Then they were living at the place Waran^yin^y, at the head (source, of a river). Emu and Brolga. Right there they were digging up roots of ya:gun^y (Scirpus litoralis, a sedge).

* -ambal with ANA_der prefix

** -wajala

But no! (i.e. that food was not good enough). She, Brolga, wanted more food, that person of the mandha:yun^g moiety. (Emu was in the yirija moiety.) She (Brolga) went along. She tried out (the sedges) at the place Wulmun^gur, but they were too small. She went along, and tried them out at Wuwandawanda, but they were (again) too small. She went along, then at the place Yuran^g she tried them out. They were nice and big, the sedges.

* MANA_p prefix ama- plus frozen compound (root -yiriwu-)

** MANA_p prefix ama- plus Pl form (irregular) of run^ggal 'big'

She shook the mud off the roots. She dug up the sedges, cut them, and cooked them. She dug them up, cut them, and cooked them. She did that for a little while, then went back (to the camp) with the sedges.

She (Brolga) hid the sedge food, she hid (it from) her (Emu). She went along and arrived (at the camp). She was pounding the roots (with the stone). Both of them were pounding the roots. They were there for a long time.

* -wan^yja- 'food' as compounding initial.

** nun^g-guba-ni, 'long-time', adjectival noun containing Gentilic a modified form of o:-'ba-ni 'that' (ANA class, Anaphoric)

Again, (at) those (sedges), still there, she (Emu) was digging up sedges, that Yirija woman (Emu). As for that Mandha:yun^g woman (Brolga), she ran back to those (sedges), at Yuran^g again. She dug up the sedges.

* FSg-FSg_der-(moiety name)-Sg. The following form n^gara-n^gari-minigi-yun^g has the same structure

She (Emu) was digging up sedges (at their camp). She collected them and dug them up. She did not think it over very much (i.e. did not plan well). She dug up the sedges. She was there first.

* from /an^giwu-i j=yan^ga-ni/. The stem = jin^ggibaddha- in the following line is from creole English jin^ggibad 'to think'

Brolga came hack with (the sedges) and pounded them. She had a good stone, that woman of the Mandha:yun^g moiety (Brolga). As for her (Emu), this stone of hers was no good. The Yirija woman('s) stone. The stone she was using to pound the sedges was too rough (to he much good).

Then she (Emu) said to herself, "Why not? I will steal (the good stone) from this woman!" She said (to herself), "I will swallow it! She (Brolga) continued to dig up sedges (every day). She got up and left very early (when it was still dark). She dug up sedges at the place Yuran^g. Then she pounded up some sedges.

* =yama- 'to do that; to say' plus Causative -jga- means 'to tell'; this is followed by Reciprocal -n^yji-, here in Reflexive sense

(Emu went on) more, "We are not satisfied (from hunger). We are still hungry, all the time!" She said that. Suddenly then she took the (good) stone from her (Brolga). She (Emu) grabbed it and swallowed it, this way (into her belly). She swallowed it so that it, the stone, was sitting in her belly.

Then it got dark out. She (Brolga) was unaware of what had happened. She was doing this, looking around (for the stone). Over there she looked, and over there, scanning the entire horizon. But the stone was not there any more.

* =wadhalaliga- with /w/? y (as also with =waran^ggaran^gga-).

** =badawarawi- a frozen compound with -baG- 'eye' and reduplication of =ra-wu- 'test, taste' in Refl form =ra-wi-'-. Ma:di tended to drop the w between two a-vowels and to reduce it to y before i-vowel, hence something like n^gi=badaarayi:-ni

(Brolga said,) "I wonder who hid it (the stone) from me?" She looked all over for it. She ran there, and there. "Well, who hid that stone from me?"

* /n^gambi-aG=juluba-n^y/ 3Pl/1Sg_a-Ben=put in (hide)-Pa₁ with Epenthetic -n^gu- automatically inserted.

** =waraga=ragu- 'look all over for' may involve a reduplication of =ragu- (if so, -wa- is segmentable)

She (Brolga) stood up (and said,) "I wonder if it was you (Emu) who stole it and hid it from me?" She said that to Emu. As for her (Emu), she said "That is true." Then she swallowed it, so that it was sitting in her belly here.

* This word is not clearly audible and I do not guarantee that I have correctly identified it

She was doing that. Then she (Brolga) picked up a stick. She was just about to hit her (Emu) here, on the head. She was about to hit her.

* /an^gu-ambal=wadja-n^gi/ containing =wadja- 'to hit' (used in place of =wu- after a compounding initial), -ambal- 'head' as compounding initial, Pa₂ -n^gi and 3FSg/3FSg_b prefix. The form is past potential ('would have', 'was about to', etc.), hence the _b form of the prefix

Then (Emu said,) "Don't hit me on the head! Don't hit me! Or else I will bring down (the clouds and sky)! I will call them! I will say, 'Come here!' I will call them down! I will destroy all the people!" She said that.

* 1Sg/3Pl_a-group=bad-Factitive(cause to be)-Evitative-lest with =ala:di- 'bad' and Factitive -wa-

(Emu told Brolga), "Hit me here, on the back (not on the head)!" Jajajaja! (sound of Brolga hitting Emu). She (Brolga) hit her (Emu) here, on the back. She (Emu) then threw out (i.e. coughed up) that stone, it jumped out. It was lying over there, the stone which she (Emu) had swallowed.

Note: We find oscillation in this text, as in others (such as text 6), between FSg and (nonhuman) N^gARA as the noun class for Emu or Brolga as mythical beings. In many morphological contexts FSg and N^gARA are indistinguishable anyway, so transitions are easy. Prefix n^gi- in transitive verbs, twice in line 2 of this segment, clearly has N^gARA (not FSg) object, though the subject could be either FSg or N^gARA; contrast this with n^ga:-'=mi-n^y 'she took it from herP' in 7.9, where the pronominal prefix must be /n^gu-/ instead of /n^gi-/ and thus specifies the object as 3FSg. In the nouns themselves, prefix yi:- can only be N^gARA (see 7.12, 7.18), but we sometimes find prefix n^gara- with overt case suffix present--a characteristic of 3FSg, uncommon but attested with N^gARA (see 7.16, 7.18, etc.). We find a tendency, but no more than that, for the nonhuman forms to occur toward the end of the text, where Emu and Brolga are undergoing transformations converting them from humanoid beings into their presently observed forms as large birds.

That is what she (Emu) said. I will tell him (Heath) the words of Emu (which followed): "The Scrub will injure me! I will go through various scrub trees. I will go to all of the billabongs, and the plains! The scrub trees will hit me in the chest!

Note: Emu's description of the behavior she has doomed herself to is expressed in highly poetic language involving unusually long and complex words (see 'it will hit me_c' in line 3 of this segment) and some nominal epithets normally limited to song language (e.g. yulubun, yulwulun^gguybulun^gguy). This material is recited by Ma:di in a song-like register, though so far as I know it is not in the normal repertoire of Nunggubuyu songs. This register continues in the segments below and applies to Brolga as well as Emu.

* The prefix n^ganu- is an emendation; on the tape it sounds like n^gan^gu- (3MSg/3FSg) but this would appear to be in error. The 'him' object is the linguist

(Emu continued,) "I will go out and come back! I will go to all the billabongs! I will (then) go out from them!" Emu said all that, those were her words.

I will go on and speak about Brolga. (She said,) "I will sing out loudly at the paperbark trees, the rivers and creeks! I will stay far away (from the people). They will make me go up (into the air)!

Note: The exact meaning of some of the words is unclear, hence the queries with some interlinear glosses.

* This and the following two items are of the form Rdp-ANA_der-(stem). Reduplication of nouns formed with a derivational noun-class prefix is rare in ordinary speech, hence this construction is a special one used in this register.

** Apparently a reduplication of =ra- 'to shout at, to swear at', but here implying song.

*** The root is =yaljala-, otherwise unattested but clearly related to =yala- 'to be far away'. The derivational prefix-rin^y- is a specific feature of Brolga's speech and is otherwise unattested; cf. occurrences in 7.19

(Brolga continued,) "I will fly around in circles; I will stand up; I will peck in the ground to get the root nuts of lala and mun^yugu herbs; I will poke (with my long bill) in the ground for them! I will do that in all the creeks and rivers, around the paperbark tree swamps, in all the billabongs! I will go out from them!

* For expected n^gama-nin^ygi-nin^y=gardi::involving a reduplication of -nin^y=garda- from root /=warda-/. Ma:di has added an additional reduplication within the root itself, hence -nin^y-ga=garda- (and, with the regular reduplication, -nin^ygi-nin^y-ga=garda-). This internal reduplication is not regular, and in any event it should produce the form -nin^y-ga=warda- (instead of -nin^y-ga=garda-) since the intervocalic /w/ has no reason to harden to g. In other words, we have a kind of surface reduplication which goes against the normal rules of Nunggubuyu phonology, "but in an interesting way

(Brolga continued,) "I will do that to them all! They (the people) will hear my voice! They will make me go up, they will frighten me away! I will go around in circles! I will do that! I will go to the paperbark trees, the creeks and rivers! I will peck in the ground for roots of lala, mun^yugu, and wiriyalyal!" Brolga said all of those words.

(This story) was of the elders (now dead). They told us. Now here I am, speaking. My voice goes in (to the tape recorder). And later Mujiji (a Nunggubuyu man who worked with Heath as a translator), he (will translate). My voice goes in, in the Nunggubuyu language. I tell him the story, and Muji will translate ('open') it. It is he who will narrate it, he will tell it to the man who will write it down in English.