Melbourne is one of Australia’s largest cities, alongside Sydney and Brisbane. Located in the very south of the state of Victoria, Melbourne is located along Port Philip, with a population of close to 5 million people. The Yarra River runs through this city, emptying into Hobsons Bay in Port Philip Bay. As one might suspect, the Yarra River does not seem to be of English origin. This could mean one thing — that it is a word of indigenous origin.

Historically, there have been several Aboriginal people groups living where Melbourne is today, and formed what was called the Kulin nation. The people groups that made up the nation were the Djadjawurrung, Taungurung, Wathaurong, Boonwurrung, and the Wurundjeri peoples. These people groups spoke five related languages, collectively called the Kulin languages. Forming part of the Pama-Nyungan language family, it is the Boonwurrung language that the Yarra River derived its name from.

When diving a bit deeper, there is a bit of a disparity. The Wurundjeri called the Yarra the Birrarrung, while other people groups called it the Bay-ray-rung, or even Wongete. It is generally thought that this name meant “the ever-flowing river”, or the “river of mists”. But why was the word Yarra used instead?

It turned out that it was most likely an error made by the Surveyor-General of the Colony of New South Wales, John Helder Wedge. At the river we now call the Yarra, he encountered two residents of the Kulin nation, who pointed towards the river, and called out yarra, yarra. From this account, he mistakenly thought that that was the name of the river in Boonwurrung. But the word yarra pretty much translates to ‘flowing water’, which is what a generic river is. The Kulin residents could have just wanted to alert Wedge of the flowing water he was at. Wedge recognised this error, but the name stuck anyway and that is now what the river running through Melbourne is called.

Unfortunately, the Boonwurrung language and the other languages of the Kulin nation are pretty much extinct today, leaving behind place names such as the aforementioned Yarra or the Birrarrung. But this has not stopped linguistic studies to try to understand more about the language, which contributes to ongoing revitalisation efforts specifically for the Boonwurrung people.

The Boonwurrung language roughly translates to “no speech”, suggesting that the language may not be used beyond the territory of the Boonwurrung people. Accessible resources covering this language are scarce as a result, with a rather proactive stance in protecting the language rights for the Boonwurrung people. It is closely related to the Woiwurrung language and the Taungurung language, with these languages falling under the Eastern Kulin languages, a branch of the Kulin languages in the Pama-Nyungan language family. Some have suggested that the Boonwurrung language is a dialect of the Woiwurrung language. Furthermore, the Woiwurrung and Taungurung languages have been argued to be mutually intelligible, and have been referred to as the Woiwurrung-Taungurung language instead. It is likely that these languages share most of their sounds, words, and grammatical patterns.

The Eastern Kulin languages likely had 3 /a i u/ or 5 vowels /a e i o u/, with the latter according to Hercus’ 1969 analysis of the Woiwurrung language. It is unclear if these were contrasted by vowel length though. They also pretty much had the typical set of consonants found in the Aboriginal Australian languages, with several retroflex consonants. Hercus’ analysis also suggested that the Woiwurrung language had a distinction between fortis and lenis for consonants like /k/, /t/, and /p/, which is basically a distinction between a tense and a lax pronunciations of these consonants respectively. As for its grammar, it is likely fairly typical of the Pama-Nyungan language family, with its set of affixes to a root word to reflect certain grammatical functions.

An account in the early 20th century suggested there is a body part tallying system by Woiwurrung-Taungurung speakers, with distinct terms up to the body part corresponding to the number 16 (the top of the head), with the cycle repeating for the other side of the body. This was also used with message sticks to communicate upcoming events with neighbouring clans, including ceremonies and a ball game known as marn grook. Both systems were used because these clans might not have spoken the same language, and used these message sticks, tallying systems, and other forms of sign language to communicate such information with members of other clans. This account was made by Alfred William Howitt in 1901, who studied indigenous Australian cultures and societies back then.

Despite Boonwurrung’s extinction in the previous century, there are some signs of a language awakening occurring today. The Endangered Languages Project suggested that Boonwurrung is either dormant or undergoing an awakening, with the primary source of this language revitalisation effort pointing towards the project lead by Fay Stewart-Muir, a Boonwurrung elder. There are some materials created by Stewart-Muir on some basic words of the Boonwurrung language, such as this one targeted at children and this article giving a brief introduction to some Boonwurrung words. These materials also aim to promote Boonwurrung culture.

Some of these sources have referenced a project called the Boonwurrung language program, which focuses on language revitalisation and preservation for future generations. Searching this program brought up the Victorian Aboriginal Corporation for Languages website, which lays out the program’s objectives. But it does not really go into detail about the language revitalisation roadmap, something that I would be interested in getting to know about, especially when this project has been going on for the past several years.

What seems to be happening is an ongoing focus on reviving the language amongst the Boonwurrung people, but also taking some protective measures stemming from traditional practices and language rights treasured by the Boonwurrung. Remember how the name of the language suggests that it may not be spoken outside of the Boonwurrung clans’ territory? That seems to be the case in this language revival program. Unlike the other Eastern Kulin languages, however, the Taungurung language has a published dictionary, but it is still best to respect the rights the Boonwurrung (and Woiwurrung) have over their respective languages, and trust that the people groups will recover the respective languages they once lost.

Further reading

A compilation of resources covering the Boonwurrung language: https://collection.aiatsis.gov.au/austlang/language/S35.

Clark and Briggs’ publication on the Yalukit-Willam, the indigenous people of Hobsons Bay in Melbourne.

A dictionary of the Taungurung language.