Merlan 1983: 212. Glossed as 'a lot / many' on p. 212, but as 'many / all' on p. 89. Noun and adjective. Secondary synonyms: kaɳ-kal 'the whole lot / all' and kaɳ-kapːul 'the whole lot / all' [Merlan 1983: 126, 195]. Textual examples (see pp. 159, 163, 165) show that the main word for 'all' is waɭamanʔ.
Merlan 1983: 199. Glossed as 'to be cold (of an object, also weather)'. Adjective.
NUMBER:16
WORD:come
Ngalakan:ɻapo-1
Merlan 1983: 119, 211. Glossed as 'to go, go along' on p. 211, but as 'to go / come' on p. 119. Verb. The meaning 'to come' is attested in numerous examples, such as "He'd better not come to my camp (or/lest) I strike him" [Merlan 1983: 97], "They come there from the east, all the women gather" [Merlan 1983: 165, 167], "The Ngalakan came from there, from the north" [Merlan 1983: 177, 181].
Not attested. Cf. ʈiwʔ 'to fly away / take off' (thematic verb) [Merlan 1983: 194]; the word ʈiwʔ-ʈiwʔ 'aeroplane' (MU-class noun) [ibid.] is derived from this verb.
Merlan 1983: 192. Glossed as 'kneecap'. GU-class noun.
NUMBER:45
WORD:know
Ngalakan:koyi #1
Merlan 1983: 198. Glossed as 'to be knowledgeable, expert, know'. Adjective. Alternative candidate: puɾʔ-ɳa- 'to know / understand' (verb) [Merlan 1983: 192]. Most of the example sentences in [Merlan 1983] with the verb 'know' in translation have koyi in the original: "The man doesn't/didn't know me (ŋun-pak-koyi-ʔmolk)" [Merlan 1983: 49], "We didn't know (yiɾi-koyi-ʔmolk) that tree" [Merlan 1983: 51], "Some didn't/don't know (puɾu-koyi-ʔmolk)" [Merlan 1983: 89], "Do you know (it)? (ŋiɲ-koyi)" [Merlan 1983: 90], "Some, I tell you, they don't know (puɾu-koyi-ʔmolk) - they don't talk language, they only talk English" [Merlan 1983: 126], "Maybe their husbands don't know (koyi-ʔmolk) about their wives" [Merlan 1983: 166-167], "I know him/it (ŋu-pak-koyi)" [Merlan 1983: 198]. The only example on puɾʔ-ɳa- is given in the dictionary under this verb: "I don't know (ŋu-puɾʔɳani-kːoɾo) that man" [Merlan 1983: 192].
NUMBER:46
WORD:leaf
Ngalakan:peɭŋʔ1
Merlan 1983: 190. Glossed as 'leaves, foliage'. GU-class noun.
NUMBER:47
WORD:lie
Ngalakan:yo-1
Merlan 1983: 116, 218. Glossed as 'to sleep' on p. 218, but as 'to sleep / lie' on pp. 111, 113, 116. Verb.
NUMBER:48
WORD:liver
Ngalakan:ȶiwi1
Merlan 1983: 202. GU-class noun.
NUMBER:49
WORD:long
Ngalakan:keŋ-keŋ1
Merlan 1983: 196. Adjective. Secondary synonym: wiɾiȶiʔ 'long' (also used to mean 'ceremony') (adjective) [Merlan 1983: 215]. Examples in the text of the grammar show that keŋ-keŋ is the main synonym.
NUMBER:50
WORD:louse
Ngalakan:miȶ1
Merlan 1983: 206. Masculine noun.
NUMBER:51
WORD:man
Ngalakan:pikuɾ1
Merlan 1983: 190. Glossed as 'man / Aborigine' on p. 190, but as 'person / Aborigine / man' on p. 30. Masculine noun.
NUMBER:52
WORD:many
Ngalakan:yaɾʔ #1
Merlan 1983: 216. Glossed as 'a lot / abundant'. Noun and adjective. Alternative candidate: waɭamanʔ 'a lot, many' (noun and adjective) [Merlan 1983: 212] (also has the meaning 'all', q.v.). According to [Merlan 1983: 71], "many can be expressed by yarʔ, waḷamanʔ and a variety of other terms". Cf. the following examples: "You have a lot of (yaɾʔ) mothers" [Merlan 1983: 54]; "Many (waɭamanʔ-yiʔ) want to build a new camp, because they're (too) many (puɾu=yaɾʔ)" [Merlan 1983: 100]; "That time I told you about when we got flooded out there (drowned), there weren't a lot of (yaɾʔ-molk) old people, not at all" [Merlan 1983: 140]; "Now he was coming from the north, there was not one, there were many (yaɾʔ) (kangaroos), he was coming from the north, that plains kangaroo" [Merlan 1983: 154, 157]; "The profane food will be eaten by a lot of (waɭamanʔ-yi) others, even children..." [Merlan 1983: 175, 176]; "The Ngalakan grew, here there are a lot (yaɾʔ), they multiplied right here" [Merlan 1983: 179, 182]; "He/she has a lot of (yaɾʔ) sweethearts" [Merlan 1983: 201].
NUMBER:53
WORD:meat
Ngalakan:ȶaŋku #1
Merlan 1983: 200. Glossed as 'flesh food (including beef)'. GU-class noun. Alternative candidate: ɻay 'animal / flesh food' (GU-class noun) [Merlan 1983: 212]. Cf. the following examples: "Maybe granny went for meat (ɻay-wi)" [Merlan 1983: 47], "We finish the euro meat (ȶaŋku)" [Merlan 1983: 82], "Right there was sitting meat and all (ȶaŋku-waywo)" [Merlan 1983: 126], "...light a big fire, get wood when/as you light it, for meat (ɻay-ʔkan), goannas, spiny-tailed goanna, blue-tongue, you'll light it and get water" [Merlan 1983: 183], "...(when) we (want to) eat our meat (ɻay-yikːi)" [Merlan 1983: 186, 187], "I hung the meat (ɻay) up" [Merlan 1983: 190], "I had no (vegetable) food, and (moreover) no meat (ku=ȶaŋku-ȶːi)" [Merlan 1983: 209], "Hey, you finished up my meat (ɳuku=ɻay)!" [Merlan 1983: 215]. It is clear from the examples above that both words can denote meat as food, and there is also no evident difference in frequency (anyway, the number of examples is too small). Finally, both words have cognates in related languages, so the choice between them is quite arbitrary.
NUMBER:54
WORD:moon
Ngalakan:kuɾŋa1
Merlan 1983: 199. Masculine noun.
NUMBER:55
WORD:mountain
Ngalakan:kala #1
Merlan 1983: 195. Polysemy: 'mountain / high bank'. GU-class noun. Alternative candidates: ŋayiwuɾ 'high hill, mountain' (GU-class noun) [Merlan 1983: 210], piɳ 'rock / hill / stone / money' (GU-class noun) [Merlan 1983: 191]. Only for the latter word are there some illustrative sentences: "There the two were hanging (= perching precariously) on the hill (piɳ-kaʔ)" [Merlan 1983: 41], "They looked at/surveyed the country from the hill (piɳ-ʔwala)..." [Merlan 1983: 146], "He might fall off the stone/hill (=piɳ-wala)" [Merlan 1983: 211], "The hill protrudes, is high (ku=ku=piɳ-woɻ)" [Merlan 1983: 215].
NUMBER:56
WORD:mouth
Ngalakan:ȶala1
Merlan 1983: 200. GU-class noun.
NUMBER:57
WORD:name
Ngalakan:ŋey1
Merlan 1983: 210. GU-class noun.
NUMBER:58
WORD:neck
Ngalakan:maŋa1
Merlan 1983: 205. Polysemy: 'neck / throat'. GU-class noun. Distinct from: ŋen 'neck / nape' (GU-class noun) [Merlan 1983: 210]. Cf. such examples as "Now your neck (maŋa-ŋki) is bare" [Merlan 1983: 83] and "Take it off his neck (ȶu-maŋa-yeɾk-kan)" [Merlan 1983: 217]. The verb maŋa-ʈaȶ-ka- 'to hang someone' also contains this root (compounded with ʈaȶ-ka- 'to cut') [Merlan 1983: 193].
Merlan 1983: 98, 218. The verbal negation in Ngalakan is obligatorily expressed by suffixes. There are three of them: past negative -ʔmolk, present negative -kːoɾo and future negative -ȶːiʔ ~ -ȶiʔ [Merlan 1983: 98, 151]. According to [Merlan 1983: 151], "of the three negative suffixes, -ʔmolk is that of the widest distribution and greatest semantic generality".
NUMBER:63
WORD:one
Ngalakan:waŋkiɲʔ1
Merlan 1983: 213. Polysemy: 'one / same'. Numeral. Ngalakan has only two numerals: waŋkiɲʔ 'one' and yapːanʔ 'two', q.v.
NUMBER:64
WORD:person
Ngalakan:pikuɾ1
Merlan 1983: 190. Glossed as 'man / Aborigine' on p. 190, but as 'person / Aborigine / man' on p. 30. Masculine noun.
NUMBER:65
WORD:rain
Ngalakan:weʔ1
Merlan 1983: 214. MU-class noun. Identical to weʔ 'water', except for the noun class ('water' is a GU-class noun).
Merlan 1983: 118, 217. Polysemy: 'to do (thus) / to say (thus)'. Verb. Textual examples leave no doubt that this is the main means of introducing direct speech.
Merlan 1983: 116, 208. Polysemy: 'to sit / live / be in place'. Distinct from ʈuɻʔ- 'to sit down (event)' [Merlan 1983: 194].
NUMBER:75
WORD:skin
Ngalakan:kuɭaʔ1
Merlan 1983: 198. Glossed as 'skin of body'. GU-class noun. Distinct from ɻawʔ 'skin / fur' (MU-class noun) [Merlan 1983: 211].
NUMBER:76
WORD:sleep
Ngalakan:yo-1
Merlan 1983: 116, 218. Verb. Identical to 'lie', q.v. Cf. the noun ŋeɾe 'sleep' (MU-class) [Merlan 1983: 210].
NUMBER:77
WORD:small
Ngalakan:kaɲaʔ #1
Merlan 1983: 195. Glossed as 'little'. Adjective. Alternative candidates: ɳoɳʔ-ɳoɳʔ 'small, little' (adjective) [Merlan 1983: 208], moy-moy 'little, small (also used for emu chick)' (adjective) [Merlan 1983: 207]. It seems that kaɲaʔ appears in illustrative sentences somewhat more frequently than ɳoɳʔ-ɳoɳʔ, and moy-moy does not appear there at all. However, the number of occurences is too small to make any conclusions.
NUMBER:78
WORD:smoke
Ngalakan:wol1
Merlan 1983: 215. GU-class noun. Related to the thematic verb wol- 'to smoke, give off smoke' [ibid.].
NUMBER:79
WORD:stand
Ngalakan:ȶa-1
Merlan 1983: 116, 199. Glossed as 'to stand, be in place'. Verb. Distinct from ŋeyʔ- 'to stand up (event)' (thematic verb) [Merlan 1983: 210].
NUMBER:80
WORD:star
Ngalakan:miɲkuɾ1
Merlan 1983: 206. MU-class noun.
NUMBER:81
WORD:stone
Ngalakan:piɳ1
Merlan 1983: 191. Polysemy: 'rock / hill / stone / money'. GU-class noun.
Merlan 1983: 119, 211. Glossed as 'to go, go along'. Verb. Identical to 'come', q.v.
NUMBER:93
WORD:warm (hot)
Ngalakan:
Words for 'hot' and 'warm' are not attested. Cf. thematic verb woɻoŋkoɾʔ- 'to be hot, sweat' [Merlan 1983: 215].
NUMBER:94
WORD:water
Ngalakan:weʔ1
Merlan 1983: 214. GU-class noun. Identical to weʔ 'rain', except for the noun class ('rain' is a MU-class noun). Cf. =piɲi- 'water' (GU-class) - bound form, used only in verbal incorporation.
NUMBER:95
WORD:we1
Ngalakan:ŋuɾkːaʔ1
Merlan 1983: 71, 211. 1st person inclusive plural pronoun, absolutive form. Ergative: ŋuɾkːa-ɳiʔ-yiʔ, ŋuɾkːaʔ-yiʔ. Distinct from 1st person inclusive dual pronoun yikːaʔ [Merlan 1983: 71, 217].
Merlan 1983: 77, 214. Indefinite / interrogative pronoun. Requires masculine or feminine class prefix. Plural: =weɾe-weɾeʔ.
NUMBER:99
WORD:woman
Ngalakan:polo-ʔ-polo1
Merlan 1983: 191. Feminine noun. A reduplicated form with inserted glottal stop. Related to polo 'old person' [Merlan 1983: 34] (for some reason omitted in the vocabulary).
NUMBER:100
WORD:yellow
Ngalakan:
Not attested.
NUMBER:101
WORD:far
Ngalakan:kakːeŋ1
Merlan 1983: 195. Polysemy: 'distant / far away'. Adjective and adverb. Cf. keŋ-keŋ 'long', q.v.
NUMBER:102
WORD:heavy
Ngalakan:
Not attested.
NUMBER:103
WORD:near
Ngalakan:
Not attested, but cf. ȶaɻuk 'short / not distant', q.v.
NUMBER:104
WORD:salt
Ngalakan:
Not attested.
NUMBER:105
WORD:short
Ngalakan:ȶaɻuk1
Merlan 1983: 201. Polysemy: 'short / not distant'.
