small part added to the end of a word. For example, the suffix -iidi can be added to a noun. If you add -iidi to joornk (meaning 'speed'), it becomes joornkiidi. This means 'a person who is an expert in speed' or 'a super fast runner'. Another example is jawal (meaning 'story'). Add -iidi and it becomes jawaliidi, meaning 'storyteller'.

Nouns also change to show their role in a sentence. This is called case marking. In Bardi, the case marker is usually on the first word of a noun phrase.

There are three main cases:

• Ergative: This case marks the subject of an action verb. For example, if 'the child' did something, 'child' would be in the ergative case. The suffix -nim is used for this. So, gaara (the sea) becomes gaaranim.
• Absolutive: This case marks the subject of a non-action verb or the object of an action verb. Nouns in this case do not have a special ending.
• Instrumental: This case shows that a noun is the tool or means used to do an action. For example, if you hit something with a stick, 'stick' would be in the instrumental case. The suffix -nga or -ng is used for this.

Bardi also uses special suffixes to show location or direction. These are called local cases. For example, there are suffixes for 'in a place', 'to a place', or 'from a place'.

How Verbs Change in Bardi

Verbs in Bardi also change by adding prefixes and suffixes. Prefixes are added to the beginning of a word. Suffixes are added to the end. These additions show who is doing the action and when it happened (like past, present, or future).

For example:

• i-ng-gama means 's/he laughed'. Here, 'i-' shows 's/he', and '-ng-' shows it happened in the past.
• i-ng-gama-na means 's/he laughed (a long time ago)'. The '-na' adds more detail about when it happened.

Other Ways Bardi Words are Built

Bardi uses other cool ways to build words too:

• Reduplication: This is when part of a word is repeated. It can show that an action happens over and over again. For example, gard<ard>i means 'to enter over and over again'.
• Compounding: This is when two words are put together to make a new word. For example, jamoo means 'mother's father' and gamarda means 'mother's mother'. When combined, jamoogamardaanim means 'grandparents'. This is common in Bardi family terms.

How Bardi Sentences are Formed

The way words are arranged in a sentence is called word order. In Bardi, the word order is very flexible. This means you can arrange the words in many different ways, and the sentence will still make sense. The meaning often depends on which words you want to emphasize.

For example, the sentence "Inanggagaljin baawanim mayi aamba" means 'The child brought tucker (food) for the man.'

• Inanggagaljin means 'brought'.
• baawanim means 'the child' (who did the action).
• mayi means 'tucker' or 'food'.
• aamba means 'the man'.

You can arrange these words in almost any order, and the sentence will still mean the same thing. This is different from English, where word order is usually very strict.

Why Word Order Changes

Even though Bardi has flexible word order, there are some common ways people arrange words. These choices depend on what information is most important or new in the conversation.

• New or Important Information: If something is new or you want to highlight it, it usually comes at the beginning of the sentence.
• Old Information: If you are talking about something that has already been mentioned, it might come at the end of the sentence. Sometimes, if everyone knows what you're talking about, you might even leave out the word completely!