{"id":7897,"date":"2014-01-20T15:20:46","date_gmt":"2014-01-20T04:20:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.paradisec.org.au\/blog\/?p=7897"},"modified":"2014-01-21T21:26:40","modified_gmt":"2014-01-21T10:26:40","slug":"berigora-a-word-that-clawed-on-from-where","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.paradisec.org.au\/blog\/2014\/01\/berigora-a-word-that-clawed-on-from-where\/","title":{"rendered":"Berigora: a word that clawed on \u2014 from where?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The challenge<\/b><\/h2>\n
\"Brown<\/a>
Brown falcon\u00a0 \u00a9 J.N. Davies from Birdata<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u2018Australia’s Most Widespread\u2019 bird, according to Birdata’s featured bird last week<\/span><\/a>, is the Brown Falcon, Falco berigora<\/i>. A few months ago, a \u2018complete guide to the origin of Australian bird names\u2019 (that is, English and Linn\u00e6an names), was published, and in it Fraser and Gray<\/span> (2013:80) summarised the published information on this species name:<\/p>\n

berigora<\/i> [is] stated in many places to be the name for the bird in an indigenous language, though nobody appears willing to nominate a particular language.<\/span> The original namers, Vigors and Horsfield<\/span> (1827), simply said: \u2018The native name of this bird, which we have adopted as its specific name, is Berigora\u2019. Gould<\/span> (1848) mentioned \u2018Aborigines of New South Wales\u2019 against the word, and Morris<\/span> (1898), in his Dictionary of Austral English<\/i>, claimed it is made up of beri<\/i>, claw, and gora<\/i>, long. The word does not appear in a glossary of the languages spoken by indigenous people of the Sydney region as the time of early white settlement (Troy 1994<\/span>), though many other bird names do, and the bird was certainly to be found there. Are the claws longer than those of other falcons? Perhaps not, and indeed, the toes, according to Debus<\/span> (2012:131), are shorter.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Actually Falco berigora <\/i>Vigors and Horsfield<\/span> 1827:184-5 is one of only three birds whose scientific (Linn\u00e6an) name draws on a word of an Australian language. ((The other two are Ninox boobook<\/em>, Latham<\/a>\u00a01801<\/a>:64, Southern Boobook owl, and Petroica<\/em> (Muscicapa<\/em>) boodang<\/em> Lesson<\/a>\u00a01837<\/a>:322, Scarlet Robin, each using the name that is well attested in the Sydney Language.)) The word berigora<\/i> has managed to survive in this ornithological niche, and is now guaranteed as much as longevity as science can offer. But can we give due credit to the language which provided it?<\/p>\n

A swoop at it<\/b><\/h2>\n

The closest match I have been able to find in vocabularies of Australian languages is biyaagaarr<\/i> \u2018Brown falcon\u2019 in the Yuwaalayaay and Yuwaalaraay pair of languages (Ash et al 2003:42), the same word (as beeargah<\/i> \u2018hawk\u2019) for a character in legends taken down by Catherine (Katie) Langloh Parker (later Stow)<\/span><\/a> in the late 19th century (Parker <\/span>1896:<\/span>64 etc). The tales of Beeargah<\/i> include that \u201chis vigilance was unceasing\u201d (Parker <\/span>1896:<\/span>28), he was a cousin of Mullyan, the eagle hawk (p.32) and in other tales Beeargah<\/i> was a wife of Goomblegubbon the bustard and mother of Ouyan the curlew, pp.65,70) (Note that Parker spelled the language name Euahlayi which modern orthography spells Yuwaalayaay.)<\/p>\n

Applying to biyaagaarr<\/i> (beeargah<\/i>) the intervocalic y<\/i> ~ r<\/i> sound correspondence established by Austin<\/span> (1997:27), *biraagaarr<\/i> would be the expected form in the most closely related language Gamilaraay (Kamilaroi), or indeed in other languages of the Central NSW subgroup. While I have found no independent record of *biraagaarr<\/i>, the correspondence allows us to identify the value of the two r<\/i> in berigora<\/i> (=biraagaarr(a)<\/i>): the first is a glide like English r<\/i>, and the second an apical flap or trill (like Scottish r<\/i>) often written as rr <\/i>in modern orthographies.<\/p>\n

We can also look to the evidence from where the word berigora<\/i> was recorded. The type specimen was collected by George Caley<\/span><\/a> (Webb <\/span>1995:<\/span>140) and is kept at the UK Natural History Museum’s Sub-department of Ornithology, Tring, Hertfordshire<\/span><\/a> (registration no. 1863.7.7.5a) with the location recorded simply as \u2018New Holland (New South Wales)\u2019. The type description has this additional note:<\/p>\n

The native name of this bird, which we have adopted as its specific name, is Berigora<\/i>. It is called by the settlers Orange-speckled Hawk<\/i>. Mr. Caley informs us, that the orange marks in the plumage of this species are considerably stronger in recent specimens than in those of the Society\u2019s collection, which are much faded. (Vigors and Horsfield 1827:185)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It is highly likely that Caley provided the word along with the specimen, although it is not among the score of bird names in ‘Caley’s Bird Notes’ (Caley and Currey <\/span>1966:<\/span>212-220).<\/p>\n

\"map<\/a>
Sydney region languages http:\/\/austlang.aiatsis.gov.au\/<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Caley lived at Parramatta in the decade 1800\u201310, and though he explored the Sydney basin he didn’t make it west of the Great Dividing Range, and while he did go to Newcastle (by ship) and collected around there, those specimens are labelled Hunter River (Ian Fraser p.c.). So Caley most likely learnt the word berigora<\/i> in the Sydney region, and most likely through his long-time guide, Moowattin<\/span><\/a>. Of the twenty or so bird words Caley recorded, almost half can be matched with another record of the Sydney Language, and the remainder of Caley’s bird words are for species for which there is no other recorded word in the region.<\/p>\n

As Fraser and Gray<\/span> (2013:80) say, there is no word meaning \u2018Brown falcon\u2019 (or similar) otherwise recorded in the Sydney Language or in vocabularies of neighbouring languages: Darkinyung, Gandangarra, Dharawal and South Coast Languages (Besold <\/span>2013<\/span>), and so on. Nor is a similar form recorded in these languages, not with a meaning that can be plausibly matched with a kind of bird, and so there is no regional corroboration of Caley’s Berigora<\/i>: all we have is Yuwaalayaay biyaagaarr<\/i> from distant inland NSW. Hence I conclude that biraagaarra<\/i> was a word used around Sydney or its hinterland for the Brown falcon<\/span>, and that Caley’s note was the only primary record made of the word.<\/p>\n

That Berigora<\/i> was noted with a <\/i>final vowel is to be expected, as no recorded words of the Sydney Language end in rr<\/i> (the apical flap or trill), nor for that matter in r<\/i> (the glide) (Steele <\/span>2005:<\/span>152-3). The possibility can be discounted that the final vowel of berigora<\/i> was added by the taxonomists as a Latin inflexion, not only because they say Berigora<\/i> was the \u2018native name\u2019, but also because the genus Falco<\/i> is masculine with which a feminine form berigora<\/i> would clash; berigora<\/i> was meant as a noun in apposition.<\/p>\n

Up some gum trees<\/b><\/h2>\n

Caley’s main interest was botany, and he recorded some similar gum tree names, one with the same spelling as the \u2018Brown falcon\u2019 word:<\/p>\n

\n

Baril\u2019gora<\/b>, E. hemiphloia<\/i> (now E. moluccana<\/i> Roxb.), the common box.
\nBerig’ora<\/b>, E. hemiphloia<\/i>, Berigora Box, this species grows on the tops of high hills such as Prospect, the Devil\u2019s Back and those at the Cow Pastures. Most probably the colonists confound it with the common one.
\n[and other Eucalypts] Bargar\u2019gro<\/b>, Burrar\u2019gro<\/b>, Berryer\u2019gro<\/b> \u2026 (Caley and Currey<\/span> 1966:224 as reprinted by Webb<\/span> 1995:175)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Another Caley spelling for Berigora Box is Berijora<\/i> (Caley and Currey 1966:224), so, following Jeremy Steele, its form is indicated to be something like baridyara<\/i> (not barigara<\/i>), and if so then the gum tree word is irrelevant to the Brown falcon word.<\/span><\/p>\n

Etymology of berigora<\/i><\/b><\/h2>\n

Morris’ (1898<\/span>) analysis of berigora<\/i> as composed of beri<\/i> \u2018claw\u2019, and gora<\/i> \u2018long’ (language unspecified) was probably speculative. Words matching beri<\/i> occur in 19th century Nyungar wordlists (bere’<\/i>, beree<\/i> \u2018nails\u2019, Bindon and Chadwick<\/span> 1992) (cf. pCNSW *yulu<\/i> \u2018fingernail\u2019). And gora<\/i> matches Gamilaraay gurarr<\/i>, Wangaaybuwan gurraarr,<\/i> pCNSW *gurarr<\/i> \u2018long\u2019 (Austin <\/span>1997:<\/span>28). (Or possibly Morris’ guess was built on a swapped version of the two Wiradjuri words, published in G\u00fcnther<\/span> (1892:72,90) as B\u00e1ri<\/i> \u2018long, tall\u2019, and Gurung<\/i> \u2018the claw of animals, as of the lobster\u2019.) However, the Brown falcon is not distinguished by long claws, as Fraser and Gray<\/span> (2013:80) point out.<\/p>\n

Ash et al<\/span> (2003, 42) report that biyaagaarr<\/i> is onomatop\u0153ic: \u2018Said to come from the bird\u2019s cackling call.\u2019 Maybe so, though in other parts of Australia there are widespread words like girrgurda<\/i> (Wajarri), karrkany<\/i> (Marra, Ritharrngu, Gumatj), *kirrki<\/i> (proto-Nyulnyulan), kirrkirlanji<\/i> ~ kirrkirlardi<\/i> (Warlpiri), with initial velar stop (as well as medially), which fit better with my impression from recordings of its call<\/span><\/a>. This could be part of the motivation for the variant biyaagaarrgaarr <\/i>(Ash et al <\/span>2003:<\/span>42).<\/p>\n

Epilogue: further survival
\n<\/b><\/h2>\n

A racehorse called Berigora<\/a><\/span>, active in the 1980s<\/span><\/a>, would have spread the word for some. And then berigora<\/i> took on extra life in a further two scientific (Linn\u00e6an) names:<\/p>\n