[Note: this transcription was produced by an automatic OCR engine]

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VI. Origin of section names and language or tribal names

I have been assembling and " ' g data in order to propose hypotheses about possible
routes of diffusion and substitution of section names, and ultimately of the section system
itself. However, I have only sporadically alluded to the question of the origin of the terms and
the system. We have seen so far that there were two regions from which the section system
penetrated the Western Desert. One is the Pilbara-Kimberley area which has as its principal
terms Karimarra, Purungu, Panaka and Paljeri, and a further section Burgulu in the south-east
of the Kimberleys. The other is situated in the South-West, whence Yiparrka and Tjarumi
move eastwards. In between the two areas, the name Milangka appears at the latitude of
the Nyangumarta and today’s Mardu. While the South—West entry-point is congruent with
McConvell’s hypothesis on the possible origin of the section system in Western Australia,
the terms that I conclude have come from this region, in particular Yiparrka and Tjarurru, are
frequently replaced in the Westem Desert by other terms, usually those penetrating the desert
from the north-west.

The obvious hypothesis is to amalgamate the two regions South-West and Pilbara with
the origin of the section system itself. While its “invention” may indeed have occurred in
the South-West, it may well be that, afier moving along the coast northwards, it diffused
backwards, into the Western Desert itself. For Br denstein, the Pilbara section terms seem to
have originated in the Pilbara region. For example, he quotes Karimarra as being composed
of kari sharp, bitter and the suffix, —marru maker, Karimarra therefore signifying “sharp-
maker” in the Pilbara region 1970240. Other meanings are given in similar fashion to other
section names. While, as far as I ’ ‘- it, ‘P ’ ' does not _ " "ly state the
Pilbara to be the region of origin of the section system, it seems clear that, if the section names
are composed of local lexemes, he ’ K " ' ly assumes this region to be the birthplace of both

the terms and the system.

Map 14 below displays the possible origins of section names following this hypothesis. In
either case—whether the section system in Western Australia is descended from one original
system, or whether it was “invented” twice in distinct places more or less sirnultaneously—it is
difficult to conclude which were the original section names and which names have been added
at later stages. The obvious thing would be to claim that the most diflbsed, or generalised
categories Karimarra, Purungu and Panaka were also included in the original terms. It might
just as well be the opposite, however: that the “older” terms were less used both today and a
century ago than they were in previous centuries.

While I am unable at this stage to prove or disprove these regions as being the actual
origin-places of the names or of the system, there are some interesting correlatives with other
linguistic elements, in particular tribal or dialectal names. Tindale 1974:46, for example,
claims that, among the Konejandi Gooniyandi in the Kimberleys, Purungu means “North”.
Section names, or at least phonetically similar words, are also used as language or tribal
names. Reported examples are the Ibarga just east of the Njamal Nyamal, whose name does
at least look similar to the Yiparrka category. O’Grady 1964: map 1 locates the Yiparka