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The following notes on Three New South Wales languages were made during 1955 at Goodooga in north western New South Wales. The three languages are Ju.'a: l ei ai, Gwomu. And Murawari. Which former tribes inhabited the surrounding districts, occupying approximately the area from on the adjoining sketch.
These tribes have entirely disappeared and the language is retained by very few individuals . The future is similar to that in many other New South Wales towns - a few of the older people retain language and use it amongst themselves. They also retain scattered .......... Works of folklore and custom, but any language of former Initiation rights and similar ceremonies has been lost. The vocabulary given here for the Ju.'a:l ei ai language is stricly speaking representative of the northern dialect. Known words in the southern dialect have been added in brackets. The Ju.'a:l ei ai language was ....... In the east records by R. H. Matthews and the customs language and habits of the tribe were the subjects of Mrs Hangcok Parkers books( more particularly of the southern horde from on the Nungabara people). The Murawari.languagewas also studied by R.H Mathews.
the Gwomu vocabulary is that of the southern dialect and at the date of recording there was only one individual who had a fluent grasp of this dialect. Words from the northern dialect are indicated where recorded.
Both Gwomu an Ju.'a:lei Ai have subsequently benn recorded from the same informants by Dr S. Wurm, then of the University of Sydney, the recording being done with the aid of tape recordings.
These notes are little more than comparitive vocabularies of the three languages since it was not possible to gain more than a very fundamental idea of their grammar and syntax. Some simple...