Gavan Been is partly responsible for the variation in the spelling of the name 'Kalali'. The forms Garlali and Galarli are due to what he now considers a non-distinctive instance of retroflex rl, and he prefers the spelling Kalali.

People and language

Both the Kalali and the Wanggumara apparently lived by the Bulloo River and the Wilson River in South West Queensland. There is some debate whether they originated by the Bulloo River and migrated to the Wilson River or vice versa. For instance, Breen posited that some groups in southwest Queensland had abandoned their original languages (but not their names) and adopted the Wilson River language in the early days of Mhite Australian settlement, when people moved from Thargomindah and the middle Bulloo River to Nockatunga (near the modern town of Noccundra).

The Bulloo River Kalali lived around the area from Thargomindah southward to the Currawinya Lakes and perhaps west to Bulloo Lakes and north to Norley Station. Bulloo River Kalali was studied by Breen (from a speaker named Charlie Phillips).

The informant Charlie Phillips aged 74 years, born at Backwood Station south of Hungerford in southwest Queensland, spoke the language fluently and confidently despite having not used the language conversationally for 40 years.

A language labeled "Wonkomarra" in Myles (1886) is a different language from modern Wangkumara, and may be a variety of Kalali. On the other hand, the language spoken by the Kalali people that Wurm labeled 'Waŋkumara (Gaḷali)' was a variety of Wangkumara.

References

External links