[Fictionary] GOOLAYYALIBEE results

[J-J Cote]

It's Eric's nonsense definition in a nine-point landslide!
_____________________

General comments:
Linda:  Can't help noticing the large number of Aboriginal words, so-called.
David: No Australian definitions!
Elliot: This one's hard!  The "oo" and "ee" spell Former British Colony, 
which if true would eliminate the Quechua.  The word has five 
differently-spelled vowels and/or diphthongs <oo ay a i ee>, whereas 
Australian languages tend to have only /i a u/ --- but there could be 
any amount of allophony, or a length contrast, that could be heard who 
knows how by Europeans.  The Devil take thinking!  I'll just vote for 
defs I like.
_____________________

GOOLAYYALIBEE - Strine for "I am being pursued by a crocodile"; often 
said at high pitch and volume.
extra overtime joke definition suggested by a co-worker of Hutch

Goolayyalibee - n. - An aboriginal kangaroo-hunting party.
from Jim.  Pierre 2, correct guess 2 = 4 points
Elliott: Wouldn't account for the capital G.

goolayyalibee - n. [fr. Quechua] - A spicy stew of maize, quinoa, and 
guinea pig.
from David.  Eric 1, Hutch 2 = 3 points
Nick: I don't think these syllables would work in Quechua? Sounds like 
it might be interesting-tasting though.
Eric: One point, just because I like guinea pigs.
Elliott: Spelling looks English; also, Quechua is another three-vowel 
language.

goolayyalibee - n. - A traditional orchestral ensemble of Karnataka, 
India, or a performance by such an ensemble.
from Ranjit.  David 1 = 1 point
Elliott: Doesn't sound Jean-y enough, somehow.
Pierre: I know Aussie can Telegu when she hears one, but when's the last 
time we heard from her?

goolayyalibee - adj. - Slapshod or rushed in construction. Australian 
English, from Yagara. "That house is full goolayyalibee, could fall any 
day."
from Nick.  Jim 1, 2 points for correct guess = 3 points
Nick: Totally believable ;o).
Elliott: I don't think I've ever heard "slapshod" before.  "Slapdash" + 
"slipshod"? Anyhow, it makes me suspicious, and I'm desperate for 
reasons to be suspicious.
Pierre: Slapshod, or slipshod?

goolayyalibee - n. - An artificial spectacle built to attract passengers 
to one side of a passing train so that they act as a counterweight on an 
improperly banked curve.
from Elliott.  Ranjit 1, Jacob 1 = 2 points
Nick: Amusing image.
Ranjit: This is too brilliant not to be rewarded.  One point and the 
Afflatus Award (consisting of loose change, pens, toupees, and other 
small items).
Jim: special made-Jim-giggle award
Pierre: Sawby award.
Jacob: One point for cuteness.

goolayyalibee - n. [Australian] - Nonsense, extreme foolishness. From 
Innawonga _gulangalibi_, fear of death by thirst in the wet season and 
of crocodiles in the dry season.
from Eric.  Nick 1, Elliott 2, Pierre 1, Jacob 2, Hutch 1, 2 points for 
correct guess = 9 points
Nick: 1 point for dual-definition, even though seasonal sense ambiguity 
seems improbable to me.
Elliott: Two points for creativity and the Grue-Bleen Ribbon for 
philosophical value.
Pierre: 1 point. Very difficult choice.
Jacob: I don't quite believe it, but I like the combination of 
plausibility and silliness.

goolayyalibee - n. - A negative situation arising after senior 
leadership repeatedly takes the opposite actions of those recommended by 
leaders in the field (slang term, Australia & New Zealand Army Corp 
(ANZAC)).
from Jacob. No points
Nick: Too many syllables to be milslang, IMO. I would believe that ANZAC 
might have a term other than "snafu".
Elliott: I think a dictionary would tell us up front that it was an army 
word.

Goolayyalibee - n. [Gullah speak] - The Festival of Returning Spring, as 
celebrated on the Islands off the coast of South Carolina. Included is a 
prayer for safe passage from devastating coastal storms often present at 
this time of changing seasons.
from Linda.  David 2, Ranjit 2, Elliott 1, 1 point for correct guess = 6 
points
Nick: I don't know much about the origin of that dialect, so can't be 
sure if something that sounds so Australian could end up elsewhere.
Elliott: One point for not being Australian.  I suspect whoever made 
this one up was influenced by "jubilee".

Goolayyalibee - n. - One of the three divisions of the Spinifex people 
of the Nullarbor Plain, the others being Goolamardirnoo and 
Goolabungbung. Married couples must be from two different divisions, and 
their children belong to the third.
from Pierre.  Linda 2 = 2 points
Linda: Two points for cheek
Nick: Bung bung just makes me think of Berlusconi now...
Eric: Likability points for using Spinifex and Nullarbor. But 
"divisions" jars, I'd prefer clans, moieties, or, my favorite, "phratries".
Elliott: "Spinifex" *so* does not look Aboriginal Australian.

goolayyalibee - n. - The Australian Pelican (Pelecanus conspicillatus). 
They are predominantly white with black along the primaries of the 
wings. The pale, pinkish bill is enormous, even by pelican standards, 
and is the largest bill in the avian world.
adapted from a description available in a number of places on the web, 
including Wikipedia.  Linda 1, Nick 2, Eric 2, Jim 2 = 7 points
Linda: One point for ostentataion.
Nick: 2 points because it's a bird name and Australian.
Eric: Most plausible, despite being a bird, and despite being Australian.
Elliott: Almost plausible, but I'm out of points.
Pierre: Largest by what measure? Aren't there some storks whose bills 
are longer?

Elliott: [After looking it up on the web:]
Awesome!  The pelican def looked very Linda to me somehow.  What the 
heck language is the word from?  It isn't in the on-line edition of the 
OED.
_____________________

Well!
I (Jean-Joseph) did a little bit of fruitless web searching, turning up 
some etymologies for the Latin name, but no explanation for this bit of 
Strine.  I was about to just shrug and give up when I remembered that my 
friend Claire is a specialist in Australian languages, so I put the 
question to her and got this response:

 > I'm cc'ing David on this, who will probably have some insight.
 > (David is a colleague in Australia.) I'm not familiar with this word,
 > I just call them "pelicans". They are pretty common in Canberra
 > and quite salient, given how implausible they look (like so many
 > Australian animals).
 >
 > Looking through my database of words for pelicans in different
 > Australian languages, I see "koolagally" from a Curr Deniliquin list
 > (Wiradjuri I assume) and "koolay karlie" from Wagga Wagga, which is
 > also Wiradjuri. Also "gulai-guli" from Mathews' Wiradjuri list and a
 > bunch of other very similar words from other Wiradjuri wordlists.
 > There's "gulaya:li" in Yuwaaliyaay. Finally, there's kullialli from
 > Weir and Moonie Rivers (Curr 175b), which is Bigambul, and kuliya in
 > Gamilaraay, which may be related. I don't know what the -bi portion of
 > the word is. I can't trace that spelling exactly, and it's not in the
 > Australian National Dictionary, but it would seem to be a fair
 > representation of something we might want to spell as kulayali(pi) or
 > kuliyali(pi).
 >
 > So, we can probably say that it's a Central NSW subgroup word, from
 > either the Yuwaaliyaay or Bigambul language.

David also weighed in:
 > I too have not encountered this word in real life, and the evidence 
of Google
 > shows it is one of those terms which gets repeated in reference works 
without
 > having any other currency (and it doesn't occur in the many Australian
 > newspapers available at http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/).
 >
 > I see that the word spelled GOOLAYYAHLEE and Goolayyalilee was 
published in
 > The Euahlayi Tribe--A Study of Aboriginal Life in Australia by K. 
Langloh Parker
 > http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3819. This book was first published 
in 1905
 > in London and has become an Australian classic and thus boosted some 
of the
 > words of Euahlayi (=Yuwaaliyaay) in it.
 >
 > At 3:29 PM -0400 23/3/11, Claire wrote:
 >> There's "gulaya:li" in Yuwaaliyaay
 > Yes; in the published dictionary it is spelled gulayaali and is a 
subentry under
 > gulay 'net bag', with a note that there is a story relating the net 
bag and the pelican.
 >
 > The remaining puzzle is, as Claire says, the -bi portion of the word 
(and for that
 > matter the -aali portion).  A look at the morphology of Yuwaaliyaay 
doesn't throw
 > up an answer.  I am relying on the Project Gutenberg version for 
Goolayyalilee -- the
 > paper copy should be checked in case b has been read as l.
 >
 > By the way, a comment on the reasoning of your linguist friend:
 >> The word has five differently-spelled vowels and/or diphthongs <oo 
ay a i ee>,
 >> whereas Australian languages tend to have only /i a u/
 > Fine as it goes, but there's the extra layer of English orthographic 
conventions which
 > Mrs Parker was hearing the language through -- so that for instance 
/i/ isn't usually
 > spelling <i> word-finally (hence <ee>); and sequences such as /ayi/ 
can be diphthongs
 > phonetically.

That said, spirit it hence, Eric!


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