History
In 1770, Guugu Yimithirr became the first Australian Aboriginal language to be written down when Lieutenant (later Captain) James Cook and his crew recorded words while their ship, the HM Bark Endeavour, was being repaired after having run aground on a shoal of the Great Barrier Reef. Joseph Banks described the language as totally different from that of the Islanders; it sounded more like English in its degree of harshness tho it could not be calld harsh neither.
Among the words recorded were kangooroo or kanguru (IPA: /ɡaŋuru/), meaning a large black or grey kangaroo, which would become the general English term for all kangaroos, and dhigul (transcribed by Banks as Je-Quoll), the name of the quoll.
Sydney Parkinson, who accompanied Cook, gave a useful word list in his posthumously published journal.
Read more about this topic: Guugu Yimithirr Language
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