36.2226, FYI: Dyirbal Aboriginal Poetry available online

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-36-2226. Mon Jul 21 2025. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 36.2226, FYI: Dyirbal Aboriginal Poetry available online

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Date: 21-Jul-2025
From: Alexandra Aikhenvald [a.aikhenvald at cqu.edu.au]
Subject: Dyirbal Aboriginal Poetry available online


The Dyirbal Song Poetry: the oral literature of an Australian
rainforest people record, is now live in aCQUIRe.
Here is the link:  https://hdl.handle.net/10779/cqu.28587005.v1
The description of the resource is below.
DYIRBAL SONG POETRY: Traditional songs of an Australian Rainforest
people
collected, edited and analysed by R.M.W. Dixon and Grace Koch
This book contains full transcriptions of 174 Dyirbal songs, the
original words in Dyirbal, morpheme-by-morpheme gloss, translation of
each line, list of performers and performance details, discussion of
the background and meaning, list of special song words, and discussion
of the grammar of each song. There is also a general introduction
dealing with the five song styles and the social context in which they
were performed. Dixon discusses the linguistic features of the songs,
and Koch considers the musical features of each style and of each
singer. A full musical transcription is provided for 20 songs, and
many shorter examples are included in the general musical discussion.
The CD includes 94 different song performances. For six songs we
provide two versions, for two there are three versions, for one we
include four versions and for another five versions; these are
sometimes by the same singer and sometimes by different singers.
The choice of what to include on the CD has been motivated by a number
of considerations. We have included all those performances for which
full musical transcriptions are given in the accompanying volume and
almost all of those for which musical extracts were given.
A 24-pp booklet has descriptions of each song on the CD.
THE FIVE SONG STYLES. The Dyirbal people had five song styles, each
with its characteristic metrical pattern, accompaniment, and subject
matter. Songs in the (Gama and Marrga styles were performed at
corroborees (which several neighbouring tribes might attend). The
singer would accompany himself with clapped boomerangs, and one or
more women would beat a skin drum stretched across the lap. Corroboree
songs deal with everyday topics -the behaviour of an animal or bird,
or the odd antics of while people. A Gama song has lines consisting of
nine or eleven Syllables, while the line of a Marrga song would
normally consist of eight syllables. Jangala, Burran and Gaynyil are
referred to as ‘love-song’ styles, or ‘Gugulu songs’ (after the name
for the main accompaniment stick, made of polished hardwood). These
styles are used for personal messages -of love, jealousy, sorrow or
revenge. A Jangala song has a number of lines, all of six syllables,
sung in almost random order. A Burran song has lines of six and three
syllables, sung alternately. There was no fixed metrical pattern for
Gaynyil, but often a type of alliterative opposition -yilida/yiliba or
madal/ngadal, for example. A full discussion of the five song styles,
their metrical patterns and linguistic and musical characteristics, is
in the accompanying book.

Linguistic Field(s): Anthropological Linguistics

Subject Language(s): Dyirbal (dbl)




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