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It's Eric's nonsense definition in a nine-point landslide!<br>
_____________________<br>
<br>
General comments:<br>
Linda: Can't help noticing the large number of Aboriginal words,
so-called.<br>
David: No Australian definitions!<br>
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
class="moz-txt-slash"><span class="moz-txt-tag">/</span>i a u<span
class="moz-txt-tag">/</span></i> --- 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.
<br>
_____________________<br>
<br>
GOOLAYYALIBEE - Strine for "I am being pursued by a crocodile";
often said at high pitch and volume.<br>
extra overtime joke definition suggested by a co-worker of Hutch<br>
<br>
Goolayyalibee - n. - An aboriginal kangaroo-hunting party.<br>
from Jim. Pierre 2, correct guess 2 = 4 points<br>
Elliott: Wouldn't account for the capital G.
<br>
<br>
goolayyalibee - n. [fr. Quechua] - A spicy stew of maize, quinoa,
and guinea pig.<br>
from David. Eric 1, Hutch 2 = 3 points<br>
Nick: I don't think these syllables would work in Quechua? Sounds
like it might be interesting-tasting though.<br>
Eric: One point, just because I like guinea pigs.
<br>
Elliott: Spelling looks English; also, Quechua is another
three-vowel language.
<br>
<br>
goolayyalibee - n. - A traditional orchestral ensemble of Karnataka,
India, or a performance by such an ensemble.<br>
from Ranjit. David 1 = 1 point<br>
Elliott: Doesn't sound Jean-y enough, somehow.<br>
Pierre: I know Aussie can Telegu when she hears one, but when's the
last time we heard from her?<br>
<br>
goolayyalibee - adj. - Slapshod or rushed in construction.
Australian English, from Yagara. "That house is full goolayyalibee,
could fall any day."<br>
from Nick. Jim 1, 2 points for correct guess = 3 points<br>
Nick: Totally believable ;o).<br>
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.
<br>
Pierre: Slapshod, or slipshod?<br>
<br>
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.<br>
from Elliott. Ranjit 1, Jacob 1 = 2 points<br>
Nick: Amusing image.<br>
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). <br>
Jim: special made-Jim-giggle award
<br>
Pierre: Sawby award.<br>
Jacob: One point for cuteness.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
from Eric. Nick 1, Elliott 2, Pierre 1, Jacob 2, Hutch 1, 2 points
for correct guess = 9 points<br>
Nick: 1 point for dual-definition, even though seasonal sense
ambiguity seems improbable to me.<br>
Elliott: Two points for creativity and the Grue-Bleen Ribbon for
philosophical value.
<br>
Pierre: 1 point. Very difficult choice.<br>
Jacob: I don't quite believe it, but I like the combination of
plausibility and silliness.<br>
<br>
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)).<br>
from Jacob. No points<br>
Nick: Too many syllables to be milslang, IMO. I would believe that
ANZAC might have a term other than "snafu".<br>
Elliott: I think a dictionary would tell us up front that it was an
army word.
<br>
<br>
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.<br>
from Linda. David 2, Ranjit 2, Elliott 1, 1 point for correct guess
= 6 points<br>
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.<br>
Elliott: One point for not being Australian. I suspect whoever made
this one up was influenced by "jubilee".
<br>
<br>
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.<br>
from Pierre. Linda 2 = 2 points<br>
Linda: Two points for cheek<br>
Nick: Bung bung just makes me think of Berlusconi now...<br>
Eric: Likability points for using Spinifex and Nullarbor. But
"divisions" jars, I'd prefer clans, moieties, or, my favorite,
"phratries".
<br>
Elliott: "Spinifex" <b class="moz-txt-star"><span
class="moz-txt-tag">*</span>so<span class="moz-txt-tag">*</span></b>
does not look Aboriginal Australian.
<br>
<br>
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.<br>
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<br>
Linda: One point for ostentataion.<br>
Nick: 2 points because it's a bird name and Australian.<br>
Eric: Most plausible, despite being a bird, and despite being
Australian.<br>
Elliott: Almost plausible, but I'm out of points.<br>
Pierre: Largest by what measure? Aren't there some storks whose
bills are longer?<br>
<br>
Elliott: [After looking it up on the web:]
<br>
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.
<br>
_____________________<br>
<br>
Well!<br>
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:<br>
<br>
> I'm cc'ing David on this, who will probably have some insight.<br>
> (David is a colleague in Australia.) I'm not familiar with this
word,<br>
> I just call them "pelicans". They are pretty common in Canberra<br>
> and quite salient, given how implausible they look (like so
many<br>
> Australian animals).<br>
><br>
> Looking through my database of words for pelicans in different<br>
> Australian languages, I see "koolagally" from a Curr Deniliquin
list<br>
> (Wiradjuri I assume) and "koolay karlie" from Wagga Wagga,
which is<br>
> also Wiradjuri. Also "gulai-guli" from Mathews' Wiradjuri list
and a<br>
> bunch of other very similar words from other Wiradjuri
wordlists.<br>
> There's "gulaya:li" in Yuwaaliyaay. Finally, there's kullialli
from<br>
> Weir and Moonie Rivers (Curr 175b), which is Bigambul, and
kuliya in<br>
> Gamilaraay, which may be related. I don't know what the -bi
portion of<br>
> the word is. I can't trace that spelling exactly, and it's not
in the<br>
> Australian National Dictionary, but it would seem to be a fair<br>
> representation of something we might want to spell as
kulayali(pi) or<br>
> kuliyali(pi).<br>
><br>
> So, we can probably say that it's a Central NSW subgroup word,
from<br>
> either the Yuwaaliyaay or Bigambul language.<br>
<br>
David also weighed in:<br>
> I too have not encountered this word in real life, and the
evidence of Google<br>
> shows it is one of those terms which gets repeated in reference
works without<br>
> having any other currency (and it doesn't occur in the many
Australian<br>
> newspapers available at <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/">http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/</a>).<br>
><br>
> I see that the word spelled GOOLAYYAHLEE and Goolayyalilee was
published in<br>
> The Euahlayi Tribe--A Study of Aboriginal Life in Australia by
K. Langloh Parker<br>
> <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3819">http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3819</a>. This book was first
published in 1905<br>
> in London and has become an Australian classic and thus boosted
some of the<br>
> words of Euahlayi (=Yuwaaliyaay) in it.<br>
><br>
> At 3:29 PM -0400 23/3/11, Claire wrote:<br>
>> There's "gulaya:li" in Yuwaaliyaay<br>
> Yes; in the published dictionary it is spelled gulayaali and is
a subentry under<br>
> gulay 'net bag', with a note that there is a story relating the
net bag and the pelican.<br>
><br>
> The remaining puzzle is, as Claire says, the -bi portion of the
word (and for that<br>
> matter the -aali portion). A look at the morphology of
Yuwaaliyaay doesn't throw<br>
> up an answer. I am relying on the Project Gutenberg version
for Goolayyalilee -- the<br>
> paper copy should be checked in case b has been read as l.<br>
><br>
> By the way, a comment on the reasoning of your linguist friend:<br>
>> The word has five differently-spelled vowels and/or
diphthongs <oo ay a i ee>,<br>
>> whereas Australian languages tend to have only /i a u/<br>
> Fine as it goes, but there's the extra layer of English
orthographic conventions which<br>
> Mrs Parker was hearing the language through -- so that for
instance /i/ isn't usually<br>
> spelling <i> word-finally (hence <ee>); and
sequences such as /ayi/ can be diphthongs<br>
> phonetically. <br>
<br>
That said, spirit it hence, Eric!<br>
<br>
<br>
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