Dhaalan (pronunciation)

Have a go…

One of the great things about speaking Gamilaraay, Yuwaalaraay and Yuwaalayaay is that once you know how the writing system works, you can read and say any word correctly! It does not have all the tricky spellings that English has (e.g. ‘cough’, ‘although’, ‘through’, ‘thorough’).

You can hear the Yayaa "alphabet" in this short video by James (Gindjurra) Hogbin:


You can listen to most words online at Gaman Guladha here.

Or you can download the free app Gadjigadji to your phone from the Android or iphone app store.


Many of the sounds of Gamilaraay and Yuwaalaraay are the same as in English, but there are a few different ones which make it interesting, as you can see from our guide in our downloadable chart.

Please look up www.yuwaalaraay.com for the details, but the chart should get you started: 
Download


Special sounds

n, ng, g, nh, ny

An explanation of how the sounds n, ng, g, nh, and ny are made: n-ng-g-nh-ny_03AUG22.pdf

You can download the PowerPoints to test yourself on distinguishing between particular Gamilaraay sounds:
ng nh: ng-or-nh-HS04AUG22.pptx
ng, n.g, ngg: ng-n.g-ngg_HS-11AUG22.pptx