EMB_VI_27973

Title: A message stick from the vicinity of Charters Towers, Queensland held in Ethnologisches Museum Berlin

Description: Zeichenstab Original description from EMB catalog: "Desgl. [Zeichenstab (message stick) Tschulai. Viereckiges braunes Stäbchen mit rotdefärbter Einkerbung. GUANA GUANAGUNTA.] 10,7 cm lang, 1 cm breit. Ebenfalls [Nähe von Charters Towers.]" Translation: ”Message stick Tschulai. Square brown stick with reddish notch. GUANA GUANAGUNTA. 10.7 cm long, 1 cm wide. Close to Charters Towers." (JB)

Item type: message stick in a collection

State/Territory: QLD

Linguistic area 1: Chirila: Biri Austlang: E56 - Biri^ Glottolog: biri1256

Notes on linguistic areas: The origin of the message stick is Charters Towers, Queensland Cannot analyse GǓǍNǍ GǓǍNǍ GǓNTǍ. It is not the word for message stick, since this is given as 'Tshulai' (tyulay), but it could be a place name since in the catalogue it appears in capitals just above the annotation "Nähe von Charters Towers" Via Chirila 'kunta' is 'kill' in both Biri and Yilba, spoken in the vicinity of Charters Towers. In a pers. comm. to PK, Professor P.S. wrote on 4 August 2020: "Tschulai is very likely tjulay 'wood, stick' in the upper Burdekin dialects. Guana is possibly guwa 'west' plus a suffix -na or -nha, maybe -nga, but these are not case markers in Gudjal as far as I know. Gunta is possibly gunda 'night', also 'darkness'. Sorry that's inconclusive." In response to PK's observation that thulu colexifies 'wood', 'stick' and 'message stick' much further south in Gamilaaray, P.S. wrote:. "tjulay is from *DHulany. Another reflex is lwanh with metathesis" and "cf. thoel 'woomera' in Wik-Ngathan from proto Wik *thuli". On this basis PK has assigned the linguistic area as Yuru, since this is both a) in the vicinity of Charters Towers and b) the traditional country in which Burdekin is situated.

Term for 'message stick' (or related) in language: tyulay ("Tschulai"; German transcriber)

Dimension 1: 107mm Dimension 2: 10mm Dimension 3: 10mm

Materials: wood

Techniques: carved

Source types: museum collection

Institution/Holder file: Ethnologisches Museum Berlin object identifier: VI 27973

Collector: F. Schreiber

Coordinates: 20°04'37.200000"S,146°15'36.399600"E  (-20.077, 146.260111)

Media copyright: Ethnologisches Museum Berlin

Notes on coordinates: Absolute coordinates for Charters Towers, Queensland

Notes: Katalog: "weight <0,1 kg Depot/Studio (Südsee und Australien)/ S:4"

Media Files:

Data Entry: Piers Kelly, Nitzan Rotman